What is a Montessori App?

If you've been scanning one of the App stores of your favorite smart-device recently, you may have noticed one of two applications promoting themselves as 'Montessori' apps - and wondered whether it was just another gimmick. There are a growing number of apps out there that are trying to adapt the Montessori educational method to these new digital devices with varying degrees of success. But, what are they actually going on about?

The "Montessori method" is an educational approach developed over a century ago by a progressive Italian doctor and educator named Maria Montessori. It was based on work she had done supporting children with disabilities, but is now used more broadly in early childhood education supporting the learning and development of children aged 3 to 6 years. In many ways the "Montessori method" was the first attempt at introducing the idea of self-directed learning into education. The focus is that children naturally are exploratory and they should be supported in learning environments with the tools and space to make their own discoveries and drive their own learning.

Indeed, some of the work with children and young people being conducted by Sugatra Mitra and his Hole in the Wall project have their roots in the ideas and research of Maria Montessori.

So what does all this have to do with apps?Parent and app developer John Tran, who has developed Monte-lingual, told me, "There may be many schools of thought that think that Montessori and iDevices are just a trend and the people developing them just slap the name Montessori on it thinking they can make a quick buck. We on the other hand believe that the iPad is a device that promotes this style of learning naturally and we want to build apps that will provide educational value."

To give John and other developers credit, their apps are trying to adapt a learning philosophy to this device. There are plenty of developers out there trying to make a quick buck and perhaps some of those are just claiming to be guided by the Montessori method, but there are some decent and well-intentioned developers out there using the Montessori name appropriately.

Montessori educator and Montessorium founder Bobby George describes the process of adapting Montessori to the digital world well. He says: "We do not advocate or intend to replace the Montessori classroom; instead, we see this as a tremendous opportunity to address the convergence of technology with the tested and proven philosophy of Maria Montessori. We conceived of Montessorium as the next continuum in thinking about these complex issues." He and his co-founder work through the more specific issues that are of concern to those keen on the Montessori method in an excellent interview with Lori Bourne.

What I see as being of value in this space is that developers are building literacy and numeracy apps from a strong educational framework. They are thinking and testing and applying the ideas of exploratory and self-directed learning and creating a digital space where children can learn autonomously. Does this make them any better than a standard counting app? I'd suggest it does because the way in which we learn, the process we follow, is an important one and that is what these apps strive to do, and they do it mostly in an open-ended rather than closed way. There are other ways, not just Montessori, but I'd encourage others keen to develop educational apps for kids to look at a theory or two and see what it tells you about creating learning models for the digital environment. Those who are really keen should look at Robert Gange's work on 'Conditions of Learning.'

If you are interested in exploring some basic literacy and numeracy apps for preschoolers, then the Montessori apps might be worth checking out. I have not looked at all of these, but those I have seen generally have a nice European aesthetic and the focus is on creating a space for children to explore letters and numbers.

Montessori Apps & Developers to have a look at:

• Monte-lingual - a counting app for preschoolers trying to provide numerous approaches to counting within the one space. Includes goal setting and a well designed user interface.
• Montessorium - a Montessori-specific app developer with some nice introduction apps looking at math, letters and writing.
• L'Escapadou- another Montessori-specific developer that has a very nice exploratory crossword program to support literacy development that was featured in GeekDad's 5 Apps for Elementry School iPads.