We’ve noticed that a lot of our readers are not aware of the options they have for sharing the books and apps we create.  In the same way that you like to share excellent learning materials and print books, it feels great to know you’ve connected someone you care about with something from the web they will really use and love as a parent, teacher, or both.  Of course, it’s a bit tricky trying to wrap a kindle book in sparkly paper, or attach a birthday card to that amazing interactive story you found on iTunes. Luckily, there are some easy ways to share and now you’ll know them too!

So what can you do if you want to gift an ebook or app to an appreciative friend or colleague?

Maybe you want to give your friends a chance to try before they buy.  Did you know you can lend Kindle books for a period of two weeks?  What a fantastic idea, Amazon!  The recipient doesn’t even need to own a Kindle: all Kindle books can be viewed using the free Kindle applications on PC, Mac, Blackberry, Android, iPhone – whatever!  All the details can be found here.

So you lent your Kindle copy of Annabel Karmel’s Complete Baby and Toddler Meal Planner to a dad who loves to cook, and now he’s desperate to have the recipes on his own iPad.  It’s actually incredibly simple to gift it to him.  There’s a button next to any ebook on Amazon.com that says “Give as a Gift”. Check out this link, which tells you all about how to do it.  The most complicated part is making sure you have your friend’s email address!  No big deal!  And while you’re thinking of all the great Kindle books you can now give and put on your own birthday wish lists, you should have a look at Bilingual Smart, a great resource for teaching toddlers to become bilingual in a way all members of the family can enjoy.

I learned by publishing ebooks that Amazon Prime members are allowed to borrow any ebook from the website for up to two weeks. Isn’t that a great way to sample all kinds of books before buying?

Maybe your friend is a fantastic preschool teacher who loves her job.  Her birthday is at the end of the week and you know you won’t have time to run out and buy her the perfect present.  The solution?  Give her a great app!  You know she’d love Language Castle’s 20 Welcome Words app, which will help her communicate with the Spanish-speaking children in her class on the first day of school and beyond. When you click on “buy this app” you will see one of the options is “gift this app”, and choosing this option will allow you to send it to her email address.

And if you aren’t sure exactly which apps or ebooks your friends and colleagues would benefit from the most? You can also find iTunes gift cards in many stores. From time to time, they go on sale so you can buy, say, $30 worth of gift cards for $25- another good way to help your students, group members or teachers get the apps you recommend.

There’s never been a better time to share powerful and meaningful web resources!  Happy shopping… literally!

Reported by Karen Nemeth

Most Wednesdays, tweeters on #ECETechChat say, “I wish we could tell ebook writers and app developers what we want and need in early childhood education!” We wish we could tell them about the NAEYC/Fred Rogers Center position statement: Technology and Interactive Media as Tools in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth through Age 8.  And, sometimes, we wish we could do what they do!  Now – here’s your chance to engage in this conversation directly with developers.  Is it better than the day peanut butter met chocolate? Only you can decide.

#ECETechChat has covered classroom-oriented topics like addressing math or literacy goals with technology. We’ve discussed news items like the article on developing apps for toddlers.  We’ve talked about professional development to support technology integration, new devices, policy issues, the latest research on using technology to support early learning, and many more topics. If you want to learn more about #StoryAppChat topics, you can visit their blog.

Since I’m developing apps and ebooks, I started following #StoryAppChat on Sunday nights. These very collegial professionals – some experienced and some new – talk about how they create, manage, publish and market their children’s story apps.  They often ask questions about how they can improve their discoverability on the app store. How can they get more schools and families to know about and purchase their apps? Where are schools most likely to hear about their apps? What reviews are most trusted? What features should be included in story apps that would make them more useful for meeting early learning goals?

Face it.  They need us. We need them. Don’t miss the chance to join forces to take our discussion of early childhood technology to the next level.  Find out what’s happening on the other side of the conversation. Meet potential cross-bloggers, webinar presenters, workshop leaders, and savvy colleagues.

