Creative Genius On-The-Go!

Creative Genius On-the Go! was created by Jr Imagination. It's a set of cards that have "What if's," "Imagine That!" scenarios and "Wack-tivities" that let kids' and families' imaginations run wild. Price: $0.99

Device Requirements:  Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.1 or later.

Developmental Appropriateness: This is a fun game - who hasn't come up with crazy scenarios to pass the time on a road trip or something? But I never really thought of it as "educational" or as "creative thinking." But I guess it is! There's a nice explanation of skills included in the app, and it's kinda convinced me. BUT - of course the extent of learning/thinking depends on the players. You can get really into it and think of all these possibilities, but if you're not into it, this doesn't really inspire you to get into it. It's really just basically a bunch of cards with the scenarios and some possible discussion questions. There's no sound/narration either, so this is really meant for parents to play with their kids, at least the younger kids. Rating: 4/5 (aim for around 8)

Balance: So this is where I ask the question again, is this better as an app? I actually owned board games similar to "what ifs" and "imagine that", but they both had more of a game element to them. This app doesn't capture that game feel. It's just more of a launching pad for conversation. There aren't really any features that capitalize on the affordances of the device. You can take notes or save a specific card as a favorite - but that's really it. What about being about to draw or incorporating videos - make the scenarios come alive. Rating: 2/5

Sustainability: So, really, I don't need this app to play this game. These are scenarios that people have come up with on their own, or heard about from another person or game. Also, once you've read the scenarios here, you can just remember them and not need the app. What is here that makes me come back to this app? Rating: 2/5

Parental Involvement: This is a nice group game. There's a setting to make it show only scenarios for a specific number of people. The discussion questions are also good to help someone lead the conversation. Rating: 5/5

Total: 13 out of 20 = 3 stars

Classical Kids

Classical Kids was created by The Children's Group. It's a series of stories that mixes music, history, and storytelling. There's actually a students edition that initial comes free but you have to purchase each story and a teachers edition that comes with all the stories and also notes for teachers on how to incorporate the stories into their lessons. Price: The in-app story purchases are $3.99 each and the complete teachers edition is $49.99.

Device Requirements: Compatible with iPad. Requires iOS 4.3 or later.

Developmental Appropriateness: In this day and age, learning about Mozart and Bach is kinda lost in our curricula. Music classes in elementary school where kids learn to play instruments are hard to come by, so learning about great composers and their life stories is practically non-existent. So Classical Kids is a great idea that can help fill a void in our education system. The original stories were written in 1988 and have sold well as recordings. The question here is, does it work better as an app? I'm afraid my answer is no. It's not that the stories aren't appropriate or that it's worse than the recordings - its just not any better. It does not take advantage of the affordances of a tablet and its interactivity. Each story is about 45 minutes and kids listen to it like a track while looking at static pictures that don't really tell a story on it's own. That's it. There's no text to follow, interactive elements relevant to the plot, animation, nothing. Again, that's fine - but when you consider the length, I'm not sure this will hold a child's attention. If you think about it, most kids' shows are around 20 minutes plus commercials, or if they are longer shows, they are broken up into many independent segments. Yes, the stories here are broken into mini tracks, but the story from beginning to end is pretty long. I think in it's original conception - kids listen, teachers ask questions - it works fine. It's just that the app version doesn't go beyond that. There was great potential to add a great visual elements and interactivity - especially since classical music probably isn't the most popular topic among children. The pictures here aren't the best. The kids look way older than their age and other things just don't match like Bach's wife died at the age of 35, but the picture shows an old woman with gray hair. Details matter, especially when there's nothing else to do but look at the pics! I'm glad to see that they've switched up the pricing a bit, cause otherwise, it may have been better to just stick with the original recordings. Rating: 3.5/5 (aim for around 8 years).

Balance: There were some attempts made to incorporate some extra features. But those too fall short. First, there's a quiz, but it's really like a fill in the blank worksheet meant for teachers to print out. Kids cannot actually fill in the answers on the device. There's a metronome, but no instrument to play. There's a recording, but again, not music to make. Yes, obviously, it's meant to be used in class with real instruments. But why not both? What's the point of putting it on an iPad then? Rating: 2/5

Sustainability: I would love to see kids more interested in composers. Does this app make that happen? I'm not sure. The stories themselves are nice - they are told in a very conversational way and make a great audio book (which honestly, is what I basically ended up using it as) - but I'm reviewing this as an app, not as the original audiobook. I think kids now have a certain expectation for an app and the iPad. And this does not fulfill it. Unless kids have been assigned to listen to the story as homework, I don't see kids returning to this one on their own, given their other app options. Rating: 2/5

Parental Involvement: The teacher notes is great. It breaks each story down and gives plenty of discussion questions. However, it only comes with the teacher's edition, which is quite pricey. Improvements to the quiz section would also make this better for parents, especially those who may not have the time to carry out a "lesson." Rating: 4/5

Total: 11.5 out of 20 = 2 stars

Disclosure: I received this app for free for review purposes.

