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There is resistance to digital books for kids from many teachers and parents … and in many ways, librarians are no different than others who work closely with children. But there is a growing understanding in the library community that digital content is arriving in a big way, like it or not. And libraries, of all the traditional curators in print, are truly the ideal gatekeepers of quality kids digital content. Librarians are trusted, objective, skilled in evaluating content and part of a large network of potential curators. They are also very concerned about the impact of the digital shift on readers of all ages.
When was the last time you updated your iTunes app (or iBook) description? It may seem like a no-brainer, but this blank canvas of text can help interested people get a better idea of what your app...
I’ve often wondered how my kids think about books. Both the digital book and the print book have always been a normal part of their bedtime routine. Those familiar arguments from e-book critics about the visceral experience of paper–the coarseness of wood pulp against one’s fingertips, the scent of library stacks–would seem utterly nonsensical to them. It is not a choice between print or e-books ...
If you’re a mobile developer, you know there are many challenges to getting your app to market. How will your app be used? Do you need a native mobile app, a mobile website or both? How do you design your app for multiple devices and platforms? And so on. Even if you get your app to market, there’s no guarantee it will be successful. Consumers have millions of apps to choose from and the competition for user adoption is fierce. More than 60% of apps in the Apple App Store have never been downloaded and of those that have, one in four is abandoned after its initial use. A quality user experience can be the difference between one that’s successful and one that’s not. In this infographic, we give you some simple steps you can do to make sure your mobile app is a hit ...
As I do more outreach and training for local teachers in my community, I am surprised at the large number of classrooms getting devices without any guidelines about how to integrate them into their existing institutional structures or curriculum. From these experiences, I have come up with the following five tips for starting a new program in any classroom …
This blog post is an excerpt from a case study that is available as a PDF download from Digital Book World. To download the entire case study, click here. In
No doubt the big news this week for the digerati, the surprise decision by Tim O'Reilly to 'shutter' the Tools of Change conference and cull the community. The decision did not play well within that community with strongly worded responses both from Porter Anderson and Brian O'Leary. The Bookseller's own Sam Missingham also nailed it on FutureBook describing its passing as "premature" ...
All of the Big Six publishers have, for the first time, agreed to make e-books available to public library users.
You might recognize Eli Noyes as the illustrator of Annie Fox's whimsical Raymond and Sheila books. He is also the writer/illustrator of a new story app called Ruff's Bone, available from Wanderful...
Should parents worry if pre-school children love fiddling with their smart phone? Recent research suggests touch screens suit the way children interact with the world and could benefit learning.
In ev’ry job that must be done
There is an element of fun.
You find the fun and snap!
The job’s a game. In the 1964 musical film “Mary Poppins,” all it takes is a snap of the nanny’s fingers and the toys march into the toy box, the clothes fold themselves, and the covers ripple up the beds. What the song argues, and the movie fails to show, is that for kids housework is indeed a game. My daughter likes nothing more than emptying the dishwasher (and then wheeling the lower basket around the room); my son stole the mini-broom from me almost every time that I took it out. Toca House, an iOS app from the Swedish digital play studio Toca Boca, understands the fun of these adult jobs ...
Our weekly roundup takes in Cory Doctorow's conversion to data evangelism, reaction to Patterson's wake up publishing ads, BEA's silly cupcake promo and more.
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At every writers conference or self-publishing panel the question that almost always inevitably comes up is: “How much will self-publishing really cost me?” Because the book publishing industry is one of the last industries to go digital, it’s going through a quick transition. As a result of this shift, authors no longer need to go through the traditional gatekeepers to publish high-quality books and are instead moving toward self-publishing. Launching a book is like launching a startup. Putting together a quality book involves not just writing it, but getting it edited, then formatted, designing a cover, and having a marketing strategy around it. Below, I break down the costs of how much professional services will cost you for a high-quality book ...
The New York Times started to include ebooks in print and online editions back in 2011. The company announced today that it is suspending the inclusion of
This is a guest post by Ouriel Ohayon, co-founder and CEO of Appsfire.com an app discovery and marketing service.
All eyes on app discovery: suddenly, because of what happened to ...
For book publishers, apps are problematic. They're expensive and complicated to produce. The generally accepted price points are very low -- often too low to justify the investment necessary to build them.
Resource list of research reports and websites to evaluate and curate educational apps for kids under 12.
With more than 700,000 apps on iTunes alone, searching for a quality one for your kids can be overwhelming, to say the least. It can feel “like looking for a needle in a haystack, unless you have a few trusted and unbiased review sites to rely on,” says Carisa Kluver, a mom and founder of digital-storytime.com. These six independent review sites, run by parents or teachers, can offer guidance:
Amazon this morning updated its Kindle iOS app with support for Apple’s “VoiceOver” reading and navigation feature for blind and visually impaired users of the iPhone and iPad. Amazon says more than 1.8 million e-books will support the technology, which automatically reads aloud the words on the page.
Noted children's interactive design expert Mark Schlichting talks about the art and the science of keeping children engaged at the inaugural Dust or Magic eB...
Young children—even toddlers—are spending more and more time with digital technology. What will it mean for their development?
There something special about sharing a book with a child; turning the pages, pointing to pictures, and enjoying the closeness. But there is a new trend changing the reading experience – children’s book apps. Although both print books and book apps share a story, they are different media and can be used for different purposes. Book apps can make words and stories come to life, allowing a child a different experience with a story. They can aid in comprehension and help children make to connection between words, sounds, and supporting pictures. As technology becomes more integrated into our daily lives, children’s book apps are one way to begin this digital reading process.
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