Betsy Sherertz
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Posts by Betsy Sherertz
Mobile Learning…Myth or Reality?
Apr 29th
Interesting article that reviews case studies related to mobile devices as learning devices.
The immense popularity of mobile devices amongst contemporary youth is laying the technological foundation for mobile learning. Whilst mobile learning in most forms is still in the conception stage, some schools are experimenting with the devices on offer and recognizing their potential. Research has revealed the educational benefits of implementing mobile devices within schools yet many factors are hindering its progress. There is a fear that mobile learning will not effectively surpass conception stage and be an eternal idea rather then actually coming into existence in the classroom. This summary will investigate case study’s of how mobile learning is being effectively used in the school context and evaluate the obstacles that are preventing widespread use such as established attitudes, with a focus on the issue of finance.
iPad Helps 99 year old read and write again
Apr 29th
This is pretty awesome. I’ve been so focused on mobile service design for young kids, that I haven’t even thought about the elderly.
Website, “iSites,” is taking the guesswork out of iPhone and Android application development
Apr 29th
Create Your Own iPhone or Android App in Minutes With iSites
Creating a self-branded iPhone or Android app just got a lot more accessible.
iSites, a new service launching today, allows you to take your website’s RSS feed and data and quickly transform it into a full-fledged iPhone app. It was created by Genwi, a service that combines aspects of RSS reader, social network and news filter (read our review here).
The product is very straightforward: For just $25, iSites will create a customized iPhone and Android
app for you (note: android apps will publish starting in February). The first step is to add some of your feeds. The primary one should be your blog or an RSS feed, but you can also add your Twitter, Flickr
, YouTube, Posterous, Tumblr and other social feeds into your app.
After you’ve added your feeds, you can then customize the app’s look and feel. The header image, colors and menu are all customizable. Once you have that information, along with app store information such as your icon and your store banner, you just have to click a button to publish your app onto the iPhone and Android app stores.
Want to monetize your app? That’s no problem, either: For $99, you can integrate your app with AdMobadvertising. That’s a pretty good deal, especially if you expect to get a fair number of downloads and uses.
Mike Elgan: Why iPad is the ‘Children’s Toy of the Year’
Apr 29th
Parents
Parents are always looking for electronic babysitters to pacify their kids so they can do something else — drive, for example, or make dinner.
Naysayers in my Buzz group say parents won’t shell out $500 for a children’s toy. Here’s my response: Wanna bet? An entire industry has sprung up around DVD players in cars that are just for kids. How much do those cost? Besides, an iPad isn’t a toy. It’s a toy chest full of toys.
An iPad is an ideal kid pacifier. For starters, parent-selected children’s apps for the iPad are likely to be more educational than TV. As a replacement or substitute for in-car entertainment for kids, iPads are better because kids can change the app. The parent doesn’t have to put everyone’s lives at risk trying to swap DVDs.
Parents will believe, and correctly, that using an iPad will better prepare their children for the future than watching TV.
Case Study : The Iphone Mom
Apr 29th
This was a case study I had found earlier when I first decided I wanted to design for kids. It is mostly about kids exposure of iPhone apps from their “iPhone owning mothers”
More than 59% of US mothers who own an iPhone say they let their children use it, and 61% of these moms download games or educational content specifically for their kids, according to a report on mobile advertising by mobile ad network Greystripe.
The Q3 Mobile Advertising Insights Report (pdf), which is based on user data and surveys of iPhone and iPod Touch users on Greystripe’s network, includes specific findings on and behavioral characteristics of “iPhone Moms,” a term the company coined to describe this audience segment, which it said includes “dominant purchasing decision makers for households with several members.”
iPhone Moms and Shopping
The study found nearly 60% of iPhone Moms depend on their phone to locate the nearest store around them, while 42% use the iPhone to keep track of shopping lists and 39% use their iPhone to comparison shop.
Other ways moms use iPhones while shopping:
Additional findings from the report:
- Just more than half of iPhone Moms use their phone at the grocery store, with 40% using it as a shopping-list tool and 23% using it as a recipe resource at the store.