Hot Dots Jr.

Hot Dots Jr. was created by Educational Insights and aims to teach kids colors, letters, shapes, numbers, and patterns. It includes Ace the Talking, Teaching Dog. I like the idea of have a virtual "teacher" so let's see if Ace delivers. Price: $0.99

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

Developmental Requirements: In general, the activities assess appropriate skills for preschoolers and kindergartners. The app basically just takes kids through rounds of multiple-choice questions like, "Match the uppercase and lowercase letters" or "Which completes the sequence?" (By the way, using the words completes the sequence is too hard! Many little kids do not know the word sequence or even pattern. Many assessments use the phrase, "What comes next?" instead.) The difficulty in each round ranges, especially with letters, but there's no setting to select specific tasks. Some will be too easy and some will be too hard, but it goes fast enough where it's maybe ok. But it would be nice if parents and kids could select specific tasks to work on, or at least instead of a total score, it actually broke down scores by task. The activities remind me of actual assessments, but with less information.

Where I've set myself up for disappointment is with this whole Ace the Talking, Teaching Dog. To me, that means that Ace provides good instruction and feedback to help kids understand their answers - correct or incorrect. However, Ace does not offer anymore feedback than most apps, giving approval when correct, and maybe a bark when wrong. A "bow wow" tells me nothing. Rating: 3/5 (aim for around 4 years).

Balance: The tasks are very straightforward. The voiceover is clear and repeats the question. Sometimes, especially in the case of "which completes the sequence," kids who are unfamiliar with the tasks may need the prompt repeated, but also rephrased. Rating: 4/5

Sustainability: There doesn't seem to be a goal here, you get a score at the end of each round, but nothing else to really keep kids going, unless they just like answering questions. Rating: 3/5

Parental Involvement: Given the structure of the tasks, this is where I think it needs the most improvement. While its good to just have kids practice, there also needs to be instruction involved for them to improve and there is none within the tasks themselves. So what it needs is to provide parents with the knowledge of what and how to help their kids. Rating: 3/5

Total: 13 out of 20 - 3 stars

Disclosure - I received this app for free for review purposes

Yum Num's Galaxy

Yum Num's Galaxy was created by GoodHustle Studios, Inc. and is all about Captain Yum Num trying to save the galaxy with good food because the grim future holds only a galaxy where fast food is available. And of course, Captain Yum Num is a cat! Price: $0.99

Device Requirements: Compatible with iPad.Requires iOS 4.2 or later.

Developmental Appropriateness: First off, I'd like to say that as an adult, I found this app hilarious - in a fun way. It's got this 70's music, arcade game vibe. Not sure if kids would get that, but parents can enjoy a laugh. But let's not get too silly, cause we're on a serious mission here! It's Captain Yum Num's against the fast food industry! He has to first figure out what food he needs to make, then fly around finding the correct ingredients. Kids can learn what goes into "Ants on a Log" or Mac n'cheese. The actual recipes are also provided in a separate section. The whole premise, while funny - there's lots of little touches you'll have to see for yourself - can get a little slow and repetitive as Captain Yum Nums just cycles through the whole process with each dish. There's more watching Captain Yum Num's go from scene to scene than doing. My biggest concern is that the premise sets this up to be an app that teaches about nutrition and eating healthy. While many of the recipes are seemingly "lite" versions - like the pizza is made with tortillas (but still with 20 slices of pepperoni!) or the mac n' cheese uses skim milk, there's only a couple of vegetable and or fruit focused dishes. The dishes are more typical kid favorites rather than dishes with a nutritional focus. I wish this also provided some direct, kid-friendly information about eating healthy. Rating: 3.5/5 (aim for around 5)


Balance: The whole look is very stylized in an old arcade way. There are lots of scene changes though, which could just be lost on a younger kid. Television research has shown that the formatting, including scene changes, fade effects, etc. really does effect learning and attention. Rating: 3.5/5

Sustainability: While I know kids can laugh at the same thing over and over again, I think overall, this is fun at first, but gets repetitive - there's no different levels or challenges. There's a small goal of feeding the aliens, but it's easily accomplished and the goal stays the same.  Rating: 3/5

Parental Involvement: There are recipes available, which I guess in some kinda indirect way means parents should get involved and make those foods! Parents should take this opportunity to talk about nutrition and kids likes and dislikes. Rating: 3.5/5

Total: 13.5 out of 20 = 3 stars

Disclosure: I received this app for free for review purposes.

