iPhone Apps & Learning according to The Simpsons!

The Simpsons send up on technology based learning in the classroom!

Mobile Media (& most digital new media) and learning is actually not as crazy as it may seem here. Given this piece of Simpsons satire, mobile and new media in learning is quite a talking point in education circles. Kids learning via iPhone and similar smart phone apps is actually quite good idea and lots of fun. It's actually not a new idea either, but simply an old idea in a new and accessible context. Having been an advocate of Montessori early childhood education, as well as play based learning in our household, many educational apps on the iPhone use the same sort of principles. Learning through self correcting tasks and activities and through play. Of course it does also throw up several new questions as well, in regard to learning and teaching today...

I have several 'apps' for the kids to play on my iPhone. They have been great boredom busters, particularly when sitting in the car with my youngest at school pick up time.

Fun iPhone apps/games in our house include Maths Magic, where my 4 year old son has extended upon his learning of addition and subtraction at his Montessori Kindy. He's getting into multiplication and division now. My 6 year old loves it for the maths and reading apps and they both love Angry Birds and Cut the Rope, which are both great games of strategy. And well, Richard Hammond's Car Spotter app is a bit of a laugh, but my son is a huge fan of that man! Half the cars we don't recognise, but we will, whenever we visit the UK...There is still some strategy in it.

More on this later, as the iPhone has become a central tool in our household...

Update the 29th December: For some further reading, I came across this article. It discusses several more educational apps of interest. Montessorium (a brand name, but a company that uses the Montessori philosophy in technology and was developed by Montessori educators) also has produced two apps of great interest!