Kumon Uppercase ABC's was created by Kumon Publishing North America, Inc. Kumon is one of the largest after school math and reading enrichment programs. So they should know what they are doing when designing an educational app, right? Price: $3.99
Device Requirements: Compatible with the iPad. Rquires iOS 3.2 or later.
Developmental Appropriateness: In the last post, we talked about the beginning steps to learning the alphabet. This app moves us a few steps further in the process - recognizing letter-sounds and learning how to write uppercase letters. In the letter-sounds activity, you are presented with three letters and asked to pick the one that makes the target letter-sound. It is very clear and it has a nice repeating of the letter and letter-sound. In the tracing activity, there are three steps to tracing each letter. First, it shows you the direction of order of each line/movement. Then you have to do it again, with just the direction, but no ordering, and finally, neither direction nor order is given. This is a nice progression to make sure you know how to write each letter. It's a little finicky - as you MUST stay within the outline for it to be correct. However, at the same time, if you draw a zig-zag or squiggly line instead of a straight one, but in the right direction and stay within the lines, it still counts as correct. So maybe some finessing of the program is needed. You can choose to do the letters in order, in random order, or in "Kumon" order. The Kumon order puts it in what they felt are easier letters to write (i.e. "L") to harder letters (i.e. "S"). While the ordering may be true, I'm not sure if it's the best order for kids. As I mentioned in the last post, kids do not learn the individual letters sequentially, but rather by what they are familiar with, such as the first letter of their name or objects or words they see regularly. Thus, the order in which kids learn the alphabet is specific to that kid's surroundings and experiences. Wouldn't it be best to also learn to write the letters in the order that they learn the letters? Finally, at the completion of each letter, you are presented a picture that links to that letter ("A" for Ant). This is a good way to link further enforce the letter to letter-sound, but it never actually says, "A if for Ant" or in anyway highlight the letter A. Rating: 4/5 (aim for around 4 years)
Balance: The app is pretty simple. The pictures in the tracing part are even in black and white. Some you can move and some don't. I'd make this consistent. Also, in the letter-sound game, it would be nice to provide the sounds of the incorrect answers so we can hear the contrast. Otherwise, it's a very focused educational app. Rating: 4/5
Sustainability: There are basically no incentives here - it's a drill of these skills. You get a "certificate" that will be emailed to you with your child's name on it when he or she completes all 26 letters. There's no instant gratification for the child, and I'm not sure how many parents will follow through with printing out the certificate. A frustrating aspect is that it does not retain your progress. So you have to start over every time. In the tracing game, you cannot pick and choose what letters to trace, you only have the option of the three orders. This may be an app to do when you have more time, rather than a quick "while waiting in the car" app so that the child can get through all the letters and not just keep doing the same ones in the beginning - in which case will be boring. I guess you can choose the random ordering, but that still doesn't ensure that all the letters get covered. Rating: 2/5
Parental Involvement: Parents can watch over, but this is essentially a one player app. It would be nice for parents to know what letters their child struggled more with - maybe have some record of which ones took more attempts or more time to complete on the tracing or which letter-sounds they did not get on the first try. This way, parents can stay more involved and know where their child needs more help. Rating: 3/5
Total: 13 out of 20: 3 stars
Disclosure: I received this app for review for free from the developers.
Alphatots was created by Spinlight Studio and is designed to teach your little ones the alphabet by capitalizing on what digital media has to offer. When reviewing apps, I always ask, "Could I have done this same activity with traditional materials (i.e. books, flashcards, etc.)?" I look for apps that show me why I should spend my money on it instead of using what I may already have or buying the traditional version. Alphatots does so. Price: $0.99
Device Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later. Android: Requires 2.2 and up.
