Fall Institute 2016 Agenda
Please Note: This page has been archived.
[highlight]Sunday November 6, 2016[/highlight]
AGENDA ALWAYS UNDER CONSTRUCTIVISM
2-5:00 PM AppFest East
A chance for small, underfunded publishers or students to come and set up a “micro booth.” There is no cost, there are no strings. Attendees of Dust or Magic who arrive early can hunt for the next Pokémon GO.
Handout & swag table. There is no selling or PR activity permitted at Dust or Magic, however, anyone is welcome to send promotional materials (handouts, fliers w/download codes, white papers and so on) for the attendees. These are kept on a separate “swag” table clearly marked as “promotional materials.” Again, no cost and no strings. Send no more than 65 copies to Dust or Magic, 120 Main Street, Flemington NJ 08822 by October 23; we’ll put them out.
5:00 pm – Welcome
“The State of Children’s Interactive Media 2016” panel with Abby Adams, Connie Bossert, Robin Raskin, Biff Niff, Bob Tedeschi, and Mark Schlichting. Moderated by David Kleeman.
This year’s essential topics:
- “TV” vs “Apps.” Or are they no longer indistinguishable? What lies ahead given the realities of YouTube Kids and Toca TV? How will content be monetized?
- Digital Trickery and children’s media. What’s going on, and what should (realistically) be done about it?
- Let’s understand the magic of Pokémon GO and the AR/GPS experience tipping point that happened this summer. What does it mean?
- Is it possible to eek out a living making children’s apps?
- Has Amazon, iTunes and Google Play made any progress since last year?
- Noteable dust from the toy sector. What went wrong, and why.
- Is COPPA enough in this age of digital trickery? If not, what?
- The five most magical digital experiences of 2016, and why.
- Let’s nominate products for the 2017 KAPi awards.
- That state of children’s digital storytelling.
6:15 Dinner at the famous Lambertville Station Restaurant, where we’ve now dined informally for 16 years. (Note: this is in the old train station depot located by Bridge Street, with the train car attached).
Welcome and Introductions (Riverside Room)
You’ve worked for many months on a wonderful new app for kids, and now it is Launch Day. With much anticipation, you wait for the App Store features to be revealed.
To your great dismay, your app did not get Editor’s Choice. It did not make the front page. It didn’t even make the Kids page. It didn’t get a banner. After much hunting, you finally find your icon, in the 7th slot on the Kids 6-8 page. You might think you are alone in your disappointment. But the truth is, most of us have been there. Your story is much more common than the instant-success stories that we all reach for. Now what? Connie will share the behind-the-scenes reality of a small company that has secured a persistent presence on the App Store while gradually increasing monthly revenue over the past 7
[highlight]Monday[/highlight]
November 7, 2016
7:30 Breakfast. Riverside Room
8:30 Quality Attributes. Part of the annual, and ongoing crash course on child development applied to the latest interactive media, by Jean Piaget, BF Skinner, John Dewey and Fred Rogers.
9:30 Designer Karaoke. Small groups explore emerging opportunities and upcoming challenges, from ROI (Return on Investment) to improving a play pattern. With Daren Carstens and Barbara Chamberlin.
10:30 Demos and Nice Touch
11:00 Raul Gutierrez Tinybop. “A Modern Book of Miracles: Designing for the Way Children See the World.”
Raul was an early Apple developer (when programming for the Mac meant buying a Lisa). Raul was admitted to Princeton University as an engineer but graduated with a BA in art history after writing his thesis on Chinese Eastern Zhou bronze casting techniques. He’s worked with at Paramount Pictures and has built internet properties for Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures, Tribeca Films, Warner Brothers and others. In 2012, he started Tinybop in 2012. Tinybop’s first app, The Human Body, was released in August 2013, and has reached the #1 spot in the App Store’s Education charts in 143 countries.
11:30 Emmet O’Neil StoryToys “Working with beloved licensed characters.” Some practical pointers on working with iconic beloved characters, plus some new work. It will be interesting to see how this topic ties into ideas from Raul and Theo.
[divider]
12:00 Group Photo; a non-augmented, non-virtual lunch
1:00 Theo Gray Fiction vs. Non-Fiction
Folks, there can be trouble when non-fiction authors or app designers think they are writing fiction. And vice versa. Digital designer Theo Gray has been a pioneer in thinking about using touch screens to present information. He even made a non-fiction app about fiction (Disney Animated). Theo will define these categories broadly (like games are fiction apps while educational games and tools/utilities are non-fiction apps) and help us all better understand the potential of the medium, for both.
