New Service Reviews Educational Apps

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 08/20/13

A new service has launched to help teachers and parents sift through the thousands of mobile applications available for children to determine which ones have educational value. Balefire Labs currently includes reviews of 1,200 apps. The company accepts no advertising dollars or third-party vendor payments for review.

According to company Founder and President Karen Mahon, the reviews are handled by people who are trained on an evaluation system that covers 14 criteria around two metrics: instruction design characteristics and usability.

"Based on our objective evaluations of 1,200 educational apps to date, only seven percent scored a grade of A or B," said Mahon.

Among the evaluation criteria are these categories:

  • Feedback for correct responses;
  • Error feedback;
  • Adapting difficulty;
  • Error remediation;
  • Mastery-based instruction;
  • Frequent, meaningful interaction;
  • Clearly-stated learning objectives;
  • Relevant screen and sound use;
  • Learner support;
  • Easy-to-use interface;
  • Age-appropriate reading level; and
  • Performance reports.

In a statement, Mahon, an educational psychologist, said she founded her company after becoming frustrated with the thousands of educational apps available lacking standards for evaluation and failing to provide meaningful learning outcomes for the children using them.

"If a parent or teacher purchases an app that does not provide any educational value, they have to go back to the app store and try again. That's lost time that could've been used on apps that are fun, engaging, and effective," she noted.

The review service is $3.99 on a month-to-month basis and $35.88 for an annual prepaid subscription. The company also offers school site licensing.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • elementary school boy using a laptop with a glowing digital brain above his head and circuit lines extending outward

    The Brain Drain: How Overreliance on AI May Erode Creativity and Critical Thinking

    Just as sedentary lifestyles have reshaped our physical health, our dependence on AI, algorithms, and digital tools is reshaping how we think, and the effects aren't always positive.

  • robot brain with various technology and business icons

    Google Cloud Study: Early Agentic AI Adopters See Better ROI

    Google Cloud has released its second annual ROI of AI study, finding that 52% of enterprise organizations now deploy AI agents in production environments. The comprehensive survey of 3,466 senior leaders across 24 countries highlights the emergence of a distinct group of "agentic AI early adopters" who are achieving measurably higher returns on their AI investments.

  • tutor and student working together at a laptop

    You've Paid for Tutoring. Here's How to Make Sure It Works.

    As districts and states nationwide invest in tutoring, it remains one of the best tools in our educational toolkit, yielding positive impacts on student learning at scale. But to maximize return on investment, both financially and academically, we must focus on improving implementation.

  • blue and green network lines

    HPE Intros Agentic AI Enhancements to Mist Platform

    HPE recently introduced new capabilities for its Juniper Mist platform that leverage agentic AI to enable more autonomous, intelligent, and proactive network operations.