Tag Archives: joint media engagement

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…

On July 6, 2016, Niantic, Inc. released Pokémon GO, which quickly became one of the most popular mobile game apps in history. In this location-based mobile game, players use the GPS capabilities of their smartphones or tablets to navigate an avatar within a virtual world that is overlaid on top of the real world. As players move about in the real world, their avatar moves through the game world, and they can locate, capture, battle, and train virtual monsters called Pokémon—with names…

Episode two of the App Fairy podcast features an interview with app maker Wolfgang Schmitz of the app company Ahoiii. The Ahoiii apps feature an endearing sailor in blue and white stripes named Fiete. I first encountered Fiete in Ahoiii’s advent-calendar-esque Fiete Christmas app when I bought it for my family, and was soon charmed by the its high quality and whimsical artwork. I was delighted to discover that there was a whole series of apps about this little sailor, covering early learner subjects like math,…

Everyone knows that books have authors and artwork is made by artists, but have you ever stopped to think about the people working behind the scenes to create some of the best children’s apps? Allow me to introduce you to some of today’s cutting edge media creators in my new podcast, App Fairy ! For the past several years, I’ve been using apps in my library programs and during that time, I’ve had many opportunities to e-mail questions to various app developers. I’ve discovered that, unlike…

When I was a kid, one of my favorite parts of the week was the recurring Friday night game session at my house. It usually consisted of my dad stoking the fire, my sister watching TV, and my mom and me embroiled in a fierce competition of Chinese Checkers or Othello. There may have been times I fumed while resetting the board pieces (I was not a good loser), but I always enjoyed those game nights and still hold onto those…

As part of our Families and Media Project, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center conducted a survey of nearly 700 parents whose 4-13-year old children play video games. We are pleased to present this data as a series of infographics, each featuring a particular facet of video games and family life. Here, we explore the mix of board/card games and digital games that families play together. Stay tuned for more installments of this series over the next few months.

As part of our Families and Media Project, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center conducted a survey of nearly 700 parents whose 4-13-year old children play video games. We are pleased to present this data as a series of infographics, each featuring a particular facet of video games and family life. Here, we explore the games that parents and children enjoy as well as whether and how parents participate in their children’s gameplay based on their own interest in playing digital games. Stay…

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…

The following is an excerpt from an article originally published on EdCentral.org and appears here with permission. New job descriptions are born in the wake of new technologies. Now, as humankind absorbs two decades with the web and one decade of touchscreens and on-the-go internet, many new positions are taking shape, one of which could have a significant impact on how children and their families learn: the media mentor. Why are media mentors so crucial? As parents and educators find…