Apple’s new iOS’s folder making capability has a hidden benefit. Helping your children find their apps. It might decrease the chance your preschooler will send an email to your boss.
If you own an iPhone or iPod Touch, you may have already discovered the ability to make folders; which is now standard with iOS 4.1 and higher for iPod Touch and iPhone, and is coming in November for iOS 4.2 for your iPad. You can now cluster up to 12 apps or Web Clips (icons made out of Web pages) into one folder. Folders already exist for Android phones, see http://bit.ly/bZPE4U and — of course– regular computers.
To test the new iOS, I successfully tried making on a nearly two-year old second generation iPod Touch. Here’s what I did.
1. Find two icons that your child might use frequently, or better yet, ask your child to name some of their favorite apps. Press and hold your finger over one, until it starts to wriggle. Now, slide the icon app over the other, and presto, a folder appears, along with a dialog box. Type in your child’s name, and tap the icon again. Now you can fill up the folder with up to 12 apps or web clips simply by dragging and dropping new apps over the folder. (To drop in pre-selected web pages, you can make a web clip by finding the + icon in Safari).
2. Next, move your child’s folder to your dock — the shelf on the bottom of the screen — so it is always easy for your child to find. This concept is useful supporting your child’s budding academic interests.
3. You can also name folders after hobbies or school subjects.
4. If you have more than one child, each can have his or her own folder, giving them their own place to freely explore that’s a layer away from the grownup stuff that can get mom or dad very grumpy.
I’m on “Gadgets toys software apps….oh my” right now with host Deb Evans. Call in! ( http://bit.ly/d1mxqM )
Watching: Another iPad lesson in child development: the new Park Math app by Duck Duck Moose ( http://bit.ly/9qWXXN ) #dustormagic
When skiing becomes a video game — Vail Resorts and EpicMix will capture and share your mountain experience” ( http://bit.ly/bHugZ6 )
For those feeling less than optimistic about today’s youth, have a look at the letter I received tonight, from one of the Scratch programmers at Mediatech from our camp this summer.
Because he is a minor, I’ve withheld his name. But it is easy to go to the Scratch website and give his program a try. Keep in mind, the following letter was written by an intrinsically motivated middleschooler, with no editing.
Dear Mr. Buckleitner,
Our new game, Ultimate Sonic the Hedgehog has finally made it to the Scratch website. Feel free to play with it!
Cheats are down below. Without further ado, I 99.999999% recommend downloading this and play in presentation mode because this game lags when on the website. The website will lag projects so it is recommended to download it.
Ultimate Sonic the Hedgehog:
http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/SSEntertainment/1297637
Cheats:
99999 Rings
When in menu, click on Journal and type in:
“rings give me power”
Once you do this, you’ll suddenly be in Inventory. Then type in this:
“more power”
Then, you’ll be transported back to the menu. Then type in this:
“sonic the ultimate hedgehog”
After that, a big explosion will appear. Hurry and type in:
“now”
Then to prove it, go to Journal, not Inventory, then you’ll have your 99999 Rings to use on all of the items and level ups.
Note that if you fail this, you’ll have to start the cheat all over.
MAX Attack
Once you’ve collected 99999 Rings, no more or no less (you can collect them or cheat), go to Journal and type in this:
“maximize power”
Then type in:
“seriously”
NOTE THAT CHEATS INCLUDE SPACES
Passwords:
*Knuckles’ Fist Multiplier x5:
A5H1lurPa9
*This cheat will, however, divide your defense by 5 also. If you are a beginner, USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Sonic’s Endurance (10000 HP):
d0GRq365jS
**Ring Bracelet Tripler
RINGx3fupo
**You can only use this password if you have the item, Ring Bracelet.
Hope you enjoy! I’ll make a challenge mode of this and the sequel.
[name withheld]
NOTES
This game illustrates a few lessons for designers:
• Kids love surprises. The better they are hidden, the better they are.• Older children on the edge of formal operational thinking (fifth grade and up) are prime candidates for an open-ended language like Scratch.• It is important to have a conversation about the definition of “mashup,” “fair use,” “creative commons” and other content ownership issues.
