We are pleased to introduce you to our newest Cooney Center Fellow. Jason Yip joins our team from the University of Maryland’s College of Education, where he is completing his Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis on science education (chemistry).

Welcome, Jason!

Jason is a former K-12 math and science teacher whose interest in kids and the blending of formal and informal education led him into the world of research. At Maryland, he was a member of Kidsteam, an intergenerational group of kids and adult researchers who work together to design new technologies at the Human-Computer Interaction (HCIL) lab. His dissertation work explores identity development and science ownership of children in an afterschool program called Kitchen Chemistry, in which kids explore science through designing through own food investigations–they have also been cooking up an app to facilitate this process, which sounds like delicious fun! We look forward to learning more about the kinds of experiments that the Kitchen Chemists have devised in a future blog post.

We’re thrilled to have Jason with us—he’s already diving into some projects, and we look forward to working with him as he contributes his expertise to our work this year.

Flickr / flickeringbrad

In late September, more than 60 constituents from various sectors including research, policy, government, technology and investment gathered in Washington, D.C. for the “What Tech Works for Students? Using Data to Determine What Technology is Driving Outcomes” symposium hosted by the Department of Education, Battelle Memorial Institute, and Tucker Capital. Groups like the Gates Foundation, The White House, Common Sense Media, as well as the Joan Ganz Cooney Center were part of the lineup — all of these organizations have an interest in leveraging technology and data, to help bring transparency to K-12 technology acquisition practices, and to fundamentally drive student outcomes. This is especially significant in today’s environment where Big Data is getting significant attention in the educational space. In the 2013 K-12 NMC Horizon Report, learning analytics, education’s “approach to Big Data” (Johnson et al., 2013) is listed as one of the six emerging technologies likely to have a huge global impact in the next five years.

This gathering was especially appropriate given that schools currently spend about $20 billion on educational materials per year despite a lack of efficient methods to link learning outcomes to these resources. With a slew of educational technology products popping up every day, it’s not a surprise that school districts, teachers, parents and students need more assistance with choosing what is best to maximize learning outcomes. Over a day and a half in the nation’s capital, the symposium became a working session where attendees put their minds together to figure out how data analytics and technology could help address this grand challenge that education faces today. To help contextualize the situation, the hosts broke up the symposium into two key sections: Ignite Sessions and Breakout Sessions.

Ignite sessions brought together all of the attendees to hear from stakeholders and experts about the challenge since not everyone in the audience was extremely familiar with the full context. These sessions aimed to raise awareness of the challenge from different perspectives: the district administrator, charter school administrator, teacher, parent, and school principal. Some key takeaways include:

From the district administrator:

• Decision committees don’t know what to do – Those choosing the technology tend to be committees filled with non-active teachers who are wary of technology. Furthermore, interactivity and product qualities are not top of mind and committees lack non-biased opinions from qualified advisers.
• No awareness of the top technology – Looking across the popular tech conferences such as SXSWEdu and EdNet, there tends to be a lack of attendance by districts. Most of the attendees tend to be techies rather than teachers.
• Brand and Marketing > Quality – Those with large sales tech teams are at an advantage. Think of it as an “old boys network” where friends of friends are referred without any consideration for efficacy studies.

From the charter school:

• We’re no different – Although charter schools are not as constrained, they still make mistakes.
• Go below the surface – If you look at charter schools on a bell curve, those in the center are doing the same but under a different governance model. The long tail end is providing technology but not products of high quality.

From the teacher:

• Accessibility – This is not about individuals having access. It is about how there is just so much out there and way too much to choose.
• Assessment – There is very little formative testing. If there’s no goal then teachers are losing time they can’t afford to lose.
• Audience – Keep the teacher voice. Producers need to get constant feedback from students since they are the ultimate users.

From the parent:

• Discrepancy hurts the student – Parents and teachers need to complement each other. If they are not on the same page, it affects the student negatively. Integration, synthesis and alignment on all levels are key.

From the principal:

• Time is currency – Because a teacher’s time is so valuable, evidence that the product works is key to making it into the school.
• Inexpensive, adaptive and non-prescriptive products are crucial – Educational technology needs to be flexible so that it can address a range of students and teachers.
• Usability is king – A product must work as easy as turning on a light bulb. Innovation tends to fail because it is so hard to use.