- On average, 89% of iPhone Moms use their phone for entertainment purposes, whether it is listening to music, browsing the internet or using various entertainment apps.
- Email comes in at a close second place to entertainment, with 80% of iPhone Moms reporting they use their phone for checking messages.
- More than 64% of iPhone Moms use their phones for managing their calendar and schedule, which is 9% higher than the rest of the iPhone community as a whole.
About the report: The report is based on data gathered from Greystripe iPhone and iPod Touch users during Q3 2009. Statistics are based on internally run surveys run in the Greystripe network during this time period.
IDEO Case Study : IPhone Applications for children
Apr 29th
IPhone Applications for IDEO
Designing quality software for young children and their families
As the iPhone’s popularity soars, parents are increasingly using the handset as a means to entertain and interact with their children. IDEO Toy Lab is an ongoing experiment in developing applications that will enrich this mobile experience for both adults and kids ages 2 to 6.
Although toddlers have been quick to embrace the iPhone, few developers are building apps with this precocious demographic in mind. As a part of IDEO, a human-centered design and innovation firm, Toy Lab operates from the premise that every product should meet the real needs and desires of end users. So we assembled a team of child-development experts, veteran toy designers, and interaction designers to determine how the iPhone could foster learning among the preschool set.
Through interviews and observations with youngsters, the team gleaned many insights into what might make a kid-friendly mobile software app—and went away with little doubt that there was fun to be had in the field.
The first two Toy Lab products — Party Whistle and Balloonimals — are available on iTunes and offer an intuitive and playful experience. Party Whistle is a simple, lively iPhone app that mimics a paper noisemaker whenever the user blows into the microphone. Balloonimals is a creative, entertaining app that lets users make inflatable creatures, from a crab to a dinosaur, by blowing in the mic and then shaking the handset. Both experiences end with a slight twist designed to surprise and delight the user!
How to #2 – make single page website using TweenMax
Apr 29th
LOTS OF CODE! But the effect is cool and could be used for a lot of things.
Because the interaction on my one thread of my application was fairly basic since it had to be for a kid to be able to navigate, and decide I would put a how to from the website I am designing for my independent study, which still could be useful for other things than just a website.
My website is a single page site, with a top navigation that navigates up and down the site to each section for teachers, students and parents.
So my issue was trying to get the navigation to be able to go to each section with an ease. For something like this, it is all about positioning. Below is a list of my process
1) designed most of the single page website in photoshop and brought it into flash and made it its own movie clip (website_mc) and exported it for actionscript.
2) The things I left on the main stage were the navigation and the background.
3) I then put buttons on the navigation and wrote the following script: (way more then 4 lines of code but it’s better to give the whole idea so that it’s better understood
How to #1 frame change after movie clip
Apr 29th
Okay so this may sound a little complicated, but this is a how to on how to progress to the next frame in the main timeline once a movie clip has finished within a movie clip that is embedded in the main timeline. There are definitely easier ways to say that I’m sure.
But, basically for example with my app. I wanted the a frame change in my main timeline after at least one of the items on the recycling team (bottle, can or paper) reached 3 tick marks. So, basically, at the end of the movie clip you want the frame to change, you would put:
Mobile App Screens
Apr 5th
The ultimate objective for my app is to teach kids about basic ways to save energy in school, which can carry over into their home, as well is the impact they make when they save.
5 minute sketches – two sets
Mar 23rd
FIRST ROUND – I realize I did these wrong. I accidentally made a sketch for five different screens.
SECOND ROUND
Interview w/ Elementary School Teacher
Mar 1st
Brief interview I had with Kristin Hansen, a 1st grade teacher at Club Boulevard Elementary School in downtown Durham. Her class consists of 24 kids between the ages of 6 and 7.
Q&A:
Q: When following a particular curriculum for the first grade, are there particular techniques you have to use to keep the kids of that age engaged and or keep them focused? (i.e. hands on activities, using visuals of some sort?) If so, what about those techniques work, and what may not work as well?