• What does the concept of a “cheat” mean for other forms of lesson design?
• Because this student is under 13 years of age, I can’t tell you his name. But I can tell you that his software company is called SuperSpeed Entertainment, and, at the bottom of his email message to me was this footer:
“Don’t ever waste time. You have a life to live.”
Good advice for us all!
Early World of Learning, found at http://www.worldbookonline.com/ewol/home, is a collection of several hundred flash-based stories, animated poems and simple games. The site is organized into three parts: Trek’s Travels (stories, games, and videos on vocabulary and reading comprehension); Welcome to Reading (phonics, vocabulary, phonemic awareness, and comprehension); and Know It (a children’s encyclopedia). The site was created in consultation with University of Maryland’s Rebecca Silverman. Features include: Story narration by human voices of different genders and ethnicity; Word-by-word highlighting to foster development of literacy skills; Comprehension games; Printable activities in English or Spanish for use in the classroom or to take home; and Classic children’s stories, nursery rhymes, and songs, which can be downloaded to an MP3 player for children who may not be read to at home, or who would like extra reading time. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
The versatile Wii Remote can become a graphics tablet when it is snapped inside the uDraw GameTablet from THQ (www.worldofudraw.com). The $70 Wii-only tablet will be released with a series of three drawing-based titles. You can make watercolor sketches, and replay them when using the included title, called uDraw Studio (to which the ratings apply). There’s an infinite number of colors that can be mixed or layered on a range of textured surfaces. You can replay your drawings as a slide show, erase, cut & paste, stamp and change for switching between, say, markers or charcoal. Work can be saved, or exported to your Wii’s SD card in JPG format. Two additional games (E-rated) will be Dood’s Big Adventure and Pictionary ($30). Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This app contains thirty sets of instantly corrected problems interspersed with simple arcade games. Overall progress is tracked on the bottom of the screen with icons that are gradually letting children see where they are in the program. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Talkatoo is a silver-dollar sized digital recorder, powered by a button-cell battery (included). Designed with a clip for a backpack or a pendent for your neck — with six color themes — the recorder has two buttons, record and play, plus a sliding lock for message saving. To record, you hold a red button and talk for up to 30 seconds, until the one MB of RAM is full. To hear your message, press play. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Symmetry Shuffle, created by Daren Carstens, the math educator who also created Math Arena and Sums Stacker, contains 12 sets of objects that can be randomly shuffled on a board. The goal is to slide, flip and turn each object, until all the shapes are correctly aligned and filled in. You can flip a shape by tapping on the edge, or turn it by flicking the corner, a process that takes some learning. There are two modes of play– race or solve, and it is possible to save your high scores on a leaderboard. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This 14 page ebook glosses over the life of President Barack Obama, from growing up, to meeting Michelle Robinson, to working in the White House. Each page contains one or two photos that can be zoomed in on; along with automatic scrolling narrated text. Features include the ability to view the book in three languages (English, Chinese or Spanish), while hearing it in another language. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This year’s edition is based entirely in Flash, so no downloads or installations are needed. All you need is a Mac or Windows computer and a speedy web connection.There’s also a new three room menu that puts all the content within a click, making it much easier for a young child to get out of whatever he or she gets into. Unlike Nick’s www.mynoggin.com or Disney’s www.preschooltime.com, no credit card commitment is needed. You get 15 days free — no strings or codes; a practice that is refreshing and respectful of busy parents. That also makes it easy to have a look for yourself, which we recommend. Note that there’s a new $500/year classroom edition option that makes it possible to track the progress for an entire classroom of kids, for up to a year, for either home or classroom access (each child gets his or her own login). Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Mission US is a free (grant funded) adventure game that teaches US history. In Mission 1: For Crown or Colony? you help Nat Wheeler, a 14-year-old printer’s apprentice in 1770 Boston. Nat must complete tasks, meeting with merchants, soldiers, sailors and poets. The site is currently in beta form, and is open for free registration. Content includes reading primary historical documents, collecting period artifacts, and clicking on “Smartwords” (vocabulary) embedded in the dialog. Nat’s fate rests in players’ hands: Should he complete his apprenticeship and support the Patriots’ cause, remain loyal to the crown, or leave Boston, taking a new job at sea? No matter what path Nat chooses, he witnesses the events of the Boston Massacre and, ultimately, must decide where his allegiance lies. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This is an animated version of the song “The Marvelous Toy.” As you hear the song, you can see the lyrics on the screen, or tap on hot spots that seem a bit random — not always in sync with the story. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
The LPSO Starter Pack includes a 1 inch tall rubber figurine, with a code that you type in at www.LPSO.com to upgrade your membership from “basic” to “premium” for 30 days. So you can create a virtual pet, decorate your pet’s home, chat with friends, and play all the mini games. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
While this isn’t the first 3D I Spy title (see I Spy Universe) this is the first time the 3D graphics have been combined under one theme, along with a better clue system and a set of theme-related games. Content includes 33 riddles and 11 spooky themes. When all the riddles have been solved, you can escape from the spooky mansion, and your progress can be saved for long term play. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This game features Harley-Davidson sponsored content, so you get to ride real-looking bikes. There are five modes of play including Free Ride and Time Trial Modes. To ride, you grip the Wii Remote like handlebars, twisting to speed up, and leaning into curves. You can unlock assignments and more bikes, including the Softail Cross Bones, the XR1200, Softail Rocker C, Nightster, and Dyna Fat Bob. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This Nintendo DS cartridge contains four adaptations of the classic arcade games Pac Man, Space Invaders, Tetris, and Frogger. New features include 3D graphics and zany sound effects, with new names such as Maze Munchers for Pac Man, for example. You can shoot down spaceships in Space Shoot, fill rows with the right blocks in Falling Bricks, and help a robot safely across a ravine in Highway Hopper. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
In this DS game, Taz gets caught up in the evil plot of Marvin the Martian, who is on a mission to steal the Earth’s landscape for Mars. Hungry Taz is on a journey to find a giant chicken leg in the sky and travels across Tasmania, barren deserts, tropical jungles and ice-covered terrain. Using the DS stylus, you “roll” a large ball on the bottom of the screen, to direct Taz through a series of mazes. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
It’s always nice to see things get more powerful and cheaper at the same time. The Echo, now two years newer than the two-year old Pulse is also designed to work with standard headphones. The lithium-ion battery, Java-powered recorder that is just a bit fatter than a Sharpie marker, with a tiny camera in its tip that can detect a faint pattern of dots to give the pen its bearings. Without this special paper, you’re left with an old fashioned, rather expensive pen, however. Here’s a summary of the three biggest features: a) It can capture everything you write and “replay” it on a Windows or Macintosh computer screen; b) It can record large amounts of extremely clear stereo audio (up to 100 hours for the 1GB model and 200 hours for the 2 GB model); and c) It can associate written notes with the sounds that are going on, at the exact instant the marks on the page were made. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This DS fantasy game from the long-running Dragon Quest series lets you become an angelic guardian who must do good deeds around the world to gather fruits from the mystical world tree. These deeds usually involve fighting monsters. You create your own character, choosing a face, hairstyle and body type, and then further customize it with classes, abilities, weapons and armor. Features include a four player mode that uses the DS’s built-in Wi-Fi. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