The challenge of how to better use data analytics, research and technology to help those key stakeholders with choosing educational materials for students essentially broke down into four different areas:

• Challenge #1: Provide an easy to use, accurate, and timely tool that impartially takes into account multiple considerations to help the decision making process.
• Challenge #2: Bridge worlds of development and research, which traditionally sit separately
• Challenge #3: Produce more exemplars of quick, well designed inexpensive studies of effectiveness that doesn’t take 5+ years
• Challenge #4: Create incentives for developers to create products elevated for effectiveness

After these Ignite Sessions, there were Breakout Sessions, which brought together representatives from the various sectors to discuss, debate, and ideate. To help address those challenges, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center has already taken a number of steps including the Games and Learning Publishing Council, the multi-sector alliance that brings together leaders and investors in game-based learning to “raise the sector” and encourage responsible and effective deployment of powerful digital, educational games. We also strive to catalyze change by disseminating thorough yet comprehensible research to all different audiences with the purpose of informing the national debate and stimulating investment. Lastly, our research methods for several of our studies include Quick Studies, rapid field studies designed to explore learning through digital media.

As a result of the Breakout Sessions, five teams made commitments to further develop the ideas and projects that address the challenges. Over the next few months, the hosts will track progress, share results and highlight those who made the most significant progress to encourage further collaboration. Stay tuned to hear more about our involvement in this grand challenge!

Today brought some good news as one of our proposed panels was selected as part of the SXSWedu conference slated for next March. The session, “Lost in Translation: Applying the Latest Game Research,” emerged from the 700 submitted ideas to the major education and innovation conference.

It’s exciting news for a couple of reasons. First, it is affirmation of one of the major initiatives we are about to launch at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center. We have been working through the summer and fall to develop a new news and information service that seeks to connect the latest research on learning science, the gaming market and education with the developers and funders hoping to make the educational games of the future. This service, gamesandlearning.org, aims to translate research into content these game makers and supporters can use – to make sure the power and learning from those studies does not get lost in the translation between research and practice.

Second, it is an intriguing concept to take to Austin. SXSWedu has quickly emerged as one of the most creative and influential conferences among those looking to see what is next or imagine what is possible. As they themselves describe it, the conference “seeks to inspire, engage, enlighten and entertain its passionate, forward-leaning community of education innovators.”

The session will try and take the concept of the soon-to-launch gamesandlearning.org and bring it to life before the audience. What we plan to do is to start with a video interview with a researcher who has just released a new study that could influence or affect the learning games market. The research will explain what they found and discuss possible ramifications of their work.

What is often left unexplored is how do different actors in the learning games world react or interpret the same research. We aim to answer that in the panel that follows by talking with some of the key stakeholders – investors, game developers and teachers — who will decide what the research means from their perspectives.

We plan on talking with:

• Chris Curran, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Education Growth Partners
• Bjorn Jeffrey, CEO & Co-Founder, Toca Boca
• Sujata Bhatt, Teacher and Founder of The Incubator School

With these three thinkers we are sure the conversation will be interesting and far-reaching.

The panel and gamesandlearning.org are both products of the Games and Learning Publishing Council, a Cooney Center project that has received a 30-month grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The GLPC is a group of game developers, investors, academics and education experts who seek to unlock the power of gaming to teach. The goal is by encouraging more investment in educational games and helping producers develop new products for the educational market, young people will have a chance to learn in a more individual way and teachers will have new tools to gauge student performance and encourage their success.

Check out the list of sessions on the SXSWEdu site, which includes some really great panels featuring many of our colleagues, including Education Fellow Jessica Millstone (ListenUp! SpeakUp! GameUp! A Game Data Discussion and The Competitive Advantage of Teacher Leadership).

Educational psychology has long recognized the impact of informal learning in child development. In fact, most educators and psychologists believe that young students learn more from other kids with shared perspectives and experiences than from adults so far removed from childhood. Whether at home, on the playground, or in the classroom, students assimilate, construct, and in-turn teach and reflect on new knowledge better in informal peer communities than more traditional “instructivist” settings.

So wouldn’t it be amazing if we could build a community for kids to swap stories and teach each other about the world around us?

Well… yes! This week, our team at Launchpad Toys is excited to announce an exciting new partnership with the teachers of MinecraftEdu and share what we believe to be a powerful model for educators and developers to co-construct social learning spaces – both inside and outside the classroom.

