Tag Archives: coplay

Researchers and practitioners have long known that when it comes to digital media for kids, quality is key. But what does it mean for a children’s app to be good or bad? How do specific features and design decisions affect the children who engage with them? If parents want to find high-quality content, what exactly should they be looking for? As part of a team of collaborators at Microsoft Research, the University of Michigan, and the University of Washington, I…

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.…

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 future?” Both Paul and Aleks use games in the classroom often when they’re teaching and I’ve been creating them for the past nine years, so frankly, there wasn’t all that much debate…

When we think of apps for kids, we often think of games for either entertainment or learning. But apps aren’t limited to just games or books—they can also provide important social, emotional, and physical experiences too. In Family Time With Apps, we explore how to find the best apps to fit your child’s needs, provide tips on how (and why!) to use apps together, and highlight resources to make the process of selecting apps less overwhelming, and more fun. To help you…

On Saturday, May 9, 17 kids between 8-18 years old joined a 50+ adult in their life (parents, grandparents, relatives, or friends) for a free, three-hour video game design workshop at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. hosted by AARP and MentorUp, E-Line Media and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center.  Allison Mishkin of the Cooney Center, and Mark German of E-Line Media led the pairs throughout a workshop to discover the elements that make up any game…