Article by

Robbie K. Melton

Associate Vice Chancellor

Tennessee Board of Regents eLearning

www.tbrelearning.org

      The emergence of the mobile devices as teaching and learning tools has created a demand for educational and workforce development mobile apps for those devices. Currently, there are no well-defined delineated categories for educational subject areas apps in Apple iTunes and in the Android Market. Thus, educators must search for apps for teaching and learning to address the needs of their students and to align to their curriculum.

      The Tennessee Board of Regents eLearning (TBReLearning) has created a free Mobile App Resource Center to assist educators from “PreK to Ph.D to the World of Work” in locating a bank of mobile apps in their particular area. Currently, there are over 5,000+ apps (with daily upload of new apps for the center) that have been collected in over seventy-five educational program disciplines from preschool to life long learning, as well as quality standards for using mobile apps in education and the workforce. The app resource center design allows teachers, students, parents, administrators, and community organizations to quickly and easily find a bank of mobile areas where they may use for teaching, learning, research, workforce, professional development, and for life-long-learning.

      Mobile App Resource Center Features and Format:

The mobile app resource center is organized in the following manner: 

• App Use: (How one would like to use mobile apps)
  Example: Do you want to use mobile apps for
• Teaching
• Learning
• Research
• Workforce
• Professional Development
• Mobile App Device Type: (app developed for specific mobile device)
• Apple iPad1/2
• Apple iPod Touches / iPhones
• Androids Phones
• Androids Tablets
• Blackberry Tablet
• Web Based Devices
• Subject Area(s): (Educational Subjects, Programs, and Disciplines in over eighty areas including PreK-12, college majors, workforce training areas, and professional development)
• Educational Area: (PreK to college to workforce to life-long-learning)
• Workforce Development: (mobile apps aligned to the thirteen workforce labor clusters)
• Publishers’ Apps: (new) Textbook publishers are now creating mobile apps to supplement their eTextbooks.
• App Cost: This is a category that is ever changing due to the fact that the developers control the cost of their apps. However, an attempt has been made to list the cost of apps as they are identified.

      In addition to the Mobile App Resource Center, this site allows educators to submit mobile apps to add to the bank and a chance to participate in a monthly drawing for the ‘best educational app submission of the month’ with an iTune Gift Card.