Developmental Appropriateness: The alphabet takes years for children to fully understand. At first children learn the sequence, usually through the alphabet song. Next, they start to learn the individual letters, but not in sequential order. They tend to learn letters that are linked to say their own first name or something they know, such as "K" for "Katie" or I think the most commonly seen in books is "A" for "Apple." This app presents both the alphabet song and each letter linked to a common word. Where this app differs from your typical alphabet book or activity is that the words they link to are verbs, adverbs, or adjectives like "quiet" or "grow" - words that are harder to demonstrate in static form. For each letter, children have to complete an interactive activity that demonstrates the linked word. There is also a voiceover that provides a bit of reinforcement with some humor. This app is great for young kids just learning the alphabet because it combines both a traditional and effective way to present the letters and also demonstrates how technology can help enhance that experience.
The app falls just a little short in a few places. First, although on the main screen, you can switch the letters from uppercase to lowercase, within each activity, both are present. The words only use the lowercase, and the uppercase letter is right next to the word. Children learn the upper case first. So the presentation of the word in the corner may be a little confusing to the younger kids and could in general be more prominent on the screen. Maybe present the word twice, with both upper- and lower-case?Second, the voice over could repeat and further reinforce the letter to word linkage so that the child does not shift his or her focus completely over to the interactive element. It's only said once for each activity. It should at least also be repeated at the completion of the activity. Or even show the letter and word again, emphasizing the first letter. Finally, some of the activities may be hard for the younger children. Rating: 4/5 (aim for around 3 years).
Balance: The overall presentation is very clean. Again, I would add in more repetition and emphasis of the letter and word so that the kids don't forget about them as they engage in the activities. Also, some activities present a tool to use (i.e. with "grow" you would tap on the shovel and drag it to start digging) while other activities just require you to use your finger (i.e. to cut the strings on balloons, you would just drag your finger through the string - no scissors or tools are shown). This may be a little confusing for kids to know what to do at first. Rating: 4/5
Sustainability: The activities are fun and not only help with letter knowledge by vocabulary as well. You can go through them in sequence or select individual letters. Kids will probably pick favorites based on the letters they like (like ones related to their name) and activity. It would be great if there were different rounds with different words and activities. Having a library of words would be something an app could do that a more traditional format could not. Rating: 4/5
Parental Involvement: Parents should repeat and elaborate the letter linkage and meanings of the words so that it reinforces the purpose of each activity. Given the young age of the target age here, this is should be an activity to do together, so this is a nice and interesting change from a typical letter book or flashcards. Rating: 4/5
Total: 16 out of 20: 4 stars
Disclosure: I received this app for review for free from the developers.
Sparky the Shark: A Frighteningly Funny Adventure was created by Biscuit Interactive. It's an original story about being yourself. Price: $3.99
Device Requirements: Compatible with iPad.Requires iOS 3.2 or later
Developmental Appropriateness: The story is very cute and the illustrations are attractive. It uses many story telling devices that are appropriate and engaging to young kids such as humor, a bit of repetition in terms of rhythm of the story, and character development. Given the social pressures kids face in school and the recent attention to issues like bullying, this story is timely. I do wish that someone at the end apologized for being so scared and judging based on appearance so that kids can hear about not just accepting themselves, but not to judge others as well.
As for the "e-book" aspects, the story can be read to you or by you and there are some lightly animated hotspots on each page. The text does not highlight and appears at the very bottom of each page - I guess so you focus on the pictures. I don't know if it was my device (used it on an older iPhone) or what, but I found it to be highly glitchy which affected my overall experience. But it doesn't seem like I'm the only one - I saw some other reviews that cited glitchy usage. First, the narration does not work very well. It got very choppy. Next, I kept being taken back to the previous page even though I was tapping no where near the back arrow icon. Finally, just overall, it seemed to be very freezy. I actually had to watch the demo video to make sure I didn't miss anything. While most of these issues can be fixed, I do suggest adding in some features to highlight the text as well as illustrations.
** The developers will be releasing an updated version where the device requirements will be with later versions of iOS. The update will resolve the glitches I mentioned. The current version should work fine with later versions of iOS.
