Credos About Children, P. 2 Littleclickers

Transcript

Helping Teachers, Parents, and Librarians Find Interactive Media Since 1993 May 2016 Volume 24, No. 5, Issue 194 Credos About Children, p. 2 LittleClickers: Action Cams, p. 3 16 “Nice Touches” When Applying Technology to Language & Literacy, p. 4 The the cover: images from the well designed The Infinite Arcade by Tinybop, reviewed on page 9 Children’s Technology Review May 2016 Volume 24, No. 5, Issue 194 A Montessori Approach to Math, p. 5 And So To Bed - Educational Bedtime Routine App for Children, p. 5 Annie's Picking Apples 2: Learning Games, p. 5 Brainventures, p. 6 Captain McFinn's Swim & Play*, p. 6 Dr. Panda School*, p. 6 DYI Gamer Kit, p. 7 ExplorArt Klee - The Art of Paul Klee, for Kids*, p. 7 Find Adventure, Alfie Atkins, p. 7 Fisher-Price Soothing Motions Seat, p. 8 FurReal Friends Torch My Blazin' Dragon, p. 8 Iconia One 10, p. 8 Infinite Arcade, The by Tinybop*, p. 9 IQ Safari MATH, p. 9 Labo Paper Plate, p. 9 LightUp Edison Kit, p. 10 MarcoPolo Arctic, p. 10 Miaomiao’s Chinese New Year, p. 10 MLB The Show 16, p. 11 Monopoly Ultimate Banking, p. 11 Montessori Numbers: Learn to Count from 1 to 1000*, p. 12 Multiply With Me, p. 12 Night of the Living Debt, p. 13 NumberShapes Whiteboard*, p. 13 Quasi's Quest, p. 13 Sago Mini Robot Party*, p. 14 This is My Spacecraft - Rocket Science for Kids, p. 14 Time Drop - The Colorful Time Travel, p. 14 Veggie Bottoms Kitchen, p. 15 View-Master Virtual Reality Viewer 2.0, p. 15 * Denotes “Editor’s Choice.” Our 12,160th Review • $60/year • http://childrenstech.com • @childtech May 16 News and Trends in Children’s Techology Honor and Respect Children. Three Points of View. I recently stumbled upon three credos related to raising children that are worth noting, especially when thinking about how to best use technology in their day-to-day care. 1. The Early Childhood Educator Point of View “They need to be loved. They need to be spoken to, all the time. They need opportunities to explore. They need to be safe and to feel safe. They need stable figures in their lives. They need new experiences they enjoy.”  From childcare pioneer Bettye Caldwell, who died at age 91 on April 17th, in St. Louis. Caldwell was a former President of NAEYC. This quote was part of her New York Times obituary, online at http://nyti.ms/qGCaLc 2. A Publisher’s Point of View “To help children grow in basic skills and knowledge, in creativeness, in ability to think and reason, in sensitivity to others, in high ideals and worthy ways of living -for children are the world’s most important people.” By Garry and Caroline Myers, Founders of Highlights for Children, Inc. This quote is on display in the Myers’ rural Pennsylvania farmhouse. 3. The Parent’s Point of View "We expect and trust that our son will be in a safe, supportive, welcoming and positive learning environment. This is an environment that: • Lifts his self-esteem by building on his strengths by providing many appropriate successes. • Gives him a community of peers, and a chance for collaboration. • Is sensitive to our son's needs as a learner and a developing person. • Is free of inappropriate expectations, misguided judgements and unnecessary stumbling blocks. • In no way causes harm to our son's amazing spirit.” From a slide called "Honor and Respect Children" by Daren Carstens during the annual Dust or Magic Summit on Language and Literacy last week. Daren was asked by his son’s school to write an “expectations statement.” LittleClickers: Action Cams Want to jump out of an airplane or take a ride on an eagle’s back? Thanks to a new generation of cheap, rugged digital cameras, plus video sharing services (like YouTube), it’s easy to find some amazing views. See our links on page 3. A Rubric that Mixes General App Quality with Ethics In our April issue we introduced a new Quality Attribute (QA) to help you think about how ethical a particular interactive experience is, when it comes to selling or promoting commercial content. This is a big issue these days, as more and more publishers struggle to make money. This month, we’re putting that attribute inside our generic evaluation instrument. This is handy for considering the growing number of apps that have some sort of IAP (In-App Purchase). The rubric is called “Contains IAP.” Here’s the link:  http://reviews.childrenstech.com/ctr/flexrubric.php?id=&rubric=Contains+IAP Your Subscription is Your Key to Over 12,000 Archived Reviews Children’s Technology Review May 2016 Volume 21, No. 5, Issue 194 Editor Warren Buckleitner, Ph.D., ([email protected]) [WB] Editorial Coordinator & Circulation Manager Sarah McDougall [SOM] ([email protected]) LittleClickers Editor Megan Billitti Director of Publishing Matthew DiMatteo [MD] Bookkeeping Andrea Aronow ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTIONS are $60 for 12 monthly issues, 52 weekly issues plus online database access. Weekly issues are sent at 8:30 AM on Wednesdays EST. Site subscriptions are available. Contact Children’s Technology Review™, 120 Main Street, Flemington, NJ 08822 or call 800-993-9499. Visit www.childrenstech.com to learn more. PRODUCT SUBMISSIONS. Send one product or download code with release information to Sarah McDougall ([email protected]) Editorial Coordinator 120 Main Street, Flemington, NJ 08822 (Phone: 908-2840404). OUR RULES. No ads, gimmicks or politics; we work for the benefit of children. CTR follows