During some recent spring cleaning, I decided to part with an unwieldy knot of academic and media industry conference nametag lanyards, amassed over the past three years of my Ph.D. program.  Upon returning home from each conference, I would hang them from a particular doorknob in my apartment, a pile that grew more dusty than decorative.  Before tossing the badges though, I took a quick glance at each.  The details of some conferences were easier to recall than others.

One of the more memorable conferences that stood out, and continues to stand out among the rest, is the annual Interaction Design and Children Conference (IDC).  Each year, IDC brings together the top minds in academia and industry to share the latest research findings, innovative methodologies, and new technologies in the areas of inclusive child-centered design, learning and interaction.

This year’s conference, to be held June 23-27 in NYC, will be particularly memorable because it is the first IDC to be co-hosted by both academic (The New School) and industry (Sesame Workshop) organizations.  Conference co-chairs Dr. Nitin Sawhney (The New School), Emily Reardon (Sesame Workshop), and Dr. Juan Pablo Hourcade (University of Iowa) have been planning some really exciting programming.  I have the honor of serving as both workshop and publicity co-chair for IDC 2013 with Dr. Shuli Gilutz (Tel Aviv University).

IDC is both part of a larger community and creates its own special community.  The conference is held in cooperation with the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer Human Interaction (ACM SIGCHI), and so is most closely aligned with the field of human-computer interaction.  There will be a vibrant mix of brilliant folks who more closely identify with other fields though, including computer science, communication, child development, educational psychology, engineering, digital media, game design, and learning sciences.  The conference is inclusive of academics and industry professionals, professors and students, and practitioners in formal and informal learning settings.  IDC is also unique in that it is a “single track” conference, meaning that each main conference presenter presents to all conference attendees at once.  Lunch is also provided for all attendees each day to foster continued conversations between morning and afternoon sessions.

I’m particularly excited about the following offerings at this year’s IDC (full program here):

• The opening keynote speaker, David Monina Sengeh, a doctoral student at the MIT Media Lab, will be talking about the mentorship program he created in his native Sierra Leone for youth to work in teams to create new ideas for DIY projects related to health, agriculture, crafts, and entertainment in their communities.  David will be accompanied by Kelvin Doe, a young teenage student from Sierra Leone who created a radio transmitter built from salvaged parts and broadcasts his own local programming under the name DJ Focus.
• As reflected in the keynote, this year’s conference places a special emphasis on supporting DIY/maker culture among children and global inclusion, particularly for marginalized children worldwide.  Along this theme, I’m personally excited to take part in a conference workshop on designing fabrication tools for youth with disabilities.
• The topics for the full paper sessions all reflect very current issues in the world of children, media, and technology.  These include physical movement and play, family-based interaction, computing and programming, and communication and self-expression.
• There will be a hands-on “maker” party and dinner reception at the New York Hall of Science on the night of Wednesday, June 26.  The children of IDC attendees are welcome, and there will be round-trip buses to and from the New School.
• On Thursday, June 27, there will be a special panel and moderated discussion with Google user experience researchers working on various projects with youth populations.  I’m very interested in hearing more about their research and experiences.
• The closing panel later that day brings together an all-star panel of child-computer interaction researchers discussing the influential work of Dr. Seymour Papert of the MIT Media Lab.

Registration is still open if you haven’t yet signed up, with a discounted rate available until June 14.  If you’re going to IDC 2013, please say hello!  I’m not sure if my nametag will eventually end up back on my doorknob or in the trash with the others, but I hope to put it to good use at least while I’m at IDC.

Learn more about the Child-Computer Interaction Research group and the 11th Annual Interaction Design Conference event page on Facebook.

Photo by Launchpad Toys

In the last few years, I’ve worked with a lot of teachers using mobile devices in the classroom. The first week is always exciting – “There are SO many apps to choose from!” Yet, two weeks later, teachers’ attitudes have shifted from optimistic to overwhelmed. “There are SO many apps to choose from—how will I figure out which ones are actually good? And how on Earth am I going to figure out how to use them all effectively?!”

The educational app market is vast, but I think we’re all still trying to figure out how to use these apps effectively in schools.  Integrating apps in the classroom without supporting materials is a bit like trying to assemble IKEA furniture without the instructions—time consuming, frustrating, and ultimately off-putting. You might remember what the desk looked like in the store, but can’t for the life of you replicate it with all the funny-looking pieces in front of you.

As educational media producers, it’s not enough for us to simply tell teachers about our products, we should be showing them how to use our products effectively. Years ago, supporting materials came from textbook publishers—the same companies that sold the curricula in the first place. But what does this look like in our digital, à la carte age of apps? Like publishers before us, it’s our responsibility to provide supporting resources –this time by building them with teachers, not just for them.