1:30 Chip Donohue and Claudia Haines
Did you hear about the new AAP guidelines? Fresh from NAEYC 16, the latest ideas from Chip
Donohue; the Dean of Distance Learning at the Erikson Institute in Chicago. Chip where leads the TEC (Technology in Early Childhood) center. He just finished editing a book on the topic of Media Mentorship. He’s been a Montessori school director and big band drummer. His Ph.D. Educational Psychology and beard help him accurately replicate Jean Piaget. Claudia Haines is a practitioner, leading storytimes, hosting Maker programs, and getting great media into the hands of kids and teens as the Youth Services Librarian and Media Mentor at the Homer Public Library (Alaska). She trains other librarians as media mentors and serves on both local and national committees that support families and literacy. She is the co-author of Becoming a Media Mentor: A Guide for Working with Children and Families.
2:00 Mark Schlichting How to Create Games Children Love
This has been a big year for Mark Schlichting, with the completion of a book that has been in the works since the first Dust or Magic (yes 2001). It’s called Understanding Kids, Play, and Interactive Design: How to Create Games Children Love and it will officially go on sale a few days before DoM. This is the talk that accompanies the book… don’t miss it.
2:30 BrainSprints
- In the classroom
- In libraries
- Special needs
- Entertainment
- Informal education
- Dangers/misuse or drawbacks
Field Trip: Mediatech
Mediatech is a non-profit public library based technology center/maker space started in 2003 as an experiment. It serves as CTR’s testing center, and provides free public access to the latest technology. Video games circulate like books, and children play games designed to increase collaboration. You’ll get a chance to talk to some of the kids, and try some of the latest products.
3:00 Bus trip to Mediatech Foundation: Meet some real kids.
4:00 Kids panel
4:30 Robin Raskin: “Think Outside the App: A Look at Real World Forces Informing Kids Media Development”
Voice activation like Siri and Alexa, AI, AR/VR, driverless cars, the sharing economy, the gig economy… are all phenomena that should inform current app developers. Few people can connect these concepts like Robin Raskin, who is fluent in a variety of emerging technologies, in part from her work with the International CES.
5:00 Bus leaves exactly at 5:00 PM to return to the Inn at Lambertville Station.
6:00 Dinner (on your own. Your chance to venture to another state — Pennsylvania — and cross the river from George Washington’s point of view)
8:00 Demos
8:30 Biff Niff, AKA “Thug Mouse” AKA “JP”
Few people understand serious play like Biff Niff (formerly known as Thug Mouse, formerly known as JP de Pedro), and he has the apps to prove it (e.g., Toca Hair Salon, for example). JP was part of the founding team at Toca Boca, where he was the Creative Lead. Since leaving Toca Boca last year, he started a children’s interactive media consultancy in New York called Little Frogs. He’s a founding member of the Alliance for Self Directed Education, fighting for the civil right of all children to learn without coercion. As a rapper JP is known as Thug Mouse.
10:00 – Free play and late night discussion.
[divider]
[highlight]Tuesday[/highlight]
November 8, 2016
7:30 Breakfast
8:30 Jesse Schell: Mixing things you can touch with things you can imagine. Thoughts on the state of AR and VR technologies, applied to learning settings. Jesse is CEO of Schell Games and a Professor at CMU.
Demos
9:30 Jessica Taylor Piotrowski, Ph.D. Director, Center for research on Children, Adolescents, and the Media University of Amsterdam. Talk title: Insights into Youth, Media & Technology
10:15 Break
10:30 Kimberley Sorenson “The Science of Becoming Human”
11:00 Abby Adams: A Toca TV case study. Toca Boca used to be an unusual word combination. Not anymore, at least to millions of 5th graders. Following this year’s acquisition by Spin-Master, Toca Boca has a new direction, including a unique approach to the oldest children’s media form: Television. Come and near Abby explain what they’ve learned by making Toca TV.
11:30 Final panel: with a conclusion and summary by David Kleeman. What have we learned this year, and what can we expect for 2017?
If you’re staying in the Inn, make sure you checkout of your room by 10:00 AM. It is OK to store bags in the Riverside room.
12:00 Lunch
12:20 Transbridge Bus #1 leaves to Newark Liberty, arriving 1:35 PM (for early flights). Note that departure is from the Hess Station, 5 blocks from the Inn.
1:30 Dust or Magic limo bus departs to Newark Liberty International Airport, arriving 2:45 PM
1:55 Transbridge bus departs to Newark Liberty Airport, arriving 3:15 PM
5:50 PM last Transbridge bus departs to Newark Liberty Airport, arriving 7:15 PM (departs from the Hess Station, 5 blocks from the Inn). You can buy tickets from the Valparaiso Deli, Rt 165 & Rt 518, 609-397-1116
Speaker details
[speakers presentation_id=4698/]