Finally, there is a game that you can access outside of the book reading that allows you to dress up Sharky and then take a picture of your creation. This is a great, appropriate addition that is actually relevant tot he story.Rating: 3.5/5 (aim for around 6 years)
Balance: While I applaud the developers for not going crazy with irrelevant hotspots, and keeping them pretty simple, it seems like many of these hotspots should just be automatic light animation to the page rather than "hidden hotspots." Many of them are just simple motions like Sharky nodding his head or the boat gently rocking that don't seem to be very exciting as hotspots. Also, many of them just repeat through the pages. If you're gonna use hotspots, make them count. Also, why do so many developers make them "hidden?" Do hidden hotspots really make it that much more fun than obvious hotspots (I don't know of any actual research on this)? Seems like the fun is in what the hotspots actually do rather than in finding where they are (unless finding them is part of the plot). I would rather kids focus on the story than on trying to find every single hotspot. Rating: 3/5
Sustainability: A good story is worth reading again. I am no literary expert, but I like this story. And the disguise game is fun - it would be cool be able to use what is created in the game in the story, just as an added incentive to go back tot he story. Rating: 5/5
Parental Involvement: This seems like a story parents would enjoy reading with their child. The message is clear, but still gives room for parents to elaborate on the meaning. Parents should be present to help keep their child focused on the text/story through the hidden hotspots and possible glitches. Rating 4/5
Grimm's Rapunzel ~3-D Interactive Pop-up Book was created by Ideal Binary and is a modern twist of an old tale. For those of you who know me or know about my research, you'll know that I've done many studies with pop-up books. I actually just received the proof for an article on the very first study I ever did in graduate school which showed that young kids do not learn as well from pop-up books as they do from regular 2D books. After a few rejections over many years, the article should appear in the Journal of Early Childhood Literacy in the coming months. Yay! So in honor of my first study, I wanted to review a pop-up app! Price: $3.99
Device Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later
Developmental Appropriateness: You might be wondering how an e-book is pop-up on a 2D screen. Well, every other page or few pages, there's a 3D picture that looks like when you open up one of those fancy pop-up books. However, there are no tabs to pull or fuzzy textures to feel in the traditional pop-up kinda way. Instead, these pictures have simple interactive elements that are driven by the plot. So you can "grow" the flowers that Rapunzel's mother loved so much or pick up the music sheets Rapunzel's dropped from her tower. So do these elements distract kids from attending to the story as I found in my study? I actually don't think it will. First, the interactive elements mostly aren't frivolous and are more realistic. For example, to water the flowers, you would actually tap on the watering can and move it all over the soil as you would when watering plants. However, in a traditional pop-up book, you would not be able to do this. You might pull a tab that springs up the flowers. The action of pulling the tab has nothing to do with growing flowers. Second, the 3D pictures are totally separate from the text. So when the story is being read, either by the voice over or by a parent/adult, there is nothing to interact with on these text pages. Listen to the plot, then do an activity related to the plot, go read more plot. I like this. However, at the same time, it seems like two separate things - the text is for the parent, the activities for the children. The text itself is too advanced for a young reader, so someone needs to read it to them. There is also a lot of text on each page, with minimal pictures. The text does not highlight, so there is nothing for the child to follow. There are some words that are in a different color, but I'm not sure how they picked those words - they seem to have a wide range in difficulty, and it doesn't seem like they are sight words, or come from any reading list. Are they even meant to be vocabulary words? Or is the color there just to break up the text a bit? Also, they choose to have the text justified on both sides, leaving some weird spaces that they filled with random little icons. To little kids who can't read and are looking at a two-page spread with barely any pictures, I have a feeling they'll be looking at these little random icons rather than the text. Seems like the focus was the 3D pictures. Even in the demo video, you'll see that much of it is spent showing you the 3D pictures and not the "normal" pages. Rating: 4/5 (aim for around 4 years of age).
