Educational Apps for Children: Games for Entertainment or Educational Resources

Abstract

The purpose of this study is the analysis of educational apps for children based on the design of a content analysis model. After an extensive review of international studies that propose specific models and rubrics for assessing educational apps for pre-schoolers, a model is designed in order to give a detailed and comprehensive analysis of the pedagogical and technical characteristics of these programs. Based on this model, following a qualitative and deductive content analysis methodology, ten popular apps in Spain, selected from an app analytics platform by applying a series of filters, are examined. The results of this study show that the applications classified as "educational" do not meet all the necessary conditions to be considered as such, being mainly educational computer games or serious games of simulation and drill and practice activities oriented more to rote learning than to meaningful learning. It can be said that, although they have an "assumed" educational purpose, they are more directed to entertainment, also working as bait for obtaining data, advertising and selling products.