editorial guidelines at (http://childrenstech.com/editorialguidelines/). Highlights include: • We don’t sell or profit from the products we review. • We don’t distribute, sell or leverage subscriber information. • Contributors are required to disclose bias. • There is no sponsored or advertising content of any variety. • Complete transparency. We make every effort to disclose review criteria and sources of potential bias. • We don’t skim from other reviewers. PUBLISHER INFORMATION Children’s Technology Review™ (ISSN 1555-242X) is published monthly (12 issues) by Active Learning Associates, Inc. Send address changes or new subscriptions to Children’s Technology Review™, 120 Main Street, Flemington, NJ 08822. Use of this publication for any commercial publishing activity without prior written permission is strictly prohibited. Readers are subject to the TERMS OF USE found at http://childrenstech.com/disclaimer Contents © 2016 by Active Learning Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Your paid $20 or $60 subscription to CTR includes exclusive password access to the CTREX database — a collection of reviews going back to 1985. If you’ve lost or forgotten your password, please call 800-993-9499 between 9-3 PM EST. Children’s Technology Review, May 2016 2 Action Cameras 5 (or so) sites & 10 videos is made possible by Read this column online, with links, at www.littleclickers.com/actioncameras Want to see what it looks like when you jump out of an airplane? Thanks to a new generation of cheap, rugged digital cameras it’s easy to find some amazing views, including the view from the back of a bird. Let’s learn these cameras, and watch some amazing videos. LittleClickers is brought to you by Computer Explorers, who offer camps on programming. Visit www.computerexplorers.com to learn more. The web-based (html) version of this page is at http://www.littleclickers.com with live links, plus a place to report any errors. Note that CTR and COMPUTER EXPLORERS do not have commercial interests in the sites listed on this page. Librarians and teachers are permitted to copy this page for non-profit use. To suggest a future topic, or to report a bad link, please contact the editor, Warren Buckleitner [WB] [email protected] or call 908-284-0404 (9 - 3 PM, EST). 1. Who invented the GoPro? Meet Nick Woodman, a surfer in search of a better way to capture his rides. He tells the story that led to his invention at http://bit.ly/1pozQHB. 2. Can you put your action camera inside a washing machine?  You bet! They have no moving parts and waterproof cases. We found more crazy uses for action cams, including the view from a hula hoop, at http://bit.ly/213Nqy4 3. How far can an Action Camera fall, and still survive? At https://youtu.be/aU-KvtA20v8 you can see what happens when a camera falls out of an airplane. 4. How much does an Action Camera cost?  Here are two options that vary in price. Both save their videos on tiny micro SD cards that cost about $20 for 64 GB (about 2 hours of HD video). 1. Kidizoom Action Cam ($50, VTech) comes with a waterproof container. You won’t get HD footage, but you won’t pay as much either. See http://bitly.com/1W2yVLb 2. The GoPro Hero 4 Silver ($350, GoPro) is the most famous action camera. Most of the videos you see on YouTube were captured with this camera http://bitly.com/1TqWdV2. Megan’s Action Cam Videos Here’s a set of hand picked Action Cam videos from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcBVHzUUEKwlfalNd1nku5RcDM-1GvfzS 3 Children’s Technology Review, May 2016 16 “Nice Touches” When Applying Technology to Language & Literacy Development The chart was called “Nice Touch” and it remained within reach of any discussion or demo during the recent three-day language and literacy retreat at the Highlights Foundation. For a recap of the event, see Jayne Clare’s post on Teachers With Apps, at http://www.teacherswithapps.com/highlights-retreat-2016/). Whenever an app was demonstrated or discussed, a participant could jot down an example of a “nice touch” and add it to the list. Here’s what we collected (keep in mind, this is only a starter list):  NICE TOUCHES WITHIN APPS 3 In the same way an app like Toca Tailor lets you use photos of your clothes to become the clothes of your character, let a child take a photo of his or her skin and their character would have the same skin color as the central character in the story. 3 Place “old fashioned” QR Codes inside traditional print books with links that lead to additional digital materials, including an audio podcast of the author reading the book. Just be wary of audio rights infringments. 3 The animation used in Nosy Crow apps always work in the same direction as the plot line. They are more than just gratuitous interactions. 3 Create a clearly defined narrative space (or world) for a child and then give children a measured degree of control within this structure. Case in point? The Nosy Crow apps. 3 Using VR to let a child put their head inside the narrative structure using exiting VR technology. Case in point: WuWu, of Step In Books. 3 Employ better text scaffolding techniques, including touch and sound (as in Oceanhouse Media apps) and/or different language crutches. 