Tillie's TIme Shop

Tillie's Time Shop was created by My Turn Mobile and is an app to help kids learn to tell time. What's interesting about this app is that it's almost like an e-book. There's a story that gives the 3 different time activities a context. Does it work? Price: $2.99


Device Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.Requires iOS 3.2 or later

Developmental Appropriateness: Telling time is considered a math skill and is a general skill that young kids need to learn. I really like that the activities are put into a context. Math educators often stress teaching math skills in a way that is applicable to everyday life. Although it's not often that we encounter clock shops anymore, the story context is still a clever way to engage kids in the activities. 


Where I am a bit surprised is with a couple of usability issues, or maybe glitches (I used an iPhone)? First, the text highlights as it's being read, which is good. You can tap on the text and it repeats, but if you tap on it a few times, the highlighting kinda goes crazy. Then, for the third game, where you have to drop the correct clock in the box, sometimes it doesn't work. Now, I'm pretty sure I can tell time, so I think I'm owed some points here. But when you hold the correct clock over the box and let it drop into the box, it doesn't register and is counted as incorrect. So I thought maybe I needed to more accurately drag the clock INTO the box, which works. But then I realized if I just did a quick, short drag of the correct clock, but not far enough to the area of the box, that works too. This would be pretty confusing to a child just learning about time if the correct answer is counted as incorrect. Finally, I think that on some of the screens, the clocks are kinda small and maybe a bigger distinction between the short and long hands is needed (I'm kinda surprised that no where in this app does it explain the difference between the long and short hand).

Lastly, this app only focuses on telling time to the hour. Seems like it could easily add on activities/levels that factor in the minute hand, which is equally important in being able to tell time. Rating: 3.5/5 (aim for around 4 years)


Balance: This is a little tricky. If I treat it as an app with 3 target activities, then I would say all the hotspots on the other screens are kinda fun. The hotspots range from revealing someone hidden behind a window or leads to someone in the town talking - all adding to the feel of being on your way to work at the clock shop. They do not detract from the 3 activities. However, if I viewed this as an e-book, I would find the hotspots distracting. Especially because it is not always clear where they are and also some hotspots have multi-levels. For example, on the first screen, it is not obvious to tap on the mouse. But actually, he's one of the highlights as he tells time jokes. And you need to tap on him again for the answer. If you keep tapping on him, he keeps coming up with different jokes. (I think I now know too many silly/corny time jokes). Humor is a great way to engage kids. Overall, I think the app can be more consistent in highlighting the hotspots, as some are more obvious than others. Since this app is not marketed as an e-book, I will not rate it as one. Rating: 4/5


Sustainability: I'm not sure kids will keep coming back to these activities. In the first one, you can rotate the clock or the sun/moon to see the correspondence between day/night and time. Fun to do a few times, but then what? In the second activity, you have to fill in the numbers of some "broken" clocks. Although each clock gets progressively harder, there are only a total of 8 broken clocks. And there's no "reward" for completing all of them. Actually, the game doesn't even recognize that they are complete, as Tillie just keeps saying, "Touch a clock to fix it" even though there are no more clocks to fix. In the third game, where you match the clock to the time, you get a score. But it doesn't keep track of your scores. Rating: 3/5


Parental Involvement: I guess parents can treat this like an e-book (but will probably spend a lot of time regulating tapping on hotspots). The activities themselves are basically one-player games. So other than to help explain how to play, parents don't have too much of a role with the activities. Rating: 3/5


Rating: 12.5 out of 20 = 3 stars


Disclosure: I received this app for review for free from the developers.

But That Wasn't the Best Part

But That Wasn't the Best Part is an e-book created by Jacob Rhodes and written by Jerry Jindrich. I am always in search of a great e-book, as it has been the focus of a lot of my research. I tend to air on the side of "less is more" when it comes to books, so when this book was suggested to me for review as a simple e-book, I thought I had hit the jackpot...
Price: $1.99

Device Requirements: iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.Requires iOS 3.0 or later

Developmental Appropriateness: The plot is cute in that it takes place during a parade and each page ends with "but that wasn't the best part..." so it kinda builds you up for the ending - something that little kids seem to like. On each page are a few hotspots. A bit different from other typical hotspots is that these are all sound effects. So you would tap on the words, "Woof, woof" and hear a dog barking. The sound effects in general are pretty good in that it really does sound like a you're at a parade. Rating: 4/5 (aim for around 3 years)