We call our project “Toon Academy: Minecraft.” It’s like Khan Academy, but “for kids, by kids” to create “How Toons,” teaching each other tips and tricks they’ve learned in Minecraft. Our goals are three-fold:

1. Engage kids in self-reflection about what they’re learning through play.
   Minecraft is a remarkably open-ended tool that teachers are using to explore a broad array of curricula from Physics to Free-Market Economics. As they prep their “How Toons,” our kid-creators hone their understandings as much as they would through a science report or a five-paragraph-essay, but in a way that’s both accessible and shareable.
2. Foster strong presentation skills.
   Throughout the app and the accompanying materials (a “Mission Plan” for the classroom and a “Toytivity” for home), we walk kids through our own tips and tricks for blending a strong presentation with a good story. From boardroom slide decks to Kickstarter videos, presentation skills are paramount in today’s creative workforce – and a great story is the foundation of a great presentation.
3. Curate a vast library of kid-created “How Toons” freely accessible to the world.
   Until October 17, we’re hosting a contest to find the best Minecraft lessons on ToonTube. The contest is open to every Toontastic creator (download Toontastic: FREE or Toontastic: All Access) and the cartoons created can be watched online by anyone in the world.

This sounds great, but how is it relevant to the larger EdTech community?

As excited as we are about Toon Academy: Minecraft (and let’s be honest, cartoons + Minecraft = bees knees + cats pajamas), the true promise lies in its model for interdisciplinary collaboration between developers, educators, and kids. Start with a topic that students are passionate about (Minecraft), throw in a constructionist learning environment that empowers them to create and share content (Toontastic), and mix in a community of educators (MinecraftEdu) to provide teaching resources (lesson plans) and scaffold open and constructive discourse.

For years, too many developers and educators have overlooked the remarkable potential of informal learning communities beyond the classroom and outside of the (software) box. With the tools afforded us today, we finally have the opportunity to collaboratively create new learning spaces “for kids, by kids” – communities where kids can share, reflect, and teach each other about the world around us.

We hope all you developers and educators out there will join us in creating social learning communities like Toon Academy: Minecraft. In the meantime, we’ll happily settle for a few tips on avoiding creepers. 🙂

Photo credit: Flickr / mikeoliveri

This fall, students across the country walked back through school doors. Each child undoubtedly had his or her own unique summer, possibly filled with camps, vacations, or just time to relax with friends and family. However, it is very likely that one shared element of each child’s summer vacation was ample time to spend with media and technology, whether it was the television, smartphones, tablets, or computers.

While one might assume the end of the summer means students spend less time using technology and consuming media, we know that technology is becoming more and more ubiquitous in the lives of young people, who may have cell phones, iPads, and laptops in their bookbags right next to their spiral notebooks and pencils. In addition, many teachers have considered the benefits of incorporating technology into their classrooms and lesson plans, and have taken steps in doing so.

In preparation for our second annual survey of teachers and digital games, we have conducted a Comparative Analysis of National Teacher Surveys, which includes five national surveys of K-12 teachers released within the last 18 months. While each of these surveys has its own set of specific research goals, all surveys poll teachers on their perceptions of technology and its implications for or integration into the classroom. Alongside the Joan Ganz Cooney Center’s 2012 teacher survey, the analysis includes survey reports from PBS LearningMedia (2013), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (2012), Common Sense Media (2012), and Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project (2013). We prepared this analysis for the purpose of gaining a deeper understanding of current teacher practices, beliefs, and barriers surrounding technology use in the classroom. In addition, we hope that viewing these surveys side-by-side can assist in revealing gaps for future research.

Each high-profile survey presents a unique perspective and teacher population, and the surveys collectively add to a greater conversation about the benefits and challenges of technology as it relates to the education of today’s digitally connected children. While the goals and research questions for each survey are diverse, there are several common themes and findings across surveys.  For example, each survey examined teacher comfort level with technology, to some extent. Whether the individual survey explored factors that contribute to the level of confidence with technology, or how the level of comfort affects the frequency of technology use in the classroom, together these findings present a more comprehensive picture of teacher experience. Surveys also inspected the degree to which teachers are receiving technology training, and how teachers feel this training can influence technology integration.