That’s exactly what we’re working on at Launchpad Toys: a new model of classroom resources for educators using our apps—it’s called #LaunchpadEDU. Our goals are three-fold:

1. Help educators learn to use our Toontastic app effectively
2. Curate best practices and work with educators to create Common Core-aligned lesson plans and resources
3. Start a dialogue amongst teachers using Toontastic to share ideas, provide support, and facilitate collaboration

Simply stated, #LaunchpadEDU is a collection of resources by teachers, for teachers. First-app-adopters (yeah, we said it 🙂 ) do exist. They’re out there now—integrating apps, writing articles, and sharing best practices. But the wider adoption of mobile devices in the classroom is all-too-quickly leaving less tech-savvy teachers searching for resources in a jungle of blogs, hashtags, and newsletters.

As children’s media producers, it’s our responsibility to start this conversation with educators, to find teachers using our products in innovative ways and broadcast their work to users worldwide. An app is not enough; we need to curate resources and best practices that enable teachers to inspire students with these powerful new tools. That’s what we’re doing with #LaunchpadEDU—we hope you’ll join us.

Hannah Clemmons is a playful storyteller and educational technology specialist working with Launchpad Toys to build a global storytelling network for kids. Hannah is a graduate of the Early Childhood Education program at Columbia College Chicago.

Andy Russell is a toy designer and a co-founder of Launchpad Toys — creators of Toontastic, MonkeyGram, and Toontastic Jr. Inspired by the movie BIG and a lifelong obsession with small brightly colored plastic bricks, Andy is a graduate of Learning Design programs at Stanford and Northwestern and has worked for companies like Hasbro and Sony PlayStation to design playful learning experiences for kids. 

If games and learning is a topic that sets your creativity reeling, then block your calendar for June 17—19th and make your way to New York City for the 10th Anniversary Games for Change Festival.  The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop has curated a selection of speakers and panel discussion on a wide range of games & learning topics, ranging from an investigation of Common Core standards and the goals of 21st-century skills development, role-playing in video games that places kids at the great crossroads of history, and weird, fascinating insights into the neuroscience of video game play. From education futurists to game designers, mad learning scientists and kids who are passionate about gaming, you’ll hear a wide variety of perspectives on the future of play and what it means for education and social change.

If you only have one day to spend at the Games for Change Festival, consider Wednesday, June 19th—a day focused on how the use of digital games is changing our nation’s classrooms.  The day kicks off at 9:30 am with a discussion about the investment being made by publishers, scholars and philanthropic leaders to design creative technologies, especially digital games, to be a critical part of the Common Core solution. But will they deliver new breakthroughs or deliver old wine in new bottles? Three of the nation’s leading authorities on innovation in educational technology will join the debate.

From 11am – noon, educators, journalists, and ed-tech investors respond to the morning’s debate, focusing on what users of educational technology and digital games might be looking for in the year 2020.

From 2:00–3:00 pm, there will be a tough decision to make. Will you attend the presentation on the National STEM Video Game Challenge to hear from youth, nonprofit leaders, game developers, and educators about using video game design as a learning tool to engage more youth in science, technology, engineering, art, and math fields? Or will you literally delve into the depths of gaming’s effects on brain development—and how our growing knowledge about brain development affects game design?

Throughout the Festival, you will get sense of the global social impact of  game-based technology. You’ll hear case studies of how games are helping young Ethiopian girls to create a larger role in society for themselves so their voices can be heard and their concerns can be addressed as well as learn how simulation games increasing sanitation and public health standards in India and Africa and paving the way to better disaster preparedness standards around the world. You’ll hear from esteemed education and gaming professional at the very tops of their fields, as well as start-up and indie developers who are working alongside educators as they create game-based products and services. How are they funded? What is their product development process? How are they faring in the open market? Find out straight from the source! There will also be a game jam, hackathon, game play session, and simulation experiment so that you can roll up your sleeves, open up your mind, and be a part of the ed tech solutions that are shaping young minds.

For a full list of speakers and topics, please view the agenda at http://www.gamesforchange.org/festival2013/program/. And if you use the code “cooney” when you register, you’ll save 15% off the fee.

We’ll see you there!

Treefrog Treasure on BrainPOP

What if algebra were more addictive than Angry Birds? Imagine an eight-year old mastering algebra on an iPad by sorting dragons into boxes. Or, what if middle schoolers could become proficient with fractions by playing a platform game similar to Super Mario Bros? How about if the doorway to mastering Newtonian physics involved ninth graders and digital levers?

Now, what if a video game could both teach students to argue a point in an essay, read Great Books closely for textual evidence, or pursue scientific inquiry and simultaneously serve as a seamless assessment tool that provides teachers, parents, principals, superintendents, and governors with the real-time data needed to ensure that every child receives an excellent education?