Balance: So what I've described so far is basically it. There isn't much more. The text doesn't highlight, the pictures aren't animated, there are no extra activities or features. And for the most part, that's ok (although I do think text highlighting is important). But this does feel bare-boned, especially when you opt to turn off the read to me function. Then, even the sound effects go away and the hotspots don't work - and I think the sound effects are the highlight of this e-book. Without the sound, I question why one would buy this e-book over buying a traditional book. Overall, it does not seem like this e-book takes advantage of what the "e" part has to offer. So maybe less isn't always more. Finally, there is my pet peeve of being able to stop the text from being read by tapping on a hotspot. Rating: 2/5


Sustainability: So once you find out "what the best part was" at the parade, does this type of plot really keep them coming back? May a few times? Maybe more for kids who like the sound effects? The surprise ending is no longer a surprise. Rating: 2.5/5


Parental Involvement: Being a book automatically gives you a head start on this rating. Parents can elaborate on the parade elements and maybe relate to a parade they've gone to. But again, with the read by myself mode, what is really separating this e-book from a regular book in terms of a parent-child book-reading interaction? Rating: 3.5/5


Total: 12 out of 20 = 3 stars

Monkey Preschool Lunchbox

Monkey Preschool Lunchbox was developed by THUP Games and is a series of 7 games that cover colors, matching, counting, letters, puzzle, spot the difference, and shape. The premise is that we're trying to pack the monkey's lunchbox, so all the items involve fruit. Sounds cute. Price: $0.99 on iTunes, $1.99 on Android market

Device Requirements: iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad; 
Requires iOS 3.0 or later; Android 2.0 and up

Developmental Appropriateness: Two of the major questions I ask when it comes to developmental appropriateness are "Is it right for the targeted age group?" and" What skill is it trying to target?". At first glance, Monkey Preschool Lunchbox seems to be a solid app for preschoolers - the games cover topics that are appropriate for preschoolers. But the more I played it, the less I thought of the app. With the first question, the app says it targets 2-5 year-olds. This is certainly true. But like I've said before, this is a wide age range and a lot happens during these early years. Some of the games like color and spot the difference are fit for the really young ones, 2 to 3-year-olds, while other games like the puzzles and matching are more for the older kids, like 5-year-olds. You do not have the option of choosing which games to play, it's all part of one game. So 5-year-olds will be bored with some items, and 2-year-olds will find some items too difficult.

For the second question, I really question what the counting and letter tasks are measuring. First with counting - there is a lot to understand about numbers and it is often difficult to assess exactly what a child understands about numbers. Just because they can count to 10 doesn't mean they understand those numbers. In this task, the Monkey asks for x amount of fruit and you have to tap on that amount of fruit. So what is trying to measure? Verbal counting? No. The app counts for you. Enumeration (*see below for definitions) or one-to-one correspondence? Maybe, but not quite. The task only presents the number that is asked for - so when it wants 4 apples, there are only 4 apples on the screen. How do we know the child is not just tapping on everything that's on the screen? Cardinality**? No - again, we really don't know what the child is doing. Does the child really know that he or she just put 4 apples in the basket or did he or she just tap on everything on the screen?


*Enumeration: The process of saying the proper number words in sequence while assigning one and only one number word to each object. 
**Cardinality: Knowing that the last counting word provides the numerical value of the whole set of objects. For example, after a child counts "1 2 3 4 5" he then can say, "There are five apples."
Definitions are from: http://mathcgm.org/index.php


With the letter task, you are asked to select the fruit that begins with a certain letter. It shows a picture of the fruit and the word for the fruit. All the options are color coded (see picture in the video above). When it asks for the letter, it also shows the letter, and in the same color as the correct answer. So is it really measuring letter identification, or color and or letter matching? The target letter also never separates or is highlighted from the word. So you might hear A apple, but you never see it. Some of the fruits are also big words - like "cantaloupe." These longer words are hard for kids, especially those just learning their letters.


Numbers and letters may seem like they are easy things to learn, but they are not. They are very complicated symbols. Rating: 2/5 (aim for around 3 years)


Balance: The game is pretty simple. There are no extra hotspots or anything like that. The Monkey will do some flips when you get the right answer or shake it's head when you get it wrong, providing some cute feedback. The Monkey also makes noises, which after while, for me at least, got a little annoying, especially when you do the counting task really fast. But all in all, I think the graphics are cute and nothing too distracting. Rating: 4.5/5


Sustainability: After a few items, you get to pick a sticker. It never ceases to amaze me how much kids like stickers. There's a nice variety of stickers to choose from, but it's a little disappointing because you can't do anything with them. You can't even move them around once you've placed it on your sticker scroll. Furthermore, there's really only one level. The items never get harder - they just repeat over and over. Rating: 2/5