A: Students love hands on activities such as experiments, arts and crafts or manipulation. In elementary school, the experiments are simple (limited steps and questions). They are also not abstract. It is best when they do not think that they are learning. If you do not want to do it, they will not. If it is a concept that they may not manipulate, they need visuals. Students simply do not have a great grasp of the world beyond their town at this age. Many of my kids have not seen the beach, a farm or the post office.
When talking about problems, worldly problems are best to be avoided. Talk about the problems in their immediate environment, giving them simple solutions they can change. We did a unit on pandas and the children wigged out. They could not handle the problem on the other side of the globe since they could not change something. Remember to keep it simple (vocabulary and concepts) for under 3rd grade.
I have seen:
• The Lorax by Dr. Suess – there are some great ways to connect this fiction book to our world
• Starting pop top collection drives at school
• Teacher has two identical flashlights with new batteries. One is turned off when they leave the classroom. The other remains lit. Students may see how fast leaving the lights off will drain the power.
• Plant tree at school
• Create advertisements
• The teacher will collect students milk cans for a month. They will pile in a box in the corner. After the month, she pulls them out to discuss. Imagine if the whole school collected milk cans for one month. For one year… Do we want these to be in a landfill forever? Learn about different things that milk carton may become. What is the process of recycling? Students start school milk carton recycling.
Q: Is there anything you would do differently or teach if you had free range within the curriculum?
A: I actually really love the science curriculum for Durham. However, there is not much dealing with the environment. It is my goal to get my students recycling, turning off the lights and running water. However, these can be tricky concepts to explain to 6 year olds. We have read a few books about the concepts. (There are so many great kids’ books about these issues.) Also, we have made a few changes as a classroom. Maybe their choices will spread to their homes. The teachers who talk about it the most are the ones that make the biggest impacts on students.
Q: Are there parts of the curriculum that is/or in general is the hardest to teach/or hard to explain to the kids for a certain reason?
A: They have difficulties with difficult vocabulary, remembering phrases such as circular motion or force. However, they usually remember the concepts. They also have difficulties grasping concepts that do not affect their everyday life, especially when you want them to make a personal connection. Learning about the rainforest, they know of the problems with deforestation. However, they do not cut down trees from the rainforest trees so they are struggling with their connection. Why are they learning this? What can they do? Then, they shut down and sulk about the issue.
Q: Is there a certain part of the curriculum that you are excited about teaching, reason why? (i.e. tools you get to use, etc.) And what tools, if any, are used to teach any of the subjects (computers, textbooks, games, etc.)
A: I have a difficult situation since my school district is extremely poor. There are some great games on the computer, smart board (interactive white board) and I-pod touches for education. However, I have a 1982 computer. It would be great to use some of it since I have seen children get really into it at other schools. Most tools for elementary school are everyday objects, which is extremely fun. The students get to work with them (such as wheels and ramps).
As for other tools, textbooks are best avoided in elementary school. Concepts are too abstract in this format. Check out the Smart Board/ Interactive White board, I-pod touch and computer.
Google: teaching environmental issues, environmental games, teach science games, etc.
Sub-Outcomes | Kid’s Energy Use App
Feb 21st
As of now, I have changed the direction of my application to not necessarily teaching kids about global warming directly, but focus more on the smaller activities that kids can do and learn about how they make a difference, through basic learning of the environment and its problems. I am still not certain as to what specifically those activities will be, but I have a basic idea of what kids will learn with using the application.
Kids will be able to:
• list or name the different energy saving activities that you can do at home, and at school. (turning off lights, recycling, riding in a car, listening to music, microwaving, any use of energy)
• identify what nonrenewable/renewable/secondary energies are//maybe
• identify what greenhouse gases are/carbon cycle//maybe
• describe the purpose of each activity serves in order to help the environment.
• carry out or demonstrate each activity they learn
• categorize each activity as to the particular way it helps the environment
• design their own system for completing these activities and be able to keep track of everything they do
• understand what a carbon footprint is and what theirs is//maybe
• assess what they have done and conclude as to what they as an individual has done for the earth.