Over the last year I have been writing and exploring ideas around curating children's digital tools and content. There is now so much media out there for children that parents and educators often struggle to know what tools are most useful for supporting children's learning, educating them while they are entertained and have a level of quality that previously has been curated for us by other professionals.
Increasingly, I am less concerned with the issue of whether digital content is age appropriate (though that is important and there is more than enough focus on that). I am more concerned about how we establish whether content is of good quality for children and students. I believe there are two steps in this process. Firstly, we need to filter the many and various digital tools and apps available. There are several ways we could do this, but a good way would be to focus on the capacity the technology has to engage, to facilitate learning and to improve children's skills and knowledge for the 21st Century. This would obviously not focus on content, but on design. How well does the user interface and the digital space meet the needs and capacity of children and students, given the intended age and development of the tool?
This will allow those with the skills and knowledge to assess the quality of content to have fewer apps to choose from. It presents them with the best designed apps and allows them to begin to develop processes and ways to assess what is quality digital content and what isn't.
We have some great systems and people to draw on to build qualitative analysis, but less in regards to quantitative analysis for filtering. So far, algorithms let us down when it comes to content that is not based on taste. They work well for music, for videos, for pop culture. But, are the crowd and the algorithm enough for topics like health, education and science?
Recently, reading back through the draft statement being developed by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and Fred Rogers Center's A Statement on the Development of a Framework for Quality Digital Media for Young Children, I was reminded about one of the key points in that document that is so important to consider when developing digital tools to support children's learning and development. That is:
It is such a strong and intellectually sound statement. We see terms like "educational" or "learning" and we automatically assume that the tool or app we are considering must be of a greater value than an app that is "just a game." This is an incorrect assumption. There is no effective regulation around what makes an app or digital content educational. Anyone can put that label on an app and it does not mean it is well designed to support learning, just that the people involved in the creation of the app believe it is. This does not mean the app doesn't have amazing educational value and can support children to learn, but it is not a given. As parents and educators we have to remember that.
So, who is curating content and where can we go at the moment to try to work our way through the overwhelming amount of digital material and tools out there for our children? I've done my best to come up with what I believe is a reasonable short list.
__1. The Research Organizations
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Currently, the best place to go to find objective and well-informed discussions and research into children's digital media is research organizations, particularly the Joan Ganz Cooney Centerand Fred Rogers Center. Together, these two organizations are managing the space between research, information and advocacy. The Joan Ganz Cooney Center is engaged in a range of information and research into apps, the "app gap" and how parents can best use mobile technologies and digital technology for children. You canread their catalogue of research papers which are really accessible for interested parents, but also see features on their blog. The Center has also been very supporting of innovative and quality digital development for children supporting awards and helping drive skill development through their fellowship program.
The Fred Rogers Center has been working with NAYEC to engage as many people as possible in the development of A Statement on the Development of a Framework for Quality Digital Media for Young Children. This project is nearing the end of the drafting process, but it has been a very comprehensive and involved development that will be an excellent contribution to developers and producers of children's digital media, but also to teachers, parents and other professionals interested in ensuring children have access to quality tools to support their learning and development in a technology-focused world. The Fred Rogers Center is specifically focused on the early years and has some excellent resources available on their site available through a well developed search engine.
2. The Crowdsourcer
Common Sense Mediacould easily fit within the research organizations category, but they are probably the leaders in crowd-sourced digital media advice for parents. There is a tendency to focus on age appropriateness and what age the content is appropriate for. But, a large number of reviewers and parents also give thoughtful and insightful write ups about the overall value of movies, television, computer games and apps for children. The breadth and ease of use of this site has made it an excellent resource for families. They also are producing some high quality research that looks at children's media consumption and engagement, which helps drive the development of their own resources and educator tools that look at how we can best support children understand and use media and technology in productive ways.
3. App Rating Systems
Kindertown is an app and website and an organization committed to more than just helping parents source the best apps. KinderTown has employed early childhood development professionals and have been advised by educators from the beginning. It is the decision to bring in subject matter experts that puts KinderTown in a strong position when curating around apps for the early years. They specifically only target ages 3 to 6 (which is the area that is saturated with mobile apps) and also provides users with a weekly email that highlights one app, and also provides excellent advice beyond the digital technology and gives parents tips and advice on how to further engage with their children's learning and development. It is this extra role in not just curating but educating parents that makes KinderTown such an exciting service.
Famigo is a family driven system that attempts to identify apps that are best suited for use by families. They have made a conscious decision to focus on things that aren't purely educational; they want our overall process to reward content with educational benefit. When testing apps they look at: Ease of Use, Educational Value, Entertainment Level, Family Friendliness, and Appropriateness for All Ages. The review system weights apps with educational content as having more value for families. The questions within the Educational Value section of the questionnaire focus on: how speech is used to reinforce concepts, how rewards enhance learning, how well the app matches real world experiences, and whether or not the app encourages learning beyond the game itself.
4. Online Video Filter
MeFeedia has developed Kids Videos, a tool that curates online video for safety and age appropriateness. Effectively, they are trying to take the risk out of younger children having access to cutely titled YouTube videos with content meant for much older age groups. Kids Videos is a curated video application that brings a wide variety of safe, fun and educational videos into one easy-to-use application. The app, available for iPad and Kindle Fire tablets, allows for filtering by genre using an on or off switch, and based on view-through rates, automatically discovers and delivers what a viewer would likely be most interested in at that moment. It doesn't help you identify the quality of the video in terms of the content or the video image or audio, but it definitely meets a need for parents who want to access the large amount of free video content online without having to worry as much about what their child will access.
__ 5. The Algorithms __
There are a number of app search engines that use algorithms and the masses of data available on different apps to help you source good educational apps for children. None of them are particularly successful. The best I have found is Yahoo's App Searchoffering. But, others that have received some big VC dollars include Quixey, Chomp and numerous others. This area is definitely still a work-in-progress.
6. The Big Gun
____Finally, it is worth making mention of The Learning Registry. This is so much more than just a way to find quality apps or digital media tool, this registry being funded and driven by the Federal Government. It describes itself as "a new approach to capturing, sharing, and analyzing learning resource data to broaden the usefulness of digital content to benefit educators and learners." But then it proceeds to explain that it isn't a website, a search engine, a clearinghouse or new content. It is probably best understood as a piece of system infrastructure and the aim is to link educators to the best educational content available in digital form. Or as the designers put it:
It obviously will take shape over time, but this is the large scale curation work that is required to make best use of all the information and content out there and available to support the learning and development of our children.