Over the past several years, game-based learning and assessment has emerged as a promising area of innovation in education. Learning games and simulations can positively affect student outcomes and support engaging classroom practice. But perhaps their greatest influence on the next generation will be as assessments for learning—that is, assessments that not only measure how well a student has learned the material at hand, but also generate actionable evidence to personalize teaching and learning.

On May 9, 2013, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at the Sesame Workshop, and the Games and Learning Publishing Council convened leading designers and researchers from the Gates Foundation’s Games, Learning, and Assessment (GLA) Network and beyond to become more familiar with each other’s work and discuss common challenges in the field. The gathering was informed by the ground-breaking work of a MacArthur Foundation supported working group, which took stock of the larger issues of 21st century learning and assessment. This GLA Network meeting provided space to share, contextualize innovation, and maximize the potential of the network.

The day aimed to elevate GLA as an emerging field and made clear that game-based assessment is enormously relevant to the broader conversations about next generation assessments, particularly those focused on the Common Core State Standards. Presentations and conversations were framed by questions such as:

• How can we locate assessment at the center of discussions of games and learning?
• Given that 7,000 students drop out of school every day in the U.S., how can game-based assessments serve, inform, and accelerate teaching and learning processes and outcomes?
• How can valid game-based assessment support personalized learning at scale, so that schools and teachers are better equipped to use the “1 million in-school minutes” to maximize the college readiness of each student?
• How can games remain highly engaging and offer relevant, real-world complex problem solving experiences while embedding rigorous, validated measures? How is this accomplished while keeping to the integrity of great games and valid assessments?
• What are the most promising ways that assessment and learning game designers and researchers are negotiating their respective constraints and evolving their approaches and methods?
• In what ways can the games, learning, and assessment field contribute to the evolution of the next generation of assessment tools for the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards? How can we elevate our collective contribution and build bridges?
• How can games, learning, and assessment networks more deeply shape the broader transitions underway regarding the place and functions of assessment?
• How can the new measures of learning that emerge from game-based systems interact with the broader ecosystem of digitally born learning innovations, personalized blended learning models, advanced learning analytics, measures of effective teaching, the science of how people learn, and the promise of the Common Core State Standards?

Speakers included Eva Baker (CRESST), Sasha Barab (ASU), Malcolm Bauer (ETS / GLASSLab), Jody Clarke-Midura (MIT), Ed Dieterle (Gates Foundation), Michael Levine (Cooney Center), Zoran Popovic (University of Washington), Val Shute (Florida State), and Robert Torres (Gates Foundation). Presentations and informal conversations were guided by practical considerations, including how games might be used and adopted in formal education contexts, how they fit into the broader assessment innovation space and the formative and summative assessment markets, challenges to scaling and sustainability, and cognitive models of the learner. Speakers focused on how to create games that maximize engagement and learning and that have the potential for broad adoption and scale.

Attendees included Gates grantees and representatives from leading-edge organizations in the field, each working to advance game-based assessment of the Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards. Among attendees were leaders from Arizona State University’s Center for Games & Impact, Classroom, Inc., the Cooney Center, CRESST, DePaul University, Design Innovation Factory, E-Line Media, Educational Testing Service, Filament Games, Florida State University’s Games, Assessment & Learning Research Group, the Gates Foundation, GLASSLab, iCivics, the Institute of Play, the MIT Education Arcade, Playmatics, and the University of Washington’s Center for Game Science.

GLA Network projects emphasize the assessment of complex skills, engagement, immediate feedback, and data analytics. Projects include: The Sports Network, Refraction, Ko’s Journey, SIMCITYedu, Newton’s Playground, iCivics, intific, the Radix Endeavor, Tenacity, Lure of the Labyrinth, Atlantis Remixed, Collegeology, and Crystal Island Last Investigation. Each employs game play to collect evidence of student mastery, at the intersection of high engagement and high cognitive demand.

From the classroom to the state house, our current approach to assessment has room to improve. Game-based learning and assessment can and should be a central part of the next generation of effective learning. It is well-suited to measure new learning standards, can provide authentic assessment activities and situations for meaningful tasks, and can enhance teaching and learning.

The Games and Learning Publishing Council is inspired by the innovations and progress driven by the GLA Network, and is committed to mobilizing multi-sector leadership of industry, research, philanthropic, policy, and practice leaders to advance the scalability and impact of games, learning, and assessment tools and insights.

Look for the launch of our upcoming gamesandlearning.org website this fall, which will feature reports, market data, and case studies for developers, educators, investors, and policy makers who are interested in this rising market. The site will serve as a resource of research and best practices on using games for learning.