Don’t forget that we are also having our regular #ECETechChat this week on Wednesday, 9pm EST to talk about: “Mythbusters for naysayers & peeps on the fence. Inform the uninformed!”

Have you ever said “I should make an app for that”? We did it!  We put our idea into action and… it wasn’t as easy as you might imagine. Language Castle LLC just released our first app for iPhone and iPad.  It is called 20 Welcome Words, a bilingual app designed to give early childhood teachers easy access to the top 20 words/phrases they need to learn in Spanish or English so they can help new children (DLLs) feel welcome in their programs.  The idea was simple, but the app development process is not simple at all.  For those of you who are not app developers, we thought you would like to see what goes into their work. Here is a to-do list for you to consider:

• Determine the purpose of your app.
• Clarify who your audience will be.

• Create a name for your app.
• Create a shortened name that will have fewer than 13 characters to appear under the icon on your iPad or iPhone.

• Choose what language(s) your content will use.
• Consider writing the content in simplified language to be accessible for people with lower literacy levels.

• Decide if you want to hear the words spoken – especially for young children – then who is going to record the sound… and in what sound studio?
• Decide if your app needs special effects, bells, whistles (literally), beeps or blinks… or music.

• Will you need graphics?  Or will you need animation?  Photographs?
• You should have a company logo.
• Plus a specific logo/icon to represent your app.

• List key words that will make your app searchable on Google or on the iTunes app store.
• Write a help menu with instructions.
• Write an iTunes store description.
• Write an introduction on the app.

• What markets will you sell it in? – which countries?
• How will you categorize it on the app store? Education? Game?

• You should have a company name to back up your app.
• You will need a support website that people can contact if they have questions or problems.
• You will need an account to sell your app on iTunes.
• You will need to link that to a bank account where your money will go.

• Write press releases or social media announcements.
• Write ads.
• You will have to be prepared to go into a marketing frenzy.  No app sells itself these days – there’s way too much competition.
• If your content is available in different languages, all of your help info and marketing text should be as well.

• You’ll have to be prepared to answer questions and complaints as they come up.
• You will have to be prepared to write updates.

• Pricing. Learn about app aggregators and search engine optimization to determine how you will address the pricing issue.  Start low and go up? Start high, then put it on sale or offer free trials? So much to consider… and when you have all of these things covered…

• Then you can actually do the work of developing your app!

This is just meant to be an introduction – a glimpse into what it takes just to get the app development process started.  It’s a lot to think about.  Knowing a little more about how the process works might help you become a more educated consumer – and might make some teachers or parents think twice about refusing to pay more than 99 cents for an educational app.  We know these questions are on the minds of a lot of visitors to www.ecetech.net.

If you read all this and still want to proceed with your app idea, we would love to hear from you!

By Cen Campbell

“In a presentation for a meeting of the Council of Chief State School Officers in Indianapolis, I talked to early childhood specialists in state education agencies about some untapped areas for enhancing training and forming partnerships among educators, including librarians, via digital technology… But it was the section on “the role of states” that probably had the most relevance for the policy experts in the room. Based in part on recent policy brief published by the Education Commission of the States, Technology in Early Education, I singled out two areas that state-level policymakers could focus on: building partnerships between libraries and early education and improving professional development and teacher training.  Libraries should be seen as integral partners for early education programs, especially in the area of technology given the online curating skills and technical know-how that many children’s librarians possess today.”

I’ve been developing a community of knowledge to inform, inspire and motivate my fellow children’s librarians to expand their expertise in evaluation, curation and program development to the digital realm, and now I am pleased to see that there are experts in non-library fields that are recognizing the value that children’s librarians can bring to interactive media.

But you know what’s incredibly disheartening? Many children’s librarians don’t think this is their job. (I disagree completely, and so do the most of children’s librarians I know.)

