Educational apps are a bridge to a new way of learning for the students of Antioch Community High School. Students use them to help with homework and others see them almost like a second teacher for when they are having a hard time understanding the content they learned in the classroom. Sophomore Zoe Johnson uses these educational apps on her phone to make it easier to understand a part of a lesson she did not comprehend.

“It helps me if I don’t understand something,” Johnson said. “I can look up how to do it and then I’ll understand better. It is like an outside source if my teacher can’t explain the certain topic in a certain way.”

Sometimes, teachers or textbooks won’t be able to make sure that every student fully understands what they are trying to teach, and these educational apps can help the students in the way that the teacher or textbook can not.

However, there is a growing concern that some students may use these apps for a way out of actually doing their homework. Some apps like SparkNotes, WordReference or even Quizlet could be used to look up exact responses to the questions that students are trying to answer. Teachers hope that their students will do the right thing when the opportunity to cheat has been presented. Unfortunately, there will always be a little bit of apprehension between teachers and students when it comes to using educational apps to finish homework quickly.

“If you use it to just get something done really fast and don’t fully understand it, then it can harm you because when a test comes you can’t use those apps and you don’t know what you need to do,” Johnson said.

Online educational applications could quite possibly give students a way to cheat on assignments but there is not much that the administration can do except have trust in the students around school and hope that they will realize that cheating is not the way to go. Social studies teacher Amy Skonberg-Reznicek uses the chromebooks in her classroom for reading quizzes and there is always the possibility that one student out of hundreds could be looking up the answers to the quiz.

“There is only so much we can do to keep people honest,” Skonberg-Reznicek said. “Not that I’m saying a little bit of cheating is acceptable; I’ll do what I can but cheaters get F’s on tests and that’s half your grade so it’s still a bad plan.”

Even though there will be the occasional student that misuses the technological advances that have been put in front of them, these apps could be very helpful for many other students willing to use them the proper way.

For math teacher Andrew Benton, it all depends on the student and the best way for each individual to learn and grow.

“I think whatever helps you learn, you should take advantage of,” Benton said. “I don’t understand how that can be a bad thing if it helps somebody learn something faster, easier or better.”

When it comes to how phone applications will affect a student’s grade, it all comes down to how each specific person uses or possibly misuses them. Students should also step back and consider that the apps that give them answers to the questions on their homework most likely are not educational at all.