3 Let the child become the curriculum designer and genetic epistemologist. How? By giving them control over difficulty level, select the reading level or the timer option. Children’s Technology Review, May 2016 3 Put the author’s identity inside the app. Too often, digital work is authorless. There’s no excuse not to put a short introduction video directly from the people who made the app. This gives the product a voice. Ideas contributed by Jo Booth, Warren Buckleitner, Andre Breitman, Diana Calio, Jayne Clare, Carissa Christner, Daren Carstens, Martina Dell’Acqua, Lisa Guernsey, Marci Jones, Michael Levine, Gail Lovely, Nadine Kloss~Gannon, Tracy Ludwig, Sandhya Nankani, Katie Paciga, Denise Panza, Heather Urtz, Catriona Wallis and Kate Wilson. 3 Incorporate characters that reflect the real world. “I love that Red Riding Hood’s mother isn’t skinny!” 3 I love the interpretation of “hanging” by the arms in HangArt, like on a chinup bar. So much less macabre. 3 Loved how narrative/text techniques were integrated with art and math concepts in Daren Carsten’s Attributes. 3 I liked the feature where children could rate the problems, as done in “Hang Art.” 3 Be true to the accent. USA teachers like “pure” British accents rather than localized versions that might feel diluted. NICE TOUCHES FOR APP STORES 3 The app stores should have a visible classification system to let you sort by quality, ethics and effectiveness of apps. 3 Have a “free sample” area where publishers with premium apps can put risk free, gimmick free samples of their apps. 3 Increase the amount of dialog between teachers and developers. 3 Include reading level indicators and better localization information. 4 Feature Reviews and New Releases MAY 2016 Here's an alphabetical listing of both the feature reviews (with ratings) and the new and future releases. "Entry Date" refers to the date we first learned of the product. A Montessori Approach to Math This is a scripted collection of math tutorials with little opportunity for exploration. The menu, which requires reading, offers four sets of activities. Audio instructions lead you through each part of the lesson as you practice counting by using different types of counters, or watch as odd or even numbers are divided with animated arrows. While the content is Montessori-inspired, the teaching style is heavily scripted and low in child control. Details: Mobile Montessori, www.mobilemontessori.org. Price: $3.99. Ages: 3-6. Platform: iPad, iPhone, Apple TV. Teaches/Purpose: counting, math, odd and even numbers. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 3.1 stars. Entry date: 4/12/2016. [WB] Ease of Use Educational Entertaining Design Features Good Value 7 63% 6 N 6 6 And So To Bed - Edu. Bedtime Routine App for Children Beautiful art meets clunky interactive design and limited content in this interactive story designed to introduce a bedtime routine. The scenes are made out of cardboard and paper to create an interactive world with a "hand-made" feel, and the app features a specially composed soundtrack of 20 tracks. In the story, Cat is sleepy and wants to get ready for bed. Children tap on parts of the screen to move the cat through 10 tasks in six scenes. Details: Paperly Apps Ltd, www.paperlyapps.com. Price: $2.99. Ages: 2-up. Platform: iPad. Teaches/Purpose: health, bedtime. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 3.2 stars. Entry date: 7/23/2015. [WB] Ease of Use Educational Entertaining Design Features Good Value 8 Ease of Use Educational Entertaining Design Features Good Value 8 64% 7 6 5 6 Annie's Picking Apples 2: Learning Games This app gives you a playful context for counting from 1 to 20 in English, Spanish, French, and German. It mixes jigsaw puzzles and apple sorting (by color), and keeps records. In the app, children help Annie the squirrel pick apples, prepare pies and put together puzzles in 27 worlds, which are arranged like a board-game. Features include: parental controls for parents and educators to track a single child's performance; enable the time control screen and set the time the child will be able to play to manage turns among children; highlights the achievements and progress in each level of play; progressive difficulty in each level in each of the games; and original music. You can toggle the languages on the fly, making this a good way to provide informal experience counting in new languages. Details: Real Fun Learning, realfunlearning.com. Price: $2.99. Ages: 4-up. Platform: iPad. Teaches/Purpose: math, counting, spatial relations, German, Spanish, French and English. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4 stars. Entry date: 8/22/2013. [WB] 5 8 8 8 8 80% FEATURE REVIEWS, MAY 2016 Brainventures Fun, responsive graphics turn your iPad into an interactive cartoon adventure where health-related information is indirectly delivered by way of memory, sorting and timing games. The game is light on facts but responsive, and many of the activities require fine motor timing - and are fun. In the game, you take on the role of a brain cell and progress through narrative quests and mini games as you befriend other neuron characters in your quest to reach the Hall of Brain. The app was designed by educators with a health background, with the goal of helping children learn "growth mindset skills" like perseverance, curiosity and confidence - by communicating the idea that children can change their brains by eating healthy foods, exercising, and taking on new challenges. Details: Kizoom, www.kizoomlabs.com. Price: $free with IAP of $3.99. Ages: 7-10. Platform: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch . Teaches/Purpose: health, timing, reading, physcial fitness, exercise. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.2 stars. Entry date: 6/30/2015. [WB] Ease of Use Educational Entertaining Design Features Good Value 8 Ease of Use Educational Entertaining Design Features Good Value 9 84% 7 9 9 9 Captain McFinn's Swim & Play Designed to promote social and emotional development in children, Captain McFinn & Friends contains a very rare feature - a live person, inside the app. These real people, known as Explorers, respond in real time to how a child engages with Captain McFinn’s cartoon undersea world. They are like camp counselors who encourage you to share feelings and talk to your avatar. Because everything is done in the context of the non-human avatar there is no risk of identity theft. To test the app, we posed as a child who was very upset about our sick dog. We drew a picture of the dog using the drawing tools, and our mentor quickly dropped in and asked about how the dog was doing. It was rather startling. The picture was then shared with others who were logged in. The mentors obviously follow a script, and rarely stray from themes about the importance of being pro-social -- to share, be polite and so on. Note that this app needs to be online to start, and can take a while to get to the first screen "downloading new content." Details: Captain McFinn LLC, www.captainmcfinn.com. Price: $2.99. Ages: 3-5. Platform: iPad, iPhone; requires Internet connetion. Teaches/Purpose: social and emotional development. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.4 stars. Entry date: 12/11/2014. [WB] 88% 8 8 10 9 Dr. Panda School Freely explore in five areas of a school (hallway, classroom, art room, school yard, and cafeteria) with 19 child and adult characters that can be dressed up, fed or moved from room to room. There's a lot to discover. You can paint or sculpt in the art room, combine shapes to make toy blueprints, sweep the floor or grow plants on the playground. It is fun to customize the animal characters with clothes, hats or glasses. The app supports multitouch, so more than one child can share the experience and is very similar in design to Toca Life: School, with a slightly younger age range (a better title might be Dr. Panda Preschool). There are a few minor issues to note. The graphics are less refined, which makes some screens seem a bit cluttered, and some of the items don't respond as they would in the real world, especially if you "break the rules" (say, by putting some fruit in the dishwasher). See also Toca Life: School. Details: Dr. Panda Limited, www.tribeplay.com. Price: $2.99. Ages: 3-6. Platform: iPad, iPhone, Apple TV, Android, Kindle. Teaches/Purpose: cause and effect, creativity, problem solving. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.6 stars. Entry date: 4/1/2016. [WB] 6 Ease of Use Educational Entertaining Design Features Good Value 9 8 10 9 10 92% FEATURE REVIEWS, MAY 2016 DYI Gamer Kit This is an Arduino-based game device that you can either build yourself, or that you can purchase pre-soldered. You then program the LED "screen" and the speaker with your computer (a USB wire is required). The games are very simple (e.g., of the Flappy Birds variety). According to the instructions, the assembly takes about 2 hours, and you'll need both a 9 volt battery and a soldering iron. Learn more at https://www. techwillsaveus.com/resources/diy-gamer-kit/ Details: Technology Will Save Us, www.techwillsaveus.com. Price: $100. Ages: 8up. Platform: Windows, Mac OSX, Chrome. Teaches/Purpose: programming, coding, circuits. Entry date: 4/8/2016. ExplorArt Klee - The Art of Paul Klee, for Kids Jump into the mind of Paul Klee - the Swiss-German artist who mixed different art styles. While the interactive design is mid-quality, the content is excellent, which makes sense given the source. There are six nicely animated versions of his paintings including Landscape with Yellow Birds, Dream Town, Castle and Sun, Twittering Machine, and the puppets that Klee created for his son out of recycled materials. Each has a simple activity. Features include the ability to toggle between English and Italian. There are no third-party advertising or in-app purchases. Details: Lapisly S.C.P., www.lapisly.com. Price: $4.99. Ages: 6-12. Platform: iPad. Teaches/Purpose: art, classification, spatial relations, Expressionism, Cubism, and Surrealism. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.3 stars. Entry date: 4/1/2016. [CC] Ease of Use Educational Entertaining Design Features Good Value 8 Ease of Use Educational Entertaining Design Features Good Value 8 86% 9 8 9 9 Find Adventure, Alfie Atkins This animated adventure from Sweden lets you decorate a car and then drive it around in a world with pop up people, creatures and flowers. You learn that some items, like fruit, can be collected. The interactive design is simple but limited. The items you discover never seem to end and it isn't clear how you get back to the car decorating area or the main menu. Based on the Scandinavian children’s book classic "Very Tricky, Alfie Atkins" by the author Gunilla Bergström. Details: Gro Play, www.groplay.com. Price: $2.99. Ages: 2-6. Platform: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch (OS 6.0 or later). Teaches/Purpose: spatial relations. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 3.8 stars. Entry date: 6/22/2015. [WB] 7 7 8 7 8 76% FEATURE REVIEWS, MAY 2016 Fisher-Price Soothing Motions Seat Designed to simulate the natural motion of a parent, this seat has three settings: bounce, sway, or bounce and sway. Fisher-Price admits "there’s no substitute for the comfort of mom or dad’s arms." But still... Features include a machine washable seat with a plush insert, calming vibrations, and 10 songs and nature sounds. There's also a mirror and three dangling toys. Includes an AC adaptor. Details: Fisher-Price, www.fisher-price.com. Price: $160. Ages: 0-2. Platform: Smart Toy. Teaches/Purpose: a baby utility for parents. Entry date: 4/18/2016. FurReal Friends Torch My Blazin' Dragon This battery operated dragon has red LEDs in his (her) mouth, and the ability to breath steam, so it appears that a red mist comes out of it's mouth. As with other FurReal pets, the motions are activated by touching sensors on the snout. Details: Hasbro, Inc., www.hasbro.com. Price: $80. Ages: 3-8. Platform: Smart Toy. Teaches/Purpose: a watch me toy. Entry date: 4/19/2016. Iconia One 10 Here's a solid, stable all purpose Android tablet with mid-quality speed, standard batteries and a clear 10.1" screen. On first glance it looks like an iPad Air. But that's where the comparison ends. Features include an Android Cortex A53 MT8163 processor, with a Quad-core 1.3 GHz 10.1" WXGA (1280 x 800)Wi-Fi1 GB, 32 GB Flash Memory. The tablet has a 5 Megapixel rear camera and a 2 Megapixel front camera. Details: Acer America Corporation, www.acer.com. Price: $150. Ages: 5-up. Platform: Android. Teaches/Purpose: A tablet. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 3.7 stars. Entry date: 4/7/2016. [WB] Ease of Use Educational Entertaining Design Features Good Value 10 8 74% FEATURE REVIEWS, MAY 2016 Infinite Arcade, The by Tinybop Make basic versions of four varieties of classic video games, like Space Invaders or Pong, by dragging and dropping items onto your iPad screen and pressing "go". After you create a player profile (name and avatar), you choose one of five game templates: pinball, ball & paddle, platformer, maze, and a blank screen (our favorite). You can either start with a pre-designed starter game, or drag-and-drop components from screen bottom. The game templates have been inspired by the classics. It is easy to see the influence of Mario Bros., Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Zelda, and Breakout. Materials include blocks of rocks, hot lava, water and dirt; and there are a variety of transporters, a trampoline, crystal geysers, and disco bricks. You can add enemies like zombies, evil snails, electromagnetic cats, and collectibles like glittery skulls and gold coins. It is also possible to attach effects or sounds to specific blocks, and customize the text that appears in the game. Games are autosaved on each individual device, but can't be shared for others to play. The bottom line? For $2.99, this is an excellent open-ended problem solving experience that contains some of the core design elements of basic video games, and lots of opportunities for debugging. Details: Tinybop, Inc., www.tinybop.com. Price: $2.99. Ages: 7-up. Platform: iPad. Teaches/Purpose: creativity, game design, art, temporal relations. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.8 stars. Entry date: 4/26/2016. [WB] Ease of Use Educational Entertaining Design Features Good Value 9 96% 10 10 9 10 IQ Safari MATH Solid, straightforward math facts practice experience with a safari theme, designed to quiz children on four operations. The illustrations are mid-quality, but that doesn't get in the way of the carefully leveled problems. After you create a profile, you can play in one four different modes: Practice, Lessons, Test and Games. As you play, you increase in rank until you've solved over 10 hours of problems. We liked how the answers are instantly scored. Content includes: 24 new collectible cards; 15 new achievements and accessories for the avatars; Multi user for families and school classes; relaxing mini games (Memory cards, Treasure Hunting, Bubble pop); Drawing Board and Help tips for each lesson; 6 languages (English, Swedish, German, Spanish, French, Hungarian). The game also has a parent or teacher mode that lets you view each individual student's achievement and lock and unlock lessons and chapters for each student. Details: Mabozo AB, http://www.mabozo.com/. Price: $2.99. Ages: 9-12. Platform: iPad, iPhone, Apple TV. Teaches/Purpose: math facts, addition, subtraction, division, multiplication. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.3 stars. Entry date: 4/12/2016. [WB] Labo Paper Plate Teach children how to make simple crafts using paper plates with this set of 12 step-by-step projects, plus 11 games and activities. You can let children make a dog, hen, duck, musical instrument, cars, elephant, frog, monster, penguin, and pig; color the crafts with 11 colors; and save crafts gallery (unlimited). Languages include English, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese. Details: Labo Lado Inc., www.labolado.com. Price: $1.99. Ages: 3-7. Platform: iPad, Android. Teaches/Purpose: . Entry date: 8/19/2015. 