Parental Involvement: Other than to help the younger ones figure out what to do, I don't really see much of a role for parents here. Parents cannot see what progress is being are on the different types of items, and the items are simple enough that there is not much prompting to do in terms of strategy. Rating: 3/5 


Total: 11.5 out of 20 = 2 stars

My Little Pony: Twilight Sparkle, Teacher for a Day

My Little Pony: Twilight Sparkle, Teacher for a Day is an e-book from Ruckus Media. It's based on the current animated tv series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Yes, this is also the same My Little Pony from the early 90's. I guess everything is getting rebooted these days. Not complaining though - I loved My Little Pony as a kid - I even owned a pair of My Little Pony roller-skates. Price: $3.99


Device Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.Requires iOS 4.0 or later.

Developmental Appropriateness: The overall theme of My Little Pony and this e-book is the importance of friendship and helping each other. So the topic matter is great for little kids. The e-book can be read in three different modes - Read to me, Read the book, and Read and record, giving a nice option of how involved you want to be. In the Read to me mode it is read in a nice pace and the text highlights accurately as it is being read. There are a few hotspots here and there, not too many, but enough where a child would look for them. It took me awhile to figure this out, but if you tap on the screen with the slightest motion (I used an iPad), I guess it thinks that you're trying to flip the page and it starts the text reading over again. Kids are not precise tappers, so if I was accidentally restarting the text, I'm sure they will too and at a higher rate. Also, there are activities like mazes and "spot the difference" pics inserted every few pages. While these are fun and age appropriate activities, I think the developers overstate their educational value. "Move the adventure forward with narrative-driven activities that include mazes and “spot the difference” that teach word recognition, picture/word association and basic problem solving skills." I think the activities are superficially tied to the plot and maybe hit on spatial and observational skills. However, these activities allow you to collect words that can done be used in a mad-lib type activity at the end of the story - which is pretty cool and a creative "reward" feature. Rating: 3.5/5 (aim for around 5 years)


I also wanted to briefly touch on gender here as I just realized that this is my first review of an app that may have a gender bias. I think it's safe to say that My Little Pony targets girls more than boys. While I don't think we should be encouraging stereotypes of any kind, research has shown that girls start to show a preference towards pink whereas boys show an aversion to pink by 2.5 years. Another interesting study found that not only do girls prefer to play with dolls and boys with cars, but female and male monkeys do the same! Just something to think about...

Balance: Back to these hotspots and activities. I think that the developers showed some control by not adding too many hotspots, and some pages don't even have any. Their intent was probably for kids to tap on them after the text was finished as the hotspots start to sparkle only after the text has been read (read to me mode). But since there are some - kids will probably want to look for them on every page, some more diligently than others, which may become a distraction. I'd like to see an e-book where it is clear that you cannot do anything until the text is finished. As for the activities, I'm wary of inserting activities during the story unless they are clearly part of the story and really does move the plot forward. Although these activities claim to do that, I don't think they quite do. I'm thinking of activities more along the lines of Bartleby's Book of Buttons. Otherwise, it really disrupts the plot and may lead to less comprehension. And even when the activities are part of the story, it could still affect comprehension for some kids - so activities in general are risky if you're really looking to teach them something. Finally, there are some animated clips that actually do move the plot along. There are just a few which seems to be a good amount to make it kinda cool but yet not make the book into too much of a movie or like the tv show. Rating: 3.5/5


Sustainability: The plus of the activities is that you collect words when you finish them. The words can then be used to fill in a story at the end. You can mix and match the words and create silly stories like with mad-libs (yet another throwback - mad lib's came out in the 50's!). This can be a great activity for improving reading, vocabulary, and storytelling. Also, the e-book encourages you to buy into this whole My Little Pony world - there is a feature where you can learn more about each pony. So being tied to the show can be a plus to spark more interest but parents may end up having to buy My Little Pony items like mine did with my roller-skates. I'm also not sure how popular the new show is... Rating: 4.5/5


Parental Involvement: The recording feature is nice - as parents can record their own reading and kids can listen to it even when the parent is not there. Parents can also use the recording feature to encourage their child to read aloud. Within the plot though, I'm not sure how much there is for parents to elaborate on except for the main themes of friendship and helping each other. Rating: 4/5


Total 15.5 out of 20: 3 stars


Disclosure: I received this app for review for free from the developers.

What is an educational app?