Dr. Eric Tucker is the CEO of the Design Innovation Factory. He has served as a director at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, a managing director of a consultancy serving high-performing, high-need urban schools, and a co-founder and chief academic officer of the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues. Eric has degrees from the University of Oxford and Brown University, is the editor of The Sage Handbook of Measurement, and the author of Teaching Argumentation and Debate.

To celebrate Children’s Book Week, the oldest literacy initiative in the country, we asked Cooney Center staff members to reflect on their favorite children’s books: the books whose spines we wore out, even if we knew the words by heart; the books that sparked hours of laughter and debate with our parents and friends and the books that helped us to become life-long readers. Did your favorites make the cut?

Executive Director Michael Levine’s childhood favorites were Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and Goodnight Moon. “Both captured my imagination and engaged my fears and dreams from end to end, they are beautifully and evocatively illustrated, and encouraged rich verbal interactions with my own parents, and then later with my three kids.”

Michelle Miller, Director of Partnerships and Strategy, loves The Giving Tree and Harold and the Purple Crayon. “Both are so perfect in their simplicity. I interpret The Giving Tree differently every time I read it, but it’s always bittersweet.  Harold is a classic because it is the personification of play. And it features a pie-eating porcupine.”

Research Assistant Briana Pressey’s favorite book was The Berenstain Bears Count Their Blessings from the Berenstain Bears series by Stan and Jan Berenstain,” This book helped to teach me at a very early age the importance of being thankful for everything that you have, not comparing yourself to others, and finding joy in the little things in life.”

Christa Avampato, Sponsorship and Events Manager of the National STEM Video Game Challenge, remembers reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland over and over again. “I still have a copy on my bookshelf all these years later. Those characters taught me to believe in what seemed impossible. Alice’s insatiable curiosity showed me that determination and perseverance can help us to overcome any and every obstacle.”

“The Little Prince has so many messages hidden throughout the book,” says Anna Ly, Cooney Center Fellow. “It is definitely a book that can redefine how you look at life. I also love the Madeline series.  I love the artwork and the rhythmic writing. I had the whole series as a child and read them frequently.”

Meanwhile, Cooney Center Fellow Christina Hinton, loves books that can translate adult themes to younger audience. She has fond memories of Dr. Seuss’ The Butter Battle Book. “It satirizes the absurdity of many conflicts over cultural differences in a way that even very young children can understand.”

Lili Toutounas, Administrative Manager, loved Goodnight Moon and the Babar books. “In Goodnight Moon, the pictures, receptiveness, and the rhyming scheme are all soothing before bed and Babar hooked me with its intricate story lines and the aspect of mystery in some of them. Plus, I love elephants!”

Senior Project Manager Sadaf Sajwani recalls fond memories of The Fudge Series (Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Fudge, Double Fudge). “They are so incredibly funny, especially when your teacher reads it to you with all her energy and passion. I looked forward to the afternoon reading break everyday!! I also loved The Secret Garden. Can’t remember why exactly, I just did. Again, it must have been the effect of my teacher reading it out loud… The idea of just disappearing into another world in the middle if the day, just like Mary would disappear into her secret garden.”

Education Fellow Jessica Millstone’s favorite book growing up was Eloise. “It made me want to live in New York City!  Unfortunately the part about living in the Plaza Hotel didn’t quite pan out, but as it turns out even Eloise has moved to Brooklyn.   I also have first editions of Eloise in Paris and Eloise in Moscow.  As you can see, I’m a big fan. I’d like to share my sister’s favorite book too because I had to read it to her everyday for about 5 years when we were kids.  I still have it memorized!  It’s called Henrietta The Wild Woman of Borneo, and it’s currently out of print but really great if you can find a copy. “

For Associate Web Producer Allison Mishkin, The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot left more than an impression on her as she was growing up. “Meg beautifully and honestly captured the anxieties we all felt while navigating through our teenage years, although I’m still waiting for my parents to tell me I’m a princess. Princess Mia’s humorously optimistic take on growing up royal gave me the courage to get out of bed each day and later the courage to work with the author to start an online book club for all teenage girls. It was thrilling to use the web to augment rather than distract from the reading experience. Looking a bit younger, I always turned to Sharon Creech to help manage the Absolutely Normal Chaos of my own life.”

And Catherine Jhee, Director of Web & Strategic Communications spent so much time reading that she found it nearly impossible to choose even just a few favorites. “But I loved spunky heroines like Madeline and Eloise, and then eventually Madeline L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time series. I was really drawn to the idea that it was possible to travel through time and space to make the world a better, safer place.”

We’ve focused on the classics from our own childhoods today, but we would love to hear about your favorite books for kids old and new. Please share them in the comments below!