Again, we hope that this analysis helps to reveal directions that future research could possibly take. The analysis features a cross-survey synthesis that aims to begin this process. For instance, across the five surveys, teachers were often asked how they feel students are benefiting from technology use, and which skills they believe students can potentially develop for learning. However, in their answers, teachers pointed more often to high-level developmental skills such as collaboration, prosocial behavior, and motivation. Very rarely did teachers cite specific learning from technology use as it relates to academic subjects. While teachers are often excited to have technology in the classroom, and are optimistic about its benefits, it seems they need a bit more concrete proof that it directly affects academic subject achievement.  Perhaps future research could ask teachers to make direct connections between skills developed through technology use and how it impacts understanding and learning within academic subjects.

With these informative reports from several organizations in mind, we are excited to administer the second annual survey of teachers and digital games this fall. As new reports about teacher experiences with technology integration arise, we are interested to see the ways in which teacher attitudes evolve over time.

Cody Haugland being honored by Sanger Unified School Board President Jim Karle

Like many of our winners, Cody Haugland was raised around computers. But his interests extend beyond the virtual armies and farms that his counterparts are absorbed with. A member of the Junior ROTC and an avid farmer, Cody knows the meaning of hard work.

Cody claims that he grew up around computers, electronics, and video games. He has fond memories of the original gameboy, but it wasn’t until he received an Xbox that the game design bug hit when his teacher gave him a copy of Kodu. At the time, Cody was in a computer class. Aware of the upcoming assignments, Cody would teach himself the lessons before they were covered in class. This allowed him to figure out what he would struggle with and get the teacher’s advice.

Cody was used to figuring things out on his own. He describes using the Adobe creative suite, Windows Movie Maker, and more to create animations and videos. Even before that, he was using his various gadgets to develop hacks for his favorite video games, “I used to download hacks and change them. I love the gaming community because I can modify someone’s work or use another’s hack to teach myself new skills. Then I can post my new stuff online to share with the same people who helped me. It was hard at first, but it was easy once I practiced enough.”

Since Cody taught himself video game design before the class was scheduled to learn Kodu, he already knew the traps he might fall into when creating a game for course credit. “I knew where I’d struggled and I asked my teacher for advice. He let me work on my game in class when everyone else was learning how to use the program and motivated me to get it done for the STEM Challenge. Then, when everyone else was making a game, I had to go back and make up the work I missed while designing my STEM Game.” At the STEM Challenge, we are grateful to Cody’s teacher for supporting games in the classroom and giving Cody the freedom to stretch his creative juices.
Cody’s hard-working attitude has served him well in both the Junior ROTC and FFA clubs, where Cody holds leadership positions. As an 8th grader, he found NJROTC intriguing, but had no formal introduction to the group. In 9th grade, he saw a few of his friends in uniform and began learning about the honor, discipline, and athleticism required of a cadet. “As I learned more and more what the cadets were responsible more, I got more excited, and decided to join the group half-way through 9th grade.”

Cody is now a 4th year cadet and the safety officer and department head of his unit. He describes his role as challenging and stimulating. “It is helping me become a leader and more responsible. I am motivate the cadets through speeches and activities but also have to keep the troupe in line with a lot of paperwork and guarantee their safety. I love that I worked my way up and my group and school trusts me.”

Cody’s winning game, The Amazing Game

Outside of NJROTC, Cody is very involved in the FFA and the school’s Business Club and has found his passion with the dairy division. He dreams of opening a dairy farm and knows that he can use the business acumen acquired through the business club to help manage a farm. He stumbled into all the activities by chance, but has fallen in love with both and sees a future in both paths. He eventually hopes to combine his passions for technology, FFA, and business by owning his own dairy sill. Cody’s technical skill will help him create a website to promote his work and his involvement with NJROTC and business club give him the managerial skills necessary to own his own small business.

Cody describes himself as a loyal and caring friend. He gives back to the video game community but also to his friends. “I think that I look working with teams best of all. When I help someone else progress, we bond and learn each other’s working habits. I met my best friend Nick that way. He was falling behind and I tried to help him out. We grew closer and later on he knew me so well that he could pull me back up.” Ever resourceful, Nick and Cody rely on that same understanding on their frequent camping trips.

Cody brings his nurturing attitude to every community he touches, from his game design buddies to his cadets and even to his school. He was so inspired by the video production skills that he decided to produce and design a video for his school’s daily tv broadcast. He wants to teach more people about the joy that farming can bring to a community and so is producing the school’s first ever video not on a sporting event. “I’m really excited to share it with the school. Every day at second period they do a broadcast and I want more non-sporting activities to get attention. I’m lucky that I found NJROTC and FFA, but it was purely by luck; I hope I can inspire some kids to join the groups.”