There are far more children’s librarians who contact me asking for help establishing early literacy programming that incorporates digital media than those who advocate format-based censorship.  Digital storytelling and collection development are still new for many of us, and while we have centuries of experience evaluating and curating content for children, the technology itself is often intimidating, and funds and staff time are in short supply. In order for children’s librarians to begin to apply their skills to digital media, they are going to need some training, support and motivation from their administrative, advocacy and funding organizations.  These organizations could include city and county administrations, state libraries, state library associations, local chapters of national organizations, JPAs, library boards or any other body that can support measures to bring in trainers, provide staff time to cover the reference desk, and fund the development of programs, services and partnerships.

Children’s librarians need to take stock of their core competencies: the evaluation and dissemination of media and early literacy development, and apply them to the new world of children’s interactive media.  They need the training to step into their new roles as curators of content in the digital realm, get out of the echo chamber of libraryland and share their expertise with related educational organizations.  We need to start developing some large-scale training through creative collaborations with other non-profit organizations, granting agencies and ECE programs, administrators and teachers.

Let’s start the conversation. Let’s make this happen.

Hear Lisa Guernsey, Cen Campbell and Karen Nemeth discuss new initiatives and partnerships between libraries and early childhood education programs in this upcoming webinar: Libraries and Preschool Programs: Amazing Partnerships to Support Diverse Young Children and Families

Cen Campbell is the editor of LittleeLit.com and librarian at Mountain View Library and Santa Clara County Library District

The emergence of new technologies pushes teachers to understand how to integrate these technologies into their everyday classes and lessons. Children are actively communicating with each other and with their teachers through these new technologies.

Voki avatars have become extremely popular among teachers and students. Educators have been using Voki for a variety of different activities in virtually every learning domains. Many of our Voki teachers have made it a major part of their curriculum.

Here’s an example:

So, what do our Voki teachers do?

Our Voki teachers have come up with innovative ways to use Voki in their classroom. Many of us know that there are one or two shy students in class. So what some of our Voki teachers do is ask them to create Voki to ask questions, make suggestions, or create stories.. This is a great asset for building a student’s confidence. Additionally, students are encouraged to express themselves as they create their unique Vokis! Students can customize their character to reflect who they are. This way, teachers can better understand their students.

Some of our Voki teachers use the recording option to give Vokis a voice. This is a great way for students to practice or for teachers to save samples of the child’s oral language. For students learning a second language, they can listen to their fluency and their pronunciation.

Voki can be used to give instructions or help students that are absent.. One of our favorite ideas has been to create class mascots who give daily instructions or announcements either in class or on a blog.

Voki has endless possibilities and we salute those teachers who are embracing and coming up with new ideas for technology in the classroom. It’s up to you to think up of great activities and share with us!

Until next time,

Eva Diep

feedback@voki.com

On August 28 the weekly twitter chat, #ecetechchat, will focus on strategies for using technology to help children and their grown-ups ease back into school.  I think technology can be especially helpful when a teacher is gearing up for a group of children who are linguistically and culturally diverse.  I put some ideas about how to handle that in this Language Castle post.

I was also realizing that for many early childhood educators, summer has been a time for learning about and playing with technology so you will have a lot of new ideas for September that you might not have dreamed of in May.   What new technology tools have you learned about this summer?  Two fun apps I tried with a 4-year-old this week were from the Fred Rogers Center.

Out-a-bout is for iPhone and Alien Assignment is for iPad.  Both of these apps encourage active play as the game challenges the child to pretend, act, think and move – then capture photos that are added into a story.  I have known about these for a while after I downloaded them – but it wasn’t until I actually played them with a child that I realized their potential.  Here are some screenshots showing how Vivi enjoyed Out-a-bout.  For example – I didn’t realize that once Vivi and I had created this story together – it could be emailed to her relatives in another country.  And, an added bonus, one of the people who enjoyed it most was Vivi’s little brother.  So now I am thinking of ways to use these photo integration apps to build communication and engage children from different backgrounds and abilities.  If you join in this week’s twitter chat #ECETechChat on Wednesday at 9 pm EDT, you’ll be able to share what you played with this summer – and get some great new ideas just in time for the big school year crush!

