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Monthly Archives: April 2017

The App Fairy interviews Nosy Crow

by Carissa Christner
April 27, 2017

Book publisher and app developer Nosy Crow has the best fairytale apps on the market today. Though many app developers lean heavily on the fairytale stories because they are in the public domain and therefore free to use, Nosy Crow is truly innovative in their use of mobile device capabilities …

Tags: app fairy, apps, children's apps, ebooks, fairy tales, reading

Introducing KIDMAP

by Catherine Jhee
April 26, 2017

Creating inclusive children’s media is a lot like creating a beautiful garden. It requires research, planning, and mindful effort. The Joan Ganz Cooney Center is pleased to announce our partnership with the Kids’ Inclusive and Diverse Media Action Project (KIDMAP), formerly known as Diversity in Apps. This collective, made up of …

Tags: children's media, diversity, diversity in apps, equity, inclusion, kidmap

Family Engagement and Early Learning in a Digital Age

by Lisa Guernsey
April 25, 2017

Imagine these everyday scenes: A father and his two-year-old are in their library’s bookmobile, checking out electronic and print picture books they just enjoyed at story time. Kindergartners select photos and drawings for their school’s annual multimedia slideshow. A grandmother and teacher share a laptop, clicking on videos that demonstrate …

Forest: An App that Fosters Focus and Family Time

April 24, 2017

My kids and I recently downloaded a game for all three of our smartphones. Ever since, competition in the house has been fierce. The game is called Forest and the premise is simple. You plant trees to grow a forest. But trees only grow when Forest is the only app running. …

Tags: apps for kids, coplay, forest app, joint media engagement, mindfulness, play-based learning

Roundtable Discussion: Teaching with Games, Part 2

by Sandhya Nankani
April 21, 2017

In the part two of a roundtable discussion on teaching with games, Sandhya Nankani talks to Paul Darvarsi and Aleksander Husoy about what teachers look for in learning games and explore some of the qualities that make the teaching games successful. See part 1 here. Teachers on games for learning Sandhya: A recent study found …

Tags: curriculum development, developers, game-based learning, teaching, teaching with games, video games

Roundtable Discussion: Teaching with Games, Part 1

by Sandhya Nankani
April 20, 2017

I recently met Paul Darvasi and Aleksander Husøy at the annual UNESCO Forum on Global Citizenship Education in Ottawa, where we were on a panel hosted by the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development. The subject of our panel was a debate on the topic, “Innovative pedagogies for ESD and Global Citizenship Education: Is game-based learning the …

Tags: coplay, curriculum development, empathy, joint media engagement, play-based learning, teachers, video games

4 Things Everyone Should Know About Early STEM Learning

by Elisabeth McClure
April 17, 2017

This post originally appeared on Common Sense Education and appears here with permission. Watch a group of preschoolers working in a garden. It’s cute, right? But it turns out they’re learning more than you’d think. According to our new NSF-funded report, STEM Starts Early, co-published by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at …

Tags: early childhood education, education, executive function, family engagement, parents, stem, teachers

Unleashing the Benefits of Coviewing With Minecraft Videos

by Matthew Farber, Ed.D.
April 6, 2017

Both Minecraft and YouTube are ubiquitous in today’s children’s media culture. And like millions of other children, my six-year-old son loves to watch Minecraft videos on YouTube. He frequently watches Grian’s how-to-build-it Minecraft videos. He enjoys the silly antics from Pat and Jen of Gaming with Jen, the husband-and-wife team who …

Tags: children's media, coding, educators, maker studios, minecraft, wonder quest, youtube

How Educators Can Use Technology to Better Connect to Hispanic-Latino Families

by Amber Levinson
April 4, 2017

In 2013, 25 per cent of public school children in the U.S. were Hispanic-Latino, and this number is expected to grow to 29 per cent by 2025. Within this vibrant and diverse population, many students, particularly those from immigrant families, face challenges in school. Many are tasked with mastering a new …

Tags: ajc, children, education, hispanic-latino families, parent engagement, youth

Webinar: Engaging Communities of Practice with STEM Ecosystems

by Administrator
April 3, 2017

On March 29, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, New America, and the Erikson Institute presented a webinar on integrating STEM into early childhood education to the STEM Ecosystems group at TIES, The Teaching Institute for Excellence in STEM. TIES focuses on STEM school design, STEM curriculum, and instructional support for schools. As …

Tags: early childhood education, engineering, math, pre-k, science, stem, teachers, technology