Balance: As I've mentioned, I like that the interactive elements are separate from the text. However, I'd like to see more emphasis on the text pages. Adding highlight, or at least make the text bigger so kids can follow along more easily. If the highlighted words were highlighted for a reason, some sort of explanation should be given. And get rid of those random things. Find better ways to break up the text that are useful. Rating: 4/5
Sustainability: The story of Rapunzel has lived for many years, so in general, this should be a story kids still want to come back to. The 3D pictures are cool, even if the interactive features get repetitive after many readings. Rating: 4/5
Parental Involvement: The book lends itself to being a joint reading activity. The story is a familiar one for young kids, but it needs to be read to them. The 3D interactive parts are good opportunities to elaborate on the plot or relate elements back to real life. It's a fun activity to do together, but for parents looking to encourage their child to read, they will need to put more effort into guiding their child with the text. Rating: 4/5
Freddy Fish and the Stolen Shell is a game from Atari. Many of you may recognize Freddy Fish and even this particular story as this is a "reboot" of a series from the 90's from Humongous Entertainment. Let me first say that this app is not marketed as an "educational" app on iTunes, but it does on the press release say that it helps critical thinking, problem solving, and memory. After my post on how to define an educational app, I've had a couple of conversations about skills that are important, but may not be as explicitly taught - like critical thinking. I think most will agree that critical thinking is something important that kids have to learn to do well, particularly for standardized tests and college entrance exams - the new SAT no longer has a "Verbal" section, but rather a "Critical Thinking" section. But, at the same time, it's not like there is critical thinking class like there is math class. When I think of how to measure critical thinking, I think of the horrible passages you have to read, like in the SAT, and then answer endless questions by inferring/deducing/interpreting from the passage. But how do we measure and teach critical thinking to beginning readers? Do games like Freddy Fish really help teach critical thinking skills? Price: $2.99
Device Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.Requires iOS 3.0 or later
Developmental Appropriateness: I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed playing this game, and I think elementary school kids will too. It does actually require critical thinking skills, some parts more than others, and maybe I need to improve mine as I feel like it took me a long time to solve the mystery! Overall, it's pretty intuitive to navigate. Getting Freddy to use a found object can be a little tricky though so maybe Freddy could give some more directions on that. Some parts are less obvious than others, and some tasks are harder than others. So there seems to be a bit of a range. While Freddy Fish does provide some critical thinking prompts and clues, they are usually as secondary conversation (i.e. you have to click on the Freddy a few times). It would be nice if Freddy reinforced the critical thinking more. For example, after solving a specific problem, Freddy could say, that's right, if you did (blank), it would (blank)! This way, even if you by chance stumbled upon the answer, you would think about what just happened. Making strategies and thought processes explicit helps the learning process. There's also a lot of other implicit lessons that range from bullying to music and a touch of math spread throughout the story. While I like that this is not marketed as educational, I think it is safe to label this as "edutainment." Kids will have fun and in the process, maybe pick up a few things. Rating: 4/5 (aim for around 8 years)
Balance: There's a lot to click on in the game, but it is after all a game. Part of it is as distractors for finding needed objects. But even so, I could do with a few less just for fun hotspots. There are also screens that don't really forward the plot very much, but that may just be because you can go through the same mystery with different clues and so sometimes some screens are more useful than others. Rating: 4/5
Sustainability:Since you can go back and resolve the mystery with different clues and different outcomes, this game gets an A+ for sustainability. It will be easier to solve the more you do it, but the characters and humor in the game make it worth going back. There are also games that could be pretty independent of the plot that you can play repeatedly. One being the organ where you can record your own songs.Rating 5/5
Parental Involvement: This is for the most part a one-player game and it's almost like watching a mini-tv show with interactive parts. Parents can watch along and help in terms of usability and reinforcing the critical thinking skills. Parents may even be surprised if their child solves something before they do, so it might be a fun activity to do together. But given the older target age, kids may want to solve the mystery on their own. Rating: 3.5/5
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 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