The latest game in Disney’s Sing It Series, this karaoke game turns your Wii or PS3 into a well designed, pitch-sensing vocal coach. Content includes 30 songs with on-screen lyrics from the most popular Disney classics. The song list includes Cruella De Vil from 101 Dalmations, Be Our Guest from Beauty and the Beast, and The Bare Necessities from Jungle Book. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This 14 page ebook for the iPad or iPhone glosses over the life of Michelle Obama, from birth through the White House. Each page contains a fun fact, consisting of a narrated page with scrolling text. Features include the ability to view the book in three languages (English, Chinese or Spanish), while hearing it in another language. In other words, you can see the printed pages in English, while hearing them in Chinese, or the other way around. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Based on the movie of the same name, this one player exploration game lets you become one of the main film characters, who must find evil Kitty Galore and her gang. You can be Diggs, Catherine, and Seamus, each with unique abilities and gadgets needed to send the bad guys back to the pound. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Realistic but hard to learn, this hunting game contains ten North American hunting regions, stocked with whitetail deer, mule deer, elk, moose, bears, boars and big horned sheep. There are three gameplay modes: Quick Hunt, Season Hunt, and BPS Challenges. You can also battle other hunters in single-console multiplayer and five social arcade games: Target Range Shooting; ATV Racing; Blind Fire; Duck Hunt and Forest Frenzy. Content includes a variety of weapons, supplies and gear including rifles, shotguns, bows, calls, scents, blind, an ATV and GPS mapping technology. The Wii version comes with a rifle controller ($40/bundle) that, when paired with the Wii remote is designed to create a more realistic hunting experience. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
In this iPad app, you must help Bartleby, a “where is Waldo” type of character, find buttons for his collection. Each page contains switches, buttons, and sliding controls. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Many parents and teachers are familiar with a letter allegedly written by Abraham Lincoln to his son’s schoolmaster.* Here’s my update with a technology twist.
World, my daughter starts college today.
Give her fast, free Wi-Fi and an Ethernet cable for her dorm room.
Make it easy to share work with others with projectors as bright as her ideas; to print her work on printers with ink and paper.
Make it easy for her to plug in her laptop, at any library table or classroom seat.
Grant her access to the latest, most powerful digital authoring tools, along with the time and support to test their limits. But balance her schedule with a hike in the woods and a swim in the lake.
Show her how an entire future could unravel with a single Facebook photograph or a hastily written email; and help her understand the subtleties between fact/fiction, selling/informing, and truth/lies.
Provide her with teachers who are digital role models, who embrace and use new technology both inside and outside their fields, yet value old-fashioned facts that are correct, good spelling, and well-crafted projects.
Help her to be charitable with her digital abilities; to help an older person or a fellow student in need.
But especially world, don’t let her text in class, even if it is to me.
* According to the “Lincoln Never Said That” page at http://illinoishistory.gov/facsimiles.htm the authenticity of the letter is doubted.
On a recent visit to India, I was videotaping in a preschool. During a music lesson, I flipped the viewfinder on my camera around, so the children could see their own faces. The effect was immediate. Faces became animated, and eyes started to sparkle, and the teachers wouldn’t let me leave until everyone had a turn. The event was a reminder of how powerful it is to see yourself on a screen. This trick is being exploited by both Microsoft Kinect and the Sony PlayStation Move, with titles like EyePet (page 16) and Kinectimals (page 18). What does this expanding form of human computer interface (HCI) mean for children? Here’s a starter list:
• New exercise, sports and dance games will watch, score and rate a child.
• The line between concrete and abstract could blur with augmented reality techniques (see http://bit.ly/9h0rva). A traditional block, toy, book or playing card could jump to life, inside a 3D screen.
• Point, click, drag and drop will be replaced by a voice and motion.
• Skype-like plugins could make game sharing as routine as starting up a game and giving a voice command.
• New motion-based methods could help children learn to read and hard-wire abstract math relationships to their hand.
This welcome step away from abstraction has created a new set of research questions for educators and designers. There’s never been a better time to ask “how can we tap this power for the benefit of children?”
Here’s a video that shows off the latest features of the Sony PlayStation Move.
Enjoy our Back to School issue!
Togetherville, the Facebook powered social site for kids, is finally figuring out that it can’t get between kids and communications. So, as of today, it is giving children the ability to type their own messages.
The features in called Me-Text, is moderated and can only be seen by existing Facebook friends. You can still use T-Text, which uses constructed chat.