This topic is of particular importance as classroom technology becomes more prevalent and tools like mobile apps (many of which claim to “teach” things) become more and more pervasive in young children’s homes. How can parents, educators, and caregivers know what “educational” or “teach” means in these contexts and how can they help to ensure their children are being exposed to tools that will help them become creators instead of consumers? The recent end of “Your Baby Can Read” is a great example of an instance when a tech tool (videos) claimed to “educate” babies and “teach” them to read. Yet, researchers found that, in answer to the chat topic, learning transfer was not truly occurring and the technology was not being used effectively. Unfortunately, most families and educators do not have the same resources or time to examine the facts as those who investigated the “Your Baby Can Read” videos. Luckily, our chat participants had some other suggestions and ideas to determine whether learning has occurred and if tech tools are being used effectively.

These suggestions and ideas included:

• Asking open ended questions to check for learning (e.g., Tell me what you did with that?)
• Creating situations where children could apply knowledge gained through a tech tool in a new context
• Taking detailed observation notes and documenting what children are doing with technology and other materials in regards to specific skills
• Checking to see if a child can generalize skills used with a tech tool beyond that tool
• Using measurement tools built-in to the technology to review and examine what has been learned and how it was learned
• Asking yourself whether the tools are creating and deepening positive relationships between children and between children and teachers
• Reflecting on whether the technology is being used as a tool and not the goal of an activity or singular method to teach a concept or skill
• Discovering if you can engage the child in a meaningful, open-ended dialogue about their learning
• Observing whether children know if a tech tool can help them, if they volunteer a tech tool as a way to help them/others work on certain skills
• Engaging children in reflection about what they have done and discovered after using a tech tool
• Asking children for their evaluation and opinion of a tool
• Setting specific and clear learning goals

One of the key takeaways from all of these suggestions is the importance of knowing which skills (e.g., social and emotional, mathematics, literacy, etc) you are hoping to enhance or support through the use of a tech tool and therefore which ones to document and assess in other contexts. By knowing what you hope or want children to be learning from tech tools, you are able to ensure that those skills and knowledge are age appropriate and relevant to children’s contexts, needs, and lives.

Some other issues that were raised included the need for there to be accountability around the appropriate and effective use of technology across staff, from directors down to classroom teachers. Part of this accountability requires the ever-needed professional development (PD) that is still missing (in many areas, not just tech) for early childhood professionals. One solution is to work hard to increase pre-service teachers’ knowledge and experience selecting developmentally appropriate technology tools and applying them in early childhood classrooms so that those entering the workforce will require less PD. Additionally, some chat participants raised the idea of creating more of a common framework for all technology tools created for early childhood contexts and more universal criteria to measure or determine whether these tools fit DAP. Finally, the idea of continuously monitoring, documenting, and revisiting each child’s learning goals through the use of e-portfolios or other media that allow for the integration of the products children create with technology was raised as an important next step for many.

Some lingering questions remained:

1. Can apps or tech tools ever actually teach anything? Or can they only reinforce, support, and enhance?
2. Can technology ever be used to measure learning or only to document learning?
3. If technology is just another tool in a teacher’s toolbox, similar to crayons, why are practices regarding it consistently so isolated? Does technology need to be used, discussed, and labeled as different from crayons and other tools?

Ultimately, as @beyondplaydough stated “Like all things balance is key” always, with technology and any classroom tool and we can know that “tech works from quantitative (analytics) & qualitative data (observations)” – @lewismal. Therefore, it is never about just one way of doing things but a multiplicity of ways to examine, reflect, and determine what learning is occurring and those multiplicity of ways always rely on a teacher’s unique, personal relationship to the student.