Well, we find Cody inspiring and know that the responsibility gained from FFA, NJROTC, and Video Game Design will serve him well, wherever he lands.

How does a company that creates apps for young kids make sure that their target audience enjoys playing with their products? We asked Jason Krogh, CEO of Sago Sago, to share his thoughts on playtesting as part of the development process.

Playtesting a Sago Sago app.

Children are constantly experimenting. It’s ingrained in everything they do, and it’s how they learn. The process is full of humorous misunderstandings, setbacks, and successes that all lead toward mastery. And while it’s impossible to fully anticipate how children will react to something new, they can provide plenty of clues along the way. Which is exactly why playtesting our products is so important.

For our team, playtesting is how we make better products. But the basic principles apply to parents, teachers and anyone interested in evaluating a new app.

Putting our prototypes in the hands of a playtester is a critical moment. It comes at the end of many weeks toiling away over designs, mechanics, artwork and code. But none of this matters to our preschool friend: time to shed our egos, sit back and see what unfolds!

The first few moments that a child encounters a new app is an especially important indicator of the eventual success or failure of our efforts. The initial interaction is so critical because after even a few minutes with the app, children devise ways to work around its shortcomings. Once this has happened it’s virtually impossible to spot the more subtle problems. This is why we’re always excited to try an app with a young playtester who has “fresh eyes.”

So what are we looking for?

1. Speedbumps: A hesitation or moment of distraction or indecision. These can be good or bad. It’s natural for a child to hesitate as they think about what color to draw with next. But if the child hesitates because they don’t know how to select a color, you need to take note.
2. Crossed Wires: An interaction results in an unexpected outcome. The child is confident that a control does one thing only to discover it does something different. If it happens repeatedly, it’s time to head back to the white board and look for a solution.
3. Roadblocks: An outcome that stops kids in their tracks. A classic example is a link that sends kids off to a Safari or the Mail app. Next stop is the home button, and the show is over.
4. Questions: Attention turns to you or a friend to ask for help. This isn’t always the sign of a problem. But take note – are they asking you about the activity or the controls? You can learn a lot from the kinds of questions they ask. And remember, often the best response is a simple ‘I don’t know.’
5. Engagement: Attention turns away from the activity. They aren’t stuck or frustrated. Just done. They understand what is going on, and yet that home button is calling out to them. Young children love bouncing from activity to activity and that’s to be expected and embraced. But without engagement – the willingness to stick with the activity – nothing else matters.
6. Emotion: Body language will tell you a lot. Is that a glassy stare or a focused look of concentration? Where is the wide-eyed surprise, giggle or belly laugh? Do they look up to their friend to point out something really funny? Do they run over to mom to show her something they just made? If so, congratulations, you’re on the right track!

A few final thoughts. There are many reasons why a negative observation could have nothing to do with your core idea. It could be the use of placeholder artwork or the long load time of an un-optimized build. Or it could be that your playtester is feeling stressed or had a bit too much sugar before sitting down with you. On the one hand you don’t need to take every observation too seriously, and on the other you can’t dismiss observations because they make your life difficult. The key is to look for patterns across testing sessions to add meaning to what you see, and to listen to your young customers.

As a parent, I’ve encountered many preschool apps with seemingly obvious usability problems. I assume the designer has tried their app with at least a handful of children. If so, what happened? Did they look for the wrong things? Did they spot the issue but dismissed it? Perhaps they ran out of time, money or energy? Or maybe they just couldn’t come up with a practical solution? The obvious conclusion is that playtesting is only as useful as your ability to act on your findings.

What other early indicators do you look for when trying out a new app with a young child?

Jason Krogh serves as CEO of Sago Sago, a Toronto-based Toca Boca Studio focused on developing digital toy apps for children five and under. The apps build on children’s natural curiosity and creativity.  Sago Sago’s latest releases include apps such as Sago Mini Forest Flyer, Sago Mini Sound Box, and Sago Mini Bug Builder.

Jason has a B.Sc. in Environmental Science from the University of Guelph and made the transition into new media when he began developing online media for the Vancouver Aquarium and Science World. Jason established himself as an expert Flash developer, trainer and author and has presented at international conferences including the Annecy Animation Festival, FlashForward and FlashintheCan.