AppCamp 2017 Agenda
[highlight]Please Note – the following is archived content:[/highlight]
A two-day huddle of the top minds in children’s interactive media, plus a one-day conference.
WHAT TO BRING: Relaxed, casual clothing (layers are best); arrive well-rested with charged batteries.
DEMOS: If you plan on doing a 5 minute demo, read this for suggestions on format and feedback.
A SUNDAY ONLY OPTION: Because of Apple’s WWDC, we’ve created a one-day “Children’s App Design Conference” ($399 and up; or free for registered Dust or Magic AppCamp attendees).
NO SELLING: Dust or Magic is a commercial free zone. It is self-funded with no affiliation with Apple, Google or sponsors. Participants are asked to turn off “selling” and turn on “sharing” for the sake of improving this emerging field. A “swag table” is provided for flyers, white papers or business cards. This is a free-exchange area for participants to share such things as promo codes, white papers, book announcements or other promotional items. Bring about 50 copies.
Friday June 2, 2017
1:00 Room check-in (Phoebe Snow Social Hall)
3:00 Check into Dust or Magic (Scripps Hall)
Find Barbara Chase to pick up your materials. It will contain your name tag, handouts and so on.
5:00 State of the App, 2017
We’ll set the stage for our next 36 hours together, so all the presenters can contextualize their talks. We’ll begin by naming the key trend setting apps; including lessons learned from the KAPi prize and the BolognaRagazzi Digital Award. Panelists will be drawn from the audience. Questions will include:
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Art by Peter Reynolds
VR, AR and VR. What plugins work best with Unity? Who is doing the best work? What’s working? What are some common mistakes?
- Who’s making money, and how? Small app studios known for high quality work are struggling or are being gobbled up by larger groups. Is there a realistic career path for a small, smart designer? Hint, ask Connie Bossert.
- How do you properly sell an app to a child? Besides the paid, free, freemium, paymium, and subscription models, what’s the best technique to promote new content to a young audience?
- What does “Diversity in Apps” really mean? What is the KIDMAP project and “diversity sauce?” How do you make an app balanced in terms of gender and ethnic content, without boiling out all the originality? We’ll show some examples.
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State of the “non-iOS.” Has there been any progress for kids from Windows, Amazon, Google Play, Chrome or any of the gaming platforms? What’s going on with the subscription model?
- Children’s App News. We’ll take nominations for the most magical work of 2017, and discuss the train wrecks. to learn from other people’s mistakes.
6:00 PM Dinner & Visit to the Pacific Beach
8:00 Let’s Take a Global View with Mona Ewees, Teacher Trainer, Breteau Foundation
There are no geographic or political borders in the app store. So when you publish an app in Wisconsin, you might be able to reach a child in a remote area of Africa.
It’s been 2 years since Mona’s last Dust or Magic talk (see Into Africa). Mona will start off this year’s Dust or Magic AppCamp with a theme that is more important than ever — the idea that every child in the world deserves high-quality education; and that technology can provide the pipeline. Mona knows this space because she lives it. She works as a teacher trainer for the Breteau Foundation where she helps implement apps and teacher training and classroom technology implementation in the South African schools. She has been a teacher and school principal for the first 16 years of her career working both in the primary school and high school context in the United States and South Africa. She holds a Masters Degree in Math and Science Education and United States National Board Certification. She was raised in Richmond, Virginia and lives in Cape Town, South Africa.
Lights out…
Saturday June 3, 2017
7:00-8:15 am Breakfast Buffet (dining hall)
8:30 New: The Interactive Designers Cookbook
- A good cook knows how to blend ingredients to make a wonderful dish. The results can be magic, or terribly bad. What are the specific ingredients of effective interactive media project? We’ll boil down a one semester TCNJ course on the psychology of interactive design into one hour. This presentation is short, sweet and to the point; and it’s based on the continually updated ibook Child Development 101 for the Designers of Children’s Interactive Media by Warren Buckleitner (Dust or Magic participants get a free download code; and a hard copy is in your handout packet).
9:30 Children’s Design Dash
What do you think is most important when it comes to designing for kids? Take a quick tour through issues relevant in children’s media today. Identify the most important issues in developing for kids, learn from the incredible knowledge in the room. This is your chance to explore and discuss strategies and techniques in developing for kids.
With Daren Carstens and Barbara Chamberlin.
10:30 Nice Touch — 60 second demos. An informal exploration with show and tell of some of the latest HCI “best practice” applied to multi-touch settings for children (and adults).
Mark Schlichting 11:30 Making Magic with Mark
Mark Schlichting is a pioneer of the children’s digital space who has become part of the fibre of Dust or Magic. For those who have yet to hear him speak, he’s best known as the creator of original “Living Books” — Brøderbund’s Living Books CD-ROM. With the help of his partner in crime, Barbara Chase, he’s finished Understanding Kids, Play, and Interactive Design: How to Create Games Children Love. Mark will comment on the interactive space, and share some of his tricks.
12:00 Lunch
1:00 The Dr. Panda Story
Tom Buyckx, CCO of Dr. Panda.
Based in China, Dr. Panda creates playful apps with an educational twist. Each title as an earned reputation for being safe and gimmick free, with no in-app purchases or third-party advertising.