9 Ease of Use Educational Entertaining Design Features Good Value 8 9 8 8 10 86% FEATURE REVIEWS, MAY 2016 LightUp Edison Kit What if you could "see" electricity? Here's a combo app/maker kit that leverages the power of your tablet's camera to make this look possible. The smaller of two kits, LightUp Edison contains a set of snap-together magnetic circuit blocks that you can use to create a circuit. Next, you download the LightUp Learning app (for iPad and iPhone) for debugging or for viewing the function of each part. The app includes introductory project ideas as well. LightUp Lens, the in-app augmented reality feature, helps kids out when things don't work. The Edison Kit projects include a flashlight, an SOS beeper, a voltage meter and more. The larger LightUp Tesla Kit is compatible with the Edison Kit, and lets you make more projects. In the box: a rechargeable battery, a red LED, buzzer, light sensor, momentary switch, a 50k variable resistor and wire blocks. Details: LightUp, Inc. , http://www.lightup.io/#. Price: $50. Ages: 11-up. Platform: Smart Toy, iPad, iPhone. Teaches/Purpose: science, logic, electricity, circuits. Entry date: 4/29/2016. MarcoPolo Arctic This third MarcoPolo app isn't as good as the first two, but it does succeed in providing a sandbox-style setting where you can explore basic Arctic life. Some of the animals become animated after they are assembled, jigsaw style. Others simply respond to the touch. The illustrations are nicely adapted for a tabletsized screen and the narration is clear. Content includes four puzzles (land animals, land and sea animals, whales, and birds) with 30 arctic animals, six different types of food (feed the polar bear, and help the musk ox graze) and three types of arctic environments (tundra, taiga, and ocean). Details: MarcoPolo Learning, www.gomarcopolo.com. Price: $2.99. Ages: 4-12. Platform: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch (iOS 8.0 or later). Teaches/Purpose: science, ecosystems, the arctic. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.2 stars. Entry date: 8/12/2015. [WB] Miaomiao’s Chinese New Year Designed to introduce Chinese traditions and basic Mandarin vocabulary, this is a narrated story (in English) with 70 interactions (hot spots) designed to illustrate key words. In the story children join Miaomiao and her puppy Doudou as they set off to find the stolen New Year dumplings and save the Lantern Festival. Content includes five mini-games: Making Dumplings, Connect the Stars, Build a Bridge, Dragon Dance and a Matching Card Game plus 20 early learning Mandarin vocabulary words. The parent options provide ideas to extend the content. A partner website features Mandarin activity sheets, coloring sheets, Chinese character practice sheets, lesson plans for teachers, cultural crafts, Chinese recipes, and weekly updates. Details: Mark Animation, http://markanimation.com. Price: $2.99. Ages: 3-5. Platform: iPad, iPhone. Teaches/Purpose: Mandarin chinese. Entry date: 1/15/2015. 10 Ease of Use Educational Entertaining Design Features Good Value 9 8 8 9 8 84% FEATURE REVIEWS, MAY 2016 MLB The Show 16 According to the publisher, new 2016 features for The Show include "ShowTime", to offer a more personalized experience that acknowledges your career baseball moments plus a new “Topps Prospect Showcase”, with a new 20 - 80 scale scouting report. Other modes include Conquest (a single-player online experience that lets you travel around North America); Battle Royale (take a drafted squad through a singleplayer, online tournament) and a Revamped Franchise Mode (take the reins and run a big league ball club in Franchise Mode). A new Player Morale system can have a big effect on your team’s on-field performance. Details: Sony Computer Entertainment America, www.us.playstation.com. Price: $59.99. Ages: 8-14. Platform: PlayStation 4. Teaches/Purpose: sports, baseball. Entry date: 4/7/2016. Monopoly Ultimate Banking This year's edition of Monopoly uses a small battery operated card reader. Every card in the game has a printed optical code, and each player gets a bank card to store money. The rents increase as the game progresses, or can suddenly decrease if say, a tornado hits. The cards have printed marks that are scanned by a portable optical reader. For two to four players. Details: Hasbro, Inc., www.hasbro.com. Price: $25. Ages: 8-up. Platform: Smart Toy. Teaches/Purpose: money, economics. Entry date: 4/19/2016. 11 FEATURE REVIEWS, MAY 2016 Montessori Numbers: Learn to Count from 1 to 1000 Designed in France, this elegant early math app was originally published in 2012. The 2016 edition contains two additional number sandboxes that are ideal for letting a child freely tinker with early mathematical relationships. 1 to 20 (the first menu option) starts by offering a choice between three levels: 0 to 5, 0 to 10 and 11 to 20. You can then freely drag-and-drop blocks to build the numbers in order. When your set is complete, you are rewarded by a block building activity, where everything on the screen can be moved around or stacked. Quantity is a base 10 activity ideal for showing you how numerals can be represented by beads, number bars, or number squares. If you like, you can hide the numerals to work specifically on the association of number names with quantities. You can also touch placed beads to hear them counted out loud. There are 3 levels of difficulty: 0 to 9, 10 to 99 and 100 to 999; or you can set your own number range. 