Really cool iPad app for kids and Not-so-cool iPad app for kids

It is a great journey to learn iPad apps with my son. There is one particular app that really inspires a 5 year old boys imagination and I would like you to check out its promo video because it pretty much touches upon the whole idea of old, traditional toys.

I love old toys. I was extremely happy to find a wooden box of domino in our local Oxfam shop and I play with it myself! The sound of falling domino makes my son giggle and we all have a great time. On the other hand I get extremely frustrated when each Wednesday we go to the local bookshop to get his weekly magazine and simply cannot find one without a stupid plastic gun or something equally useless (why do we get toys in kids magazines anyway? instead of reading or drawing our kids end up playing with the toy itself, which is a way defeats the whole idea of purchasing a printed copy). So you can imagine that I was really happy to see Dawid actively engaged in creating new shapes and structures with "Ball Fall Down" iPad game. It's fun, it's creative, it requires a little bit of experimenting and for a little boy has all the elements he needs: constructions, little balls falling of the endges of imaginary shelves and ability to move things around according to his newest idea. Building, testing and recreating - great process for a small child. Without social features or additional game levels I can safely leave him for a few minutes to play. With calming music I can continue my conversations with him in a polite manner.

The reason why I mention politeness and calmness is because some of the films, stories, music or games have a huge effect on my son's behaviour. We cannot watch Ben10, not Tom&Jerry anymore. Kung Fu Panda is allowed only once in a while. Somehow Disney movies, at least majority of them, do the trick. And documentaries on how to build things;) In terms of iPad apps there are traps there too. We have been giggling over the "Talking Tom" app and it's brothers and sisters (apps designed to represent an animal or character which then can be directed, fed or pampered) but I am not sure if hitting a cat, making it fart is a good way forward. I guess it's also a question of culture - in Poland farting is considered extremely rude, so I tend to be a bit sensitive there. But what I am really worried about is the emotional effect the "Talking Tom" app has on my son. Playing the game is fun, he is happy and smiles a lot but the moment he stops the game he becomes impatient and hyperactive. I guess in this case it might be a question of balance. It is indeed an interesting process to see him interact with a virtual character, but the quality of the interaction is something I begin to question.

Kids and Technology (Facebook) for #MCN4

Photo by @markspoff

I just had a great discussion with attendees of Media Camp Nottingham 4 on kids and technology. As I need to run to join my family, I will just include the slides and recording of the session for now, hoping that I can add my points a bit later too! In the meantime, enjoy the bits below;)

Thank you to the organisers for having me over!

Kids and Technology (Facebook) for Media Camp Nottingham

View more presentations from Voice

"I may cause a scene"

My son is a geek. It's obvious.

How about his mother?

The campaign I am posting below made me realise how important it is to clearly manage the time with kids, specially for someone working in or with social media/Internet.

In my case (and I strongly advise you do the same) a clear schedule of the day does the trick. Mornings are for all of us to wake up, which seems to be a very slow process, so there is not place for Internet. Actually, I belong to those who check their e-mails in bed before getting up. Remember, if you do so, make sure your partner is ok with it too;) If I check the list in my inbox I can relax, even if there are new todo tasks in my mail - at least I know what awaits me. I walk my son to school and before I sit down to work I am spending at least few minute staring at the garden, playing guitar or sipping my coffee on the sofa - to balance back the hours I am to spend in from of my screen!

After work and school we spend time away from laptop. I am trying to follow the rule of using the Internet for my son's games and education only, not my own work (unless the virtual worlds fall apart;)). I am resting from the noise. I get back on-line once he is asleep. So even if we just sit together engaged in separate tasks, I am trying to avoid the web. There is this element of attention and different space that worries me. I do not want to be present-absent in front of a child, for whom I AM the world. At least for now. At least as much as I can.

So if you are a geek parent, please remember - the virtual reality is a part of our live nowadays, but only PART of it;)

iPad apps for kids

If you ask me, iPad is a device designed for kids (and if for grown ups then just because we ARE big kids in disguise). So when we talk about safe, but effective and in dept Internet usage for children Ipad apps become an increasingly important topic. I have found two interesting blogs dedicated to iPad apps for kids, iPadforkids and apps4kids. Over at Online Classes there is a good list of learning apps for kids. TechRadar in the UK posted the best 10. Mashable includes kids apps in their usual updates, like this one on books re-designed for iPad. Now, I will obviously have my own opinions about various apps my 5 year old is using, so let me start with just a few we really like, and maybe one or two we had to delete.

First of all, Angry Birds - classing game for all ages. It's brilliant, it's funny, and it gives my son great feeling of success. Simple thing, but the fact that he can go back to all previous levels helps every time he gets stuck with the highest one.

NASA app - great solution to the issue of YouTube browsing (which cannot really be controlled). Here, everything happens within the app, so parents can be sure that the child accesses only kids friendly content.

Kid Art for iPad - great tool for kids creativity with few nice pre-defined themes and options to save creations easily.

Drawing Pad - even better than Kid Art for iPad. Dawid loves the stickers idea and endless options for tools and colours.

Intro to Math and Intro to Letters gave us a good start to accept the notion of learning on iPad. When faced with the choice of various action games, kids might think learning is boