So recently I decided that as a class project we would start to create an app about the Ancient Egyptians. After looking around and some advice from @Animate2Educate I settled on AppsMe Education. I did this for a few reasons:
– To achieve criteria from the Computing strand of the national curriculum.
– Children got the opportunity to explain topic-based knowledge.
– Children had to think about competency, being able to make everything bold doesn’t mean you have to.
– Apps me education has a very user friendly interface.

When we first accessed the digital classroom the children were pleased to see that they could all make their own app rather than contributing to a class / group one. Also, despite being limited by a few pages and a gallery etc the class found this the right amount of content for a series of lessons.

When the children had finished, edit and reviewed their content they had the option to publish their app. I must say it definitely didn’t disappoint. In many ways the format of the published apps are similar to many around today such as the @Naace app or a PIOTA school app. As stated by John Murray using apps:
“ applying skills in a meaningful context…perfect way to embed them and allow children to engage with and explore their wider application.”

Afterwards I asked the children what they would like if they were to go on apps me education again. Which we will! The overarching answer was the option to add more pages, in my opinion this is no bad thing. When learners want to do more I consider that a bonus! On balance though the option to do 2 information pages means children need to focus on the layout, feel and aesthetics of each page, a push towards quality over quantity.

Year 5 loved creating our app.

As a class we will definitely be creating apps in the future and I will heading to AppsMe education first. It’s user interface was brilliant and the separate teacher/ children logins were a bonus. Finally, and most importantly, the children loved doing this. They were research extra nuisances, checking and rechecking spellings and constantly applying their learning.

Thanks for Reading!