Highlights Foundation Retreat 2015

Please note: This page has been archived.

Screen Shot 2015-03-06 at 12.23.01 PMCelebrate spring, and excellence in interactive design

caterpillar-soloThe third interactive media design for children retreat will take place at the beautiful Highlights Foundation in Boyds Mills, PA, about 2 1/2  hours northwest of New York City.

We’ll expand on the agenda of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair Masterclass, taking a closer look at the latest digital materials related to language development for preschool and elementary age children (aged 2-to 12-years).

Together we’ll dissect the latest apps, and together talk about what you need to know to “find the magic” in 2015. Examples will include the 2015 BolognaRagazzi Digital Award winners, mentions and short list selections.

• How do you turn a story “inside out” in order to increase child engagement as was done in My Very Hungry Caterpillar?

• David Wiesner’s Spot used a “powers of ten” mechanic to move through the story. What are some other innovative navigation schemes that every digital storyteller should know about?

• Auschwitz, a Tale of Wind was a bold undertaking, but it had some weak points. Can you identify the problems? If you were the designer, how could you tweak the interface to very affordably increase child engagement?

• How can the interactive techniques used in Pry and Freddie Wants Sausage help a child learn to encode and decode?

We’ll use our lasers to critique each example to better refine our own definition of what works (the magic), and what doesn’t (the dust).

flowers

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

  • Interactive designers who are responsible for making quality digital products.
  • Publishers who want to keep a competitive edge.
  • Authors who want to take a print based book and successfully move it to a screen.
  • Illustrators who want to learn how to illustrate for interactive design.
  • Early childhood educators who want to leverage the power of the tablet to help support early learning development.
  • Children’s librarians who want to find out what’s new with the latest children’s book apps, and learn about best practice.
  • ESL and Speech and Language Specialists who want to learn how to use tablets in day to day practice.

 

WHERE: The Highlights Foundation  in Boyds Mills, PA. Transportation will be provided to and from the Wilkes Barr International Airport in Scranton PA and New York Port Authority  (departing at 2:30 PM on Sunday).  If this is of interest to you, please let us know.

HERE’S A CONTENT PREVIEW: We’ll expand on the themes started last month in the Dust or Magic Masterclass in Bologna.

REGISTRATION: $1580 per seat ($880 for teachers, librarians and small publishers) which includes housing for 2 nights food, drinks and workshop materials. Group size is limited on a first-come, first-served basis. Save your seat now using the online registration form.  

Small publisher rate (3 or fewer full time employees) $880. To apply for this rate, use this form.
Educator/Librarian rate (must be full time teacher, librarian or graduate student). Use this form.

HOUSING: You’ll get your own private cabin.  To register by phone, please call 800-993-9499 (9 to 3 EST).

CONTINUING EDUCATION UNITS: Two CEUs are being offered by the Erikson Institute’s TEC for $100 extra.

FACULTY

warren-amsterdamWarren Buckleitner is an educational psychologist who reviews children’s interactive media. He’s been a preschool, elementary and college teacher (currently TCNJ’s IMM program). He is the founding editor of Children’s Technology Review.  He serves as the chair of the BolognaRagazzi Digital Prize at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair.

Lovely_GailheadshotGail Lovely is a former teacher who runs a school consulting and teacher training company. She holds a Master’s Degree in Educational Computing from Pepperdine University, where she was also an Adjunct Professor. Gail has provided content and interface development support and advice to several educational publishers and companies, and more recently to the educational versions of mobile device apps.

WHAT TO BRING

Dress is casual. Bring a tablet, your laptop, your favorite children’s book and a musical instrument.

 

AGENDA

Sunday April 19
2:00 – 5:00 PM Arrive (informal) and check in to get your workshop materials.

5:00 Greetings, Welcome and Introductions.

6:00 Dinner

7:00 What magic looks like The Annual BolognaRagazzi Digitial Award Demonstrations by Warren Buckleitner

Monday April 20

8:00 AM Breakfast

9:00 The Top 50 “narrative driven interactive media products” for children that everyone should know:

  • Fairy tales.
  • Fiction and non-fiction techniques.
  • Innovative interactive design strategies.
  • Android vs Apple

11:00 Literacy Theory, Applied to Tablets.  A fresh look at the latest literacy apps from the point of view of old theory: e.g., whole language vs. phonics.

12:00 Lunch

1:00 Application to education and learning (Gail Lovely)
Topics to include:

  • Introducing apps to young children for the first time
  • Using a tablet in the classroom
  • Using a tablet in the library
  • Apps that use the camera
  • Augmented reality apps

2:30 Break

2:45 Critiques with laser feedback

4:00 A hardware point of view. Apple’s iOS vs. Android vs. PC vs. OSX vs. Game Console vs. Kindle — What are the strengths and weaknesses of each, and what does each bring to children’s literacy?

5:00 Break

6:00 Dinner

7:00 Informal exploration and discussion

TUESDAY APRIL 21

8:00 Breakfast

9:00 Bottom 40: The lowest rated 40 apps from 2014. What went wrong, and why?

Writing  and Encoding: 30 Examples

  • Apps to help with fine motor development
  • Apps for verbal development
  • Making movies and digital creativity experiences.

10:30

11:00 Demos

12:00 Lunch

1:30 Evaluation and depart

Group size is limited; quality is not…

 

.