Category Archives: Learning Together

This partial transcript of the App Fairy podcast has been edited for length and clarity. Please listen to the full episode here, and visit appfairy.org for more information about Ahoii. Carissa Christner: In today’s App Fairy episode I’ll be interviewing Wolfgang Schmitz from an app company called Ahoiii. Most of the Ahoii apps feature a tiny little sailor in a blue and white striped shirt, and his name is Fiete. Their newest app is one called Fiete Cars, and it’s…

On a recent visit to Los Angeles, I had the opportunity to lead 15 Spanish-speaking moms on a field test of a new media and technology workshop produced by Abriendo Puertas-Opening Doors and Common Sense Latino, a Common Sense Media initiative. Developed through two years of collaboration and research, the workshop is designed to provide lower-income parents and caregivers with a roadmap to navigate the digital world safely, teaching them how to use technology for learning and create a balanced media experience for their families. During the field test, we spent over two hours completing activities, showing…

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 and they truly use those special features to move the story forward, not just distract with bells and whistles. Tune in to episode #4 of the App Fairy Podcast to…

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 Spanish-language word games for school and home. Each day, parents, caregivers, and children are building language and literacy skills for the 21st century, perhaps without even realizing it. Every community…

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. If you switch to another game, reply to a text, or check social media, the tree dies. Choose a seed, set the timer, and wait.  Longer sessions grow bigger trees.…

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 produce PopularMMOs. And he loves Stampy Cat—but more on Stampy later. Minecraft-themed YouTube videos are definitely a different genre from the children’s television that I grew up watching! As is…

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 our country’s leading STEM innovator, TIES brings STEM design services to districts, states, private philanthropies, corporations, federal agencies and many more. The STEM Ecosystems Initiative is made up of nearly 40 communities of…

I’m so excited to bring you this interview with Sago Mini!  I’ve been a huge fan of their work since the early days of kids apps and after a chance to visit their offices in Toronto in the fall of 2015, I became even more impressed with the level of dedication they put into creating high-quality apps for the very youngest users. I love how they create “digital toys” that focus on pure play rather than insisting that all of…

This was originally published March 21, 2017 on the TEC Center blog and appears here with permission. Katie Paciga, a Fred Rogers Center and TEC Center Early Career Research Fellow, and Mary Quest, a doctoral student and instructor at Erikson Institute, recently published a study on e-book reading with young children. The full citation of the research article is included below and is available for download here. Here, they share several research-based tips to consider as you plan for e-reading…

Our third and final installment of the “Reframing the Digital Divide” infographic series presents details about the disproportionate connectivity and access challenges that lower-income families face, particularly those of Hispanic origin headed by immigrant parents, when compared with higher-income families. Almost half (44%) of immigrant Hispanic parents never use computers, and 66% of immigrant Hispanic parents have less trusted sources of support for learning about technology than parents in other groups. Despite these challenges, immigrant Hispanic parents are most likely to…