Learning Games for Preschool to Kindergarten

Learning Games for Preschool to Kindergarten was created by Agnitus and includes a variety of basic learning games tapping into color, numbers, letters, shapes, memory, and sorting. Seems to cover a lot and for free! Price: Free

Device Requirements: Compatible with iPad.Requires iOS 5.0 or later.

Developmental Appropriateness: I think the most important thing for an app that aims to cover an age range, especially 2-5 is progression. So much happens in these years that it really take a lot of consideration to design an app that adequately addresses the needs of kids at each age. While the games here do progress in difficulty, it does so very gradually. Overall, it's more fit for kids at the younger spectrum. It starts off with a lot of matching - even for colors and letters where it's not really recognition, but just matching, which does not do much for me. While it gradually takes away some of the cues to make it more of a recognition task, I still think these games are too easy for the older spectrum. Most kindergartens know their colors, letters, and numbers (which does not go up very high). Also, there is no setting, so a 5 year-old would have to go through over 200 rounds to get to their skill level. Trust me, I went through that many activities! I will say that the activities are cute and fast-paced though. But overall, I think this app is in desperate need of a difficulty setting, a progression that's more adaptive to each child's performance and more challenging levels. Rating: 3/5 (aim for 3 years).

Balance: The features are cute yet not distracting and offer basic feedback for correct and incorrect. It could go further in probably more instructional feedback. One annoying thing I will point out that I hope is a glitch is on the search game, if you are stuck, it continuously says, "One more..." over and over. Shush and let me concentrate! Rating: 4/5

Sustainability: While the game offers a bonus sticker world and a shower game (not sure how engaging this one is), the very slow progression could still get very boring. Rating: 3.5/5

Parental Involvement: There's a nice "report card" for parents that shows the skills covered, total time, age progression and some overall progress. It also shows what curriculum themes have been covered, but the app itself does not address all the themes shown. Parents can share their child's progress on facebook. This is a nice start to getting parents involved. Rating: 4/5

Total: 14.5 out of 20: 3 stars.

Disclosure: I received this app for free for review purposes.

Butterfly HD

A couple months ago, I reviewed Plants HD  by Sprout Labs which aimed to teach kids all about the plant life cycle. While I saw lots of potential, with it, it ended up with 3 stars, with room for improvement. When I notified the developers of the review, they told me they had a new app, Butterfly HD that had already incorporated some of my suggestions. Given the big push to translate textbooks into the digital world, I definitely wanted to see what the improvements meant for the app.  Price: $1.99

Device Requirements: Compatible with iPad.Requires iOS 5.0 or later.

The main improvements that are included in Butterfly HD are:

a. Added videos on each topic to enhance the learning 

b. Added additional large size HD photos to reinforce the text

c. Made all the Questions related to the topic covered in the text

Since the features of both Plant HD and Butterfly HD are pretty similar, I'm going to include my comments from Plant HD and compare the differences. The new comments will be in blue.

Developmental Appropriateness: 

PLANT: Overall, I think Plants HD provides a lot of great information (total flashback to science class for me!). For each stage of the cycle, it provides a lot of text (which can be read aloud), some fun facts, some photos, and a quiz. The "play" part is arranging all the stages in the correct order. Actually, before I move on, here's what the main page looks like: 

My first instinct, and I think any kid's, would be to hit play. But play just means that all the pictures drop down to the bottom and you're to assume that you have to put them back in order. While I think that this is a good activity, it should come after kids have learned all about the stages and should be presented separately, or at least not as the first thing and without any instruction. So points off here for usability.


BUTTERFLY: As you can see, the main page is still the same, so same issue here.

PLANT: So back to the content...

