Applications for Apple handheld devices, available from the Apple iTunes store ever since the arrival of the first Apple I-Phone and I-Touch in 2007, have revolutionized the education industry in school districts throughout the United States over the past few years. According to a September 2013 report by the New York Times, "the ITunes store offers more than 95,000 educational apps, many of them free." Currently, they have taken the form of cognitive games available for the iPad or iPad Mini, that are aimed at the development of preschoolers and grade schoolers. Although touch screen applications have provided a boom to teachers as an alternate way to teach students, certain questions remains: do young students understand how to play the games? Do the students like them? Do the students learn anything? The answers seem to all be yes. Although a search on Google reveals that scientific research done on the educational value of iTunes applications is nearly nonexistent, I feel that any well-made educational app has its benefits. But what about iTunes apps that have been created by major companies such as MacMillan/McGraw Hill to replace traditional book and pencil learning? I believe that the best educational apps are those that allow the teacher to network with their students while teaching a lesson in any discipline. The applications themselves should cover the same material that's within the class books, and downloaded onto iPads that the teacher and students use. When the teacher asks the students to provide an answer to a specific question, the students can provide an answer - with a touch of their finger -  and be monitored by the instructor in a real time format. This not only eliminates the need for book and pencil based learning but gives the child complete control of their own learning. These apps - with an accompanying set of materials for teachers to use- if they are created in the future, will make a difference in the classroom.