100 Board lets you fill in a 100's grid, one numeral at a time. As you do the numerals are read out loud in a clear voice. If you're a teacher, you'll love this on the big screen, because you can toggle on/off hints or let children see how quickly they can illustrate patterns Numerals specifically asks you to find a spoken number on a number line. Each experiment is labeled in clear speech, and illustrated in real time, showing children the size of the numeral they have discovered. Numerals (from quantity) associates a quantity with a given numeral. This time, you're asked to build the number that matches a quantity, displayed as blocks. For numerals greater than 10, this can be hard, because the child has to consider decimals. Tracing Numerals lets you trace each numeral using a range of animated effects that make your finger feel powerful. There are sparkles, swirling stars and so on that are very responsive and fun to explore. This app is loaded with ways to customize the experience, which makes it appealing to classroom teachers. It's now possible to set your own custom number range, between 1 and 999), and many of the activities include the ability to freely stack objects or scribble with fountains of stars. Other features include your choice of three English dialects (American English, British English and Australian English). You can also adjust the sounds, decide if the numeral 4 should have an open or closed top, and keep records for different children. Children are automatically assigned a profile, as User 1, User 2, etc.). It is rare to find an early math app that offers this type of number range and flexibility. Details: L’Escapadou, lescapadou.com. Price: $2.99. Ages: 3-7. Platform: iPad, iPhone. Teaches/Purpose: math, counting, math facts. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.8 stars. Entry date: 4/19/2016. [WB] Ease of Use Educational Entertaining Design Features Good Value 9 96% 10 9 10 10 Multiply With Me Practice your times tables with your voice, with this straightforward quiz app. The "Learn" mode is rather dry, with step-by-step tutorials that deal with grouping, arrays and skip counting. There's also a times table. Multiply with Me is a fun and engaging app that helps kids learn multiplication facts. The app is powered by a well designed speech recognition engine that works well nearly every time. There are also a few rather clunky learning activities and a times table unscrambling game. Note that we reviewed the full version, which is currently $free on iTunes. We were told by the publisher that an IAP version is planned with limited teaser content (only facts up to 5x5 in the free version). The app uses the KaldiIOS speech framework. Details: Keen Research, LLC, www.keenresearch.com. Price: $free with IAP. Ages: 6-10. Platform: iPad, iPhone, Apple TV. Teaches/Purpose: Multiplication, math, times tables, math facts. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.2 stars. Entry date: 4/7/2016. [WB] 12 Ease of Use Educational Entertaining Design Features Good Value 9 9 8 8 8 84% FEATURE REVIEWS, MAY 2016 Night of the Living Debt Designed for older children (in high school and college), this app is designed to introduce credit issues and debt. The game is complicated at first and it takes a few rounds to figure out some of the big concepts (like the importance of going into debt to get your credit rating up). In the game, you survive a zombie outbreak with the right financial decisions. If you use your credit card correctly and manage your college loans, you can stay alive. If not, you start over. The game helps you understand that zombies and debts have a lot in common. They make you stay on your toes and you should be prepared to handle them - or you may be "eaten alive" by bad credit. The grant-funded game is free, and designed to be used alone or in group/school settings. Learn more at http://apps.nmsu.edu/ Details: Learning Games Labs, http://learninggameslab.org/. Price: $free. Ages: 4up. Platform: iPad, iPhone. Teaches/Purpose: money, economics. Entry date: 4/21/2016. NumberShapes Whiteboard Every elementary or middle school math teacher needs this powerful math visual aide hooked up to his or her projector. It quietly connects the movement of your finger (s) on the screen with mathematical relationships. Swipe left or right on a numerator to see a pie chart change. Do an outward pinch to change the number of slices in the pie, or an inward pinch to reduce the fraction. There are four options on the main menu: Fractions, Integers, Decimals and Multiply. In each case the sets or graphs change every time you touch the screen. This app could be used as a standalone activity or with written exercises. The main content is targeted at 4-8 year olds but it could be useful for upper grades as well. Details: NumberShapes, http://number-shapes.com/. Price: $1.99. Ages: 4-8. Platform: iPad. Teaches/Purpose: math: counting, fractions, addition, subtraction, decimals. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.6 stars. Entry date: 4/19/2016. [WB] Ease of Use Educational Entertaining Design Features Good Value 9 93% 10 N 8 10 Sago Mini Robot Party Freely mix and match robot parts, and then take them apart in this well designed, very responsive, sandbox-like app that can work with one or more children at the same time. As with other Sago apps, this is a nice addition to a child's first app library. You start by picking one of eight robot bodies that vary slightly in shape and design. Next you drag and drop heads, hands, feet and outfits onto (or off of) your robot. We like how easy it is to be silly with this app. You can use the sock for a head for example, or put two heads on the feet, and flip your robot upside down. There are just enough combinations to try. The next step involves spinning a dial to charge your robot and then taking it apart to play musical instruments, or to break a piñata. The last step involves a visit to a photo booth, which saves a picture in your photo library (along with Sago branding). This is a no-fail starter app with limited, yet endless possibilities. Note that there are neither ethnic or gender clues in this app, and you can turn off the "Sago News" setting in the your iPad's Settings (Scroll down to the Robot Party icon). Details: Sago Mini, www.sagomini.com. Price: $2.99. Ages: 2-6. Platform: iPad, iPhone. Teaches/Purpose: causality, creativity. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.9 stars. Entry date: 4/22/2016. [WB] 13 Ease of Use Educational Entertaining Design Features Good Value 10 9 10 10 10 98% FEATURE REVIEWS, MAY 2016 This is My Spacecraft - Rocket Science for Kids This solid space-related app is full of space-travel-related facts to discover. Innovative features include the ability to record your own instructions. There are seven "chapters" presented in sequence - from dressing your astronaut (by dragging and dropping the parts into place), to exploring the Solar System. Each chapter contains five or so small interactive activities that let you get your hands into the concepts. Teachers will like the additional materials, on the publisher's web site,as PDF documents. Details: Urbn Pockets, www.urbn-pockets.com. Price: $2.99. Ages: 6-8. Platform: iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch. Teaches/Purpose: science, language, solar system, space travel, the moon. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.2 stars. Entry date: 4/5/2016. [WB] Ease of Use Educational Entertaining Design Features Good Value 8 Ease of Use Educational Entertaining Design Features Good Value 9 Ease of Use Educational Entertaining Design Features Good Value 7 84% 8 9 8 9 Time Drop - The Colorful Time Travel Does the world need another version of Bejeweled or Candy Crush? Following a familiar fun formula, Time Drop lets you swipe through drops of paint to score points. The more connections you make the faster you get to the next level. The levels are themed to reflect time travel and the illustrations are well done. As you'd expect, this game starts easy but gradually gets harder and more expensive to play, because you can buy coins to continue. It is possible to save progress and resume play. Details: faktor zwei gmbh, www.faktor-zwei.ch. Price: $free with IAP. Ages: 4-up. Platform: iPad, iPhone. Teaches/Purpose: logic, spatial relations. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 4.3 stars. Entry date: 4/19/2016. [WB] 86% 8 9 7 Veggie Bottoms Kitchen Forty real vegetarian recipes show how common vegetables, nuts, dairy products and fruits can be mixed and matched to make up different foods. The recipes are illustrated with step-by-step animated graphics, or you can view a traditional printed recipe. It is also easy to sort by Dairy Free, Nut Free, Egg Free or Vegan. The dynamic visual listing makes is easy to see how some common ingredients are used in many recipes. It is also easy to pull up a particular category of product -- e.g., only Egg Free for example. There are two modes: Test Kitchen - a rather random feeling open-ended activity where you freely combine up to four items into a smoothie, and Chef's Kitchen (the best part) where you can browse recipes and follow the steps, one at a time. The design is playful and the illustrations are nicely done, but the user experience could be improved and it is fair to note that this app is reading intensive, with small fonts on a regular sized iPad. For a child with food allergies, this app could be useful. Details: Red Card Studios, http://www.redcardstudios.com. Price: $1.99. Ages: 4up. Platform: iPad, iPhone, Apple TV. Teaches/Purpose: nutrition, food. Rating (1 to 5 stars): 3.8 stars. Entry date: 4/13/2016. [WB] 14 8 7 8 8 76% FEATURE REVIEWS, MAY 2016 View-Master Virtual Reality Viewer 2.0 This year's (2016) second edition of the View-Master comes with a longer title and has been modified to handle larger smart phones (such as the iPhone 6). It has "enhanced lenses and ergonomics, better audio with a headphone jack, a focal adjustment feature for use without glasses and a built in iPhone 5 adapter. New apps will include the View-Master Plus Pack ($20), in which you work together as a team to solve riddles and escape a Labyrinth. This is a "asymmetric twoplayer game" meaning that one player (the “Escapee”) uses the View-Master viewer and Labyrinth app, while other player acts as the “Guide” by using a physical book of clues. The app presents a new game every time, with levels not only increase in difficulty but are constantly moving as walls shift, puzzles evolve, and player communication changes. A second new release is the View-Master Experience Pack National Geographic Dinosaurs ($15, ages 7-up) that lets you travel back to prehistoric time to see dinosaurs in their natural habitats. You can examine dinosaur skeletons from different angles, or hunt for food and avoid being eaten in a survival adventure game. Content includes panoramic 3-D environments. Details: Mattel, Inc., www.mattel.com. Price: $40. Ages: 7-up. Platform: Smart Toy, iPad, iPhone, Android. Teaches/Purpose: VR, geography. Entry date: 4/8/2016. 15