Why a panda? The answer is simple: the company is located in the city of Chengdu in China, which is the home of the giant panda. The panda is a symbol of pride for the people in Chengdu, and because of that the team feels especially connected to this fascinating creature.
Demos
2:00 The Wonder Workshop Story
Vikas Gupta, CEO, Wonder Workshop
There’s no shortage of dust when it comes to trying to make programmable robots for children. Dash and Dot is a rare exception. Come meet the mind behind this easy to use, durable robot, and find out (perhaps) what’s next in the category of programming and toys.
Watch this CES 2017 interview with Vikas, here.
Demos
3:00 Using Apps to Build Relationships Between Adults and Children
Catalina Narangjo-Bock and Jennie Ito, Google. Co-engagement is powerful stuff, both for parents and children, and Google has been exploring the concept. Learn why it is important, how to make it happen, and see some examples of apps that are being used for playing together regardless if this was an intentional goal on the original design of the app.
Demos
4:00 Jensfred Rogers. An important message from my (half) uncle
Jensfred Rogers is Fred Roger’s confirmed* genetic half-nephew. Mr. Rogers resides in Sweden and holds half-doctorates in child development and app design. He admits that his genetic connection to Uncle* Fred is “complex” but it was confirmed by the results of a mail-in DNA test*. “A simple cheek swab explains so much,” said Jensfred over a Skype call. “I like sweaters so very much.”
Jensfred (aka Jens) was part of the founding team at Toca Boca (e.g., Toca Hair), where he was Creative Lead. He has worked for organizations such as Swedish Television, WGBH and The United Nations.
These days Jens is a founding member of the Alliance for Self Directed Education, fighting for the civil right of all children to learn without coercion. He has a Masters in Interactive Telecommunications from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, 1999. He also has a degree in Psychology, Education and Children’s Culture from Stockholm University. For real.
He actually lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two daughters where he runs a children’s interactive media consultancy.
5:00 Kid Panel
We take some time to talk to some real experts to see what they’re playing and thinking about. If you are bringing children who would like to be on the panel, please let me know.
6:00-7:30 Dinner & Marshmallow Roast
7:40 PM Group photo (optional)
8 to 10 PM Free play and Demos
Sunday June 4, 2017
7:00-8:15 am Breakfast Buffet (dining hall)
8:30 Demos and feedback
Note that we’ll be moving to a larger hall.
10:00 The Children’s App Design Conference
For those with limited time and/or resources, or for those coming to Apple’s WWDC, we’re offering this conference within a conference. Here’s the one day registration form on Eventbrite.
This is a stand-alone conference event designed to accompany and complement the AppCamp agenda. It combines some of objectives of last year’s AppFest, providing an affordable way for students or smaller developers to meet or do a demo for feedback, without the need for hotel rooms.
10:00 Welcome and Introductions by Warren Buckleitner and Daren Carstens.
10:15 Jason Krogh. Jason is one of the main minds behind the Sago Mini apps (part of Toca Boca). He’ll bring us an update on his latest apps, and share some ideas for making apps for his speciality audience — the very young.
DEMOS (a chance to show, tell and get feedback from a rare and expert group)
11:00 Marc Prensky — The official coiner of the term “Digital Native,” promots civilization-level change in global education. He is founder and Executive Director of the Global Future Education Foundation and Institute.
11:30 David Kleeman — The New York Times could do better…. A suggested re-design of the Kids page.
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Panel: The State of the Children’s App Panel. We’ll explore the news on Apple’s iOS, iTunes, Google Play and Android; Unity, 3D, VR and AR, and new issues related to IAP, subscriptions and making ROI. With Fingerprint’s Nancy Macintyre, Edoki Academy’s Valerie Touze; Dr. Panda’s Tom Buyckx and Wonder Workshop’s Vikas Gupta. Moderated by Barbara Chamberlin.
2:00 10+ Design Strategies That Will Instantly Improve the Quality of Your App by Connie Bossert.
This will review some key points in quality app design. Each point will be followed by at least one non-example and one example that highlights the point.
Key points include things like “Make every scene screenshot-worthy”, “Give the player choices”, “Make it snap, crackle, pop”, “Play with perspective”, “Make them laugh”, “Don’t do gimmicks”, “Create engaging characters”, “Use creative touch mechanics”, etc.
3:00 Nancy Macintyre From LeapFrog to Fingerprint. Stories of Dust and Magic. Nancy has lots of experience making and distributing name brand apps in the Android space. She’ll share some inside information on the process.
3:30 Nice Touches in AR, VR, Unity and toy/App/book integration. In person demos of products that stole the show this year in Bologna, that need to be seen. We’ll expand on Jesse Schell’s discussion of VR from last fall, with a frank discussion on the strengths, weaknesses and potential of these new technologies.
4:00 Demos. It’s your turn. A chance to show off your app in front of a rare and expert audience, for feedback.
We’ll fit as many as possible into our remaining time.
5;00 Conclusion
Depart for San José
Speakers
Dust or Magic AppCamp attracts amazing speakers. Check back frequently; speakers and details can change. The following speakers have confirmed so far.
[speakers presentation_id=4937/]