How exactly do we define what an "educational app" is? I think we all have a general idea of what we consider "educational," but with the explosion of apps, we obviously need a clearer definition and standards. I am not the first to say this. I've heard cries from our leaders in this field for setting standards, but what I'm not hearing are the answers.

Since starting this blog, I've been sent many requests for reviewing apps and in previewing these apps, I've really had to ask myself what I consider to be an educational app. I have to admit - I probably have not always been consistent in my judgement. So I thought that maybe writing this post would force me to come up with some guidelines for this little o' blog of mine and maybe start a conversation for how we should set some standards for our field overall. Here are some seemingly basic questions I've asked myself when previewing an app that have led to only more questions and issues to resolve.

1) Does this app teach you something?

At first, I naively thought that asking this question was enough. It would set apart the apps that were "just for fun" versus those trying to teach something. But then came:

• Apps that stretch the definition of "teaching." Terms like "spatial cognition" and "memory" seem to get thrown out there a lot. Are these skills important? Yes. Does it make the app "educational"? I'm thinking no. A car racing game may lead to better spatial skills, but to me, it doesn't make it "educational." 
• e-books. I want to say that all books are educational. We want to promote literacy and we want kids to be engaged in books - any books. But do all books "teach" something? I'm not sure. And now, many e-books are starting to look like games and movies. Where do we draw the line? Should we draw a line?

2) Is the subject matter of this app covered in school?

So then I thought a good way this might be a good way to narrow things down. It's not that I think that educational apps should only be about core subjects like math and reading, but it helped me to ask, "Would this topic be covered in school?" But then what about...

• Preschool apps. Given their young age, preschool curricula is sometimes more loosely defined (speaking of standards...)
• "Subjects" are not as clearly defined. Often, preschoolers are learning precursor skills, the basics that lead up to learning the concepts of a given subject. For example, learning about the seasons and weather isn't exactly science, nor is telling time exactly math. I would consider these basic skills "educational."
• Social development. Many preschool curricula (and now apps) cover social skills like learning how to keep a daily routine or having more patience. While I think social development is important and should be taught in preschool, this is a gray area for me. For my own reasons, I've been saying no to apps targeting social development only because my background is more in cognitive development and those are the apps I prefer to be reviewing. But it does seem like apps targeting cognitive versus social skills should be very clearly labelled in separate categories.
• The Other Subjects. Remember art or music class or library time? Sadly, funding has been cut to many of these subjects. Even gym has been scaled back. I think most would agree that art and music are educational. Library time would support that all e-books should be considered educational. What about gym? I guess gym is really about physical activity (although I do remember having to take tests about the rules of the game...) so I would not consider a sports app as educational as it does not promote physical activity.
• "Edutainment" apps. For the purpose of setting standards, I am really not liking the term "edutainment". It just opens the door for virtually any app to be considered "educational." I like the idea of "edutainment" in that it trying to make learning fun - and that is a good goal. But it really gives marketers a wide reach to try to capitalize on parents seeking fun yet educational apps. I'm gonna stay away from this label for now and see where it goes...

This is as far as I've gotten. There are probably some gaping holes in my thinking or perspectives I've failed to take into account (hey, I've really only been at this for about a month!)  - you tell me.

Doodlecast for Kids

Doodlecast for Kids was created by zinc Roe, recommended for children 3-5 and is a drawing app that families can do together. After my post about parental misconceptions, I wanted to find an app that really highlighted how apps can encourage family interactions. Doodlecast is a great example of this - putting the interaction itself front and center. Price: $1.99

Device Requirements: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad; Requires iOS 4.3 or later

Developmental Appropriateness: Drawing is great for kids of any age. It's a pretty basic activity that kids like to do. Where this app takes it further and really maximizes on what technology can offer is by recording the drawing so that it captures both the process of the drawing and the conversation that takes place. These recordings can then be shared with other friends and family near and far. The recording feature also encourages kids to tell stories, which promotes literacy. The app also provides a bunch of prompts, or "starting points" to encourage conversations about topics like "clothing" or  adjectives like "stinky". These are great teaching opportunities and are the type of quality interactions that should be occurring.   Rating: 5/5 (I'll stick with the developers' recommendation of 3-5)


Balance: This app is very straightforward. It's very easy to use, with a simple looking design, nothing distracting. The only part where it took me a little bit to figure out was the the while color acts as the eraser. There's an "x" icon, but that clears the whole picture, and that's what I ended up doing when trying to redo something. So maybe a clearer indication of the eraser is needed. Rating 4.5/5