So, yes, lots of info - but I don't think it really capitalizes on what it could offer. You can see that there's a lot of text (it keeps scrolling down too!). It'd be sooo much better if it could show a video or a series of pictures that go with the text. There are a lot of new vocabulary here for them, so that really needs to be highlighted somehow. The photos that are provided are usually just examples of whatever stage generally, and don't go along with the text. Given the amount of text, it's important to have some visual that keeps kids engaged in it. Instead, they could just be flipping through the photos or the fun facts at the bottom and not listen to or read the actual text. Up top, you can choose to take the quiz - but not all the information you need to answer the questions are provided in the text. You earn coins, but no scores are kept, and nothing to review for teachers/parents. Rating: 3/5 (aim for around 8 years)

BUTTERFLY: Butterfly now includes more pictures and also videos. You see in the picture here that you would tap on the icons on top to see the media. More here is nice, but more does not necessarily mean better. I think that my comment that it needs to be related to the text still stands. The pictures and videos seem to be just a collection from youtube or whereever - while related to the topic, it doesn't connect the information from the text to the information from the video and pictures. It's that connection that makes the difference. That being said, the pluses are that the videos do add some engagement factor and also the quiz now relates to the text and gives you a total score at the end. Rating: 4/5 (aim for around 8)
Balance:
PLANT:  As mentioned, I think kids could easily not pay attention to the text. I'm not saying that there's too much going on - I like the photos and I like the fun facts. But maybe something could be done about how they access these other sections and what can be added to keep focus on the text and to reinforce their understanding of it. Rating: 3.5/5

BUTTERFLY: Again - I think this is still true. The text still feels very separate from the pictures and videos. Rating: 3.5/5

Sustainability: 

PLANT: I guess I need to view this a little differently as I can see this being used in the classroom as a supplement to the lesson. Still, I think the addition of videos and making the text more engaging would make this app go from oh, something a teacher is making me look at that is more interesting than a text book to something kids really want to use and even ask for. Rating: 4/5

BUTTERFLY: Yes, there's the addition of videos, so that should add a bit of oomph. But again, I'm sounding like a broken record, that it still feels disconnected, so while kids may want to go to the videos, the text is really where the info is at. Rating: 4.5/5

Parental Involvement: 

PLANT: Again, the quiz feature is nice, but there's no review of it, not even a saved score. And, maybe if there were definitions section or vocal highlighted in the text, teachers could more easily relate it back to their lessons. Basically, although I can see this in the classroom (or at home with parents guiding the way), I don't feel like it was designed with that in mind. Rating: 3/5

BUTTERFLY: And addition I didn't mention is that there's an icon that leads to a breakdown of how the app content relates to curriculum standards. This is nice, but a bit hard to read for someone not used to looking at standards. A more friendly version - especially aimed at parents rather than educators would be nice. Rating: 3.5/5

Total: 15.5 out of 20 - 3 stars. The improvements bumped it up from an ok 3 stars to a high 3 stars.

Alphabet Jumbled

Alphabet Jumbled was created by Pixel Interactive and focuses on some early alphabet learning. It's got 5 different activities - two are fairly standard introducing the alphabet and some flashcards. The other three are all about the sequencing of the alphabet with a "jumble" concept - sounds like something new? Price: $1.99

Device Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation) and iPad.Requires iOS 4.0 or later.

Developmental Appropriateness: So the first two, more standard, activities are nice - they are just that - pretty standard. The first just labels the letters and letter-sounds. The second shows flashcards of the letter linked with an object. The last three are all about sequencing and putting all the letters in order. Some with just a chunk of letters, some with all the letters, some timed, some not timed. So "jumble" not in the word game jumble sense, just in a mixed around kinda sense. They are kinda fun and maybe a breath of fresh air from more standard early alphabet games. My question is, just how important is the sequence of the alphabet? Yes, it's important. The alphabet song is one of the most well-known children's songs (in the US at least). Virtually all American kids learn it, and it sticks. It's a simple and fun way to teach the sequencing of the alphabet, which helps build literacy skills. But knowing the sequence of letters is not the same or maybe not as important as knowing the sequence of numbers. That has more meaning - 1 is less than 2 is less than 3. But A has no different value than B than C. So why focus most of an app on the sequence of letters? Especially when the alphabet song is already a pretty effective and popular method. The goal of learning the alphabet is to learn to read - which is learning the combination of letters that form words, not the sequence of the alphabet. Rating: 3/5 (aim for around 3 years)


Balance: In most cases, the letters are filled in with a background like polka dots. While this makes the letters look cute, it may actually be distracting kids from recognizing the letters. Remember, young kids have a hard time seeing two things at once. So they may just focus on the colorful patterns instead of the letter. And with the flashcards, the letter appears with the colorful background in the corner, but then in plain print within the word - I'd highlight the letter correspondence here more as they can look pretty different - at least to little kids. Rating: 3/5

Sustainability - It's a cute looking app, and kids might enjoy the game element of the jumble activities. It  doesn't save your times though. Rating: 4/5

Parent Involvement: There's not much to do for parents here... Rating: 3/5 


Total: 13 out of 20 - 3 stars

Disclosure: I received this app for free for review purposes.