Tag: Educational »

JumpStart has released World of Madagascar, an adventure game based on the DreamWorks' film, "Penguins of Madagascar."

It is now Summer, what a wonderful time, so I bring you news, that will mostly rhyme.

Oceanhouse Media want kids to read, whilst home this season, so thus there's a sale, if you needed a reason. Over twenty apps, now cheaper to get, most down a dollar, others further yet. They're about science concepts, aimed at ages five to eight, featuring the Cat in the Hat, which is pretty great. They'll teach your kids, whilst they rhyme, which is pretty impressive, doing both at the same time.

The list of apps can be found below, just in case you wanted to know:

Books

• A Great Day for Pup: All About Wild Animal Babies


• A Whale of a Tale!: All About Porpoises, Dolphins, and Whales


• Clam-I-Am!: All About  the Beach


• Fine Feathered Friends: All About Birds


• Hurray for Today!: All About Holidays


• I Can Name 50 Trees Today!: All About Trees


• Ice Is Nice!: All About the North and South Poles


• If I Ran the Horse Show: All About Horses


• If I Ran the Rainforest: All About Tropical Rain Forests


• Inside Your Outside : All About the Human Body


• Is a Camel a Mammal?: All About Mammals


• Miles and Miles of Reptiles: All About Reptiles


• My, Oh My-A Butterfly!: All About Butterflies


• Oh Say Can You Say Di-no-saur?: All About Dinosaurs


• Oh Say Can You Seed?: All About Flowering Plants


• Oh, the Pets You Can Get!: All About Our Animal Friends


• On Beyond Bugs: All About Insects


• There’s No Place Like Space!: All About Our Solar System


• There’s a Map on My Lap!: All About Maps


• Why Oh Why Are Deserts Dry?: All About Deserts


• Wish for a Fish: All About Sea Creatures

Collections

• Little Critter Collection #1


• Dr. Seuss Beginner Book Collection #1


• Berenstain Bears Collection #1


• Outside Your Door! Learning Library Collection

Learning is so much more rewarding when it's also fun. That's part of the reason why recent educational app, Grammar Pop HD, garnered such a positive review from us last week. The brainchild of Mignon Fogarty, otherwise known as Grammar Girl, we were lucky enough to have a chat with her to find out more on how the game, as well as the persona, came to be.

148Apps: What's the story behind Grammar Girl? What made you decide to embrace that title?
Mignon Fogarty (MF): When I was a science editor, I saw my clients making the same mistakes over and over again - little things, such as using "a" when they should use "an" or misusing commas. Podcasting was new at the time, and I decided to also do a quick, simpler writing show because I saw that there were so many people who needed writing help.

Much to my surprise, the Grammar Girl podcast took off right away and essentially took over my life. I worked like crazy for about six months trying to do both Grammar Girl and the science writing and editing, since that work paid my bills, and when I finally got my book deal with Macmillan and we formed the partnership to grow the Quick and Dirty Tips network, I was able to switch to Grammar Girl full time.

The name Grammar Girl just popped into my head and I knew it was perfect right away. I believe it works because of the alliteration and because "girl" is a nonthreatening word. People have a lot of anxiety about their writing, and a lot of the grammar advice out there is delivered in a high-brow or condescending way. Being Grammar Girl sends the message that I'm friendly and approachable.

148Apps: How did Grammar Pop come about? What was the inspiration for creating a game like this?
MF: After finishing my last book, I wanted to do something different. People were playing games on their tablets and phones - I was playing games on my tablet and phone - and it seemed obvious to me that there should be a game in which you match words with their parts of speech. In fact, I was incredulous when I looked for such a game and found that it didn’t exist.

So on a plane on my way to Macmillan for a different meeting, I sketched out the initial idea for how I thought the game might work. They wanted to do it, so we went about investigating ways to make it work. I ended up coding it myself with a tool called Game Salad and working with Margo Goody, an artist at Macmillan.

148Apps: How important do you think it is to make learning fun?
MF: Grammar Girl is all about making learning fun!

148Apps: What has the feedback from players been like?
MF: I get great feedback from parents and teachers who use Grammar Pop and say it has really helped their kids learn parts of speech. It's not a chore to get their kids to play it; the kids love it and learn parts of speech without even realizing they're learning.

148Apps: What's next for the Grammar Pop series of games? Are there any plans for new installments or updates?
MF: We came out with a special Winterfest edition for the holidays, and we're getting bids right now to expand the game with more levels.

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Thanks to Mignon Fogarty for taking the time to answer our questions. To find out more about Grammar Girl, check out the Quick and Dirty Tips website.

Grammar Pop is available now for iPhone and iPad.

(Image of Mignon Fogarty courtesy of Quick and Dirty Tips.com)

To celebrate March on Literacy, McGraw-Hill is offering its two Grammar Wonderland iPad apps - Grammar Wonderland (Primary) and Grammar Wonderland (Elementary) - for free for the entire month of March. Both apps are educational in nature, with the first aimed at kids in Grades 3-6, and the latter K-2.

Also, McGraw-Hill has pledged to donate $1.00 to the National Center for Families Learning for each Twitter user that follows it (McGraw-Hill) on Twitter @MHEducation.

PBS Kids recently ran a survey on parents and posted results that show that 54% of them plan on purchasing a tech item for their child this holiday season. And that number increases to 59% for the more tech-savvy parents ages 18-34. Tablets are listed as the hot item at the top of the list and they beat-out video game consoles 28% to 18%. The study of over 1,000 surveyed parents with kids between the ages of 2 and 10 also lists that 36% of parents plan to purchase either a tablet or smartphone.

The survey also shows that 77% of parents plan to purchase educational apps for their children as 90% of them stat that educational apps will play an important role in their child's education.

“There’s a vast and ever-growing population of young children who have ready access to mobile media and, as many parents recognize, that presents an important opportunity to utilize tablets and smartphones to advance children’s learning,” said Lesli Rotenberg, GM of Children’s Programming at PBS, in a press release. “It’s essential that parents think through what kind of apps, online games and video content they make available to their kids. This is one important reason why PBS KIDS has been so innovative in making sure our high-quality, research-based educational content is available across digital platforms to provide a deeper learning experience for today’s learners.”

Other Key PBS KIDS Parent Survey Findings
•Six in 10 parents collaborate with their child to select apps, while a third of parents say they make the choice themselves.
•When selecting games and apps for their children, over half of parents (56%) base their decisions on age recommendations.
•In addition to educational content, 56% of parents pointed to price and 45% cited characters their kids know and love as important factors when choosing apps.