Sustainability: Kids love to draw, so I'm not concerned about this app's sustainability and this is a great way for them to do that anywhere, without having to find materials. I could see for the older kids, that maybe some add-on features like being able to change the background color or having sparkly markers would be enticing. I've definitely seen kids get really excited when you offer them color construction paper (why does orange always get left behind?) or cool new markers. Rating: 4.5/5


Parental Involvement: I think I've already said what I need to say here - this is the best I've seen so far for not only parental, but family involvement. Rating: 5/5


Total: 19 out of 20: five stars

Stack the States

Stack the States was created by Dan Russell-Pinson. It's a game that tries to teach the state capitals, shapes, locations, abbreviations, and "fun facts". I personally have pretty poor geographical knowledge as I transferred grade schools and somehow missed when they taught geography at both schools (which says something about our geography standards/curriculum). Let's see how I did... Price: $0.99, Lite version: Free

Device requirements: iPhone, iPad; Requires iOS 3.0 or later

Developmental Appropriateness: I did better than I thought I would! So I think this would be fun for a 2nd or 3rd grader who is already starting to learn some of these facts at school or at home. The game is kinda like a trivia game - for every question you get right, you get a state to stack. The goal it to stack the states past the goal line. If you get it wrong, the correct state will identity itself (i.e. "I am Alaska, my abbreviation is AK." At the end of each round, it tells you your percent/total correct. It would be useful to present more of a review so that kids and parents can go over and remember the ones they got wrong (or right too) - just for more reinforcement.

Overall though, this game does a good job of reinforcing the facts. First, the stacking itself actually requires some skill, as it really does take into account the size and shape of the states to determine if the states will balance on top of each other. So you're really hoping for large states like Alaska or those nice rectangular ones in the midwest. Getting questions right about those tiny states like Rhode Island gets you nowhere. So even when just stacking the states, it's making you notice the shape. When you reach the goal line, you're awarded a state and the goal of course is to collect all of them. As you collect them, you also unlock a total of three games. These games assess the fluency of your knowledge, reinforcing the facts in a different way. They are timed games that require you to recognize the state, it's location, or know the capitals. These are nice "rewards" as they are both fun and still highly relevant to geography. The latter two games can get a bit difficult - it would be nice to see some prompting or hints - I ended up just guessing or trial and error sometimes, which is not what you want kids to be doing if they are to learn these facts. The combination of the main game with the little rewards games is a good way to get kids to really learn these facts. The main game is teaching them the facts and the little games are getting the facts to stick.

For kids who have not really started learning any of these facts, this game may not be for them or may take awhile for them to warm up to it. There is a mode where you can go through little fact cards about each state. I guess the idea is to "study" them so that you can play the game. This really does seem like homework, and not like a game. And at least on my iPhone, the font of these little fact cards (and also a bit throughout the game) can be small.

Also, the controls for stacking the states may be a little tricky at first as you can rotate and move each state.

Rating: 4/5 (aim for around 7 or 8 years of age).

Balance: There are a few nice "extra" features that don't seem to be distracting. First, there's a changing background picture of a real landmark. It would be nice if they labeled what the landmark was. For younger kids, the pictures may distract a tiny bit or maybe make it harder to read the questions, but since this is aimed for slightly older kids, it shouldn't really be a problem. Then the states have faces with moving eyes and they show basic emotion for when they are falling over or successfully being stacked. A nice touch of humor and kids tend to like faces. I was even entertained by the sound effects. Rating: 4.5/5


Sustainability: I spent a looooong time playing this in order to unlock all the games. But perhaps that was due to my poor geography and stacking skills. Nonetheless, based on how much time I spent on this, I'd say that yes, this is an app that could lead to many sessions of play. There are a few incentives - the collecting of states, unlocking the little games, and the little games keep track of your best time. I'd also like to see it keep track of the progress on the main game, to see if there's improvement or what's the highest stack. A minor point is that I did get frustrated when I got the answer right, but my adding the state made my stack fall over and I had to start building all over again. It made me want to stop playing, but that's kinda part of the game, I guess - maybe you or your child is more patient than I am. Rating: 4.5/5


Parental Involvement: I can picture a family traveling in a car, especially on a road trip, and playing this together. The questions can be read aloud for all to play. And it would be neat when questions came up about the states they were driving through. Although this particular scenario may not happen all the time, "traveling" and "in a car" are top reasons/places for when parents say that their kids play with apps. The little games are probably just one-player type games. Rating 4/5


Total: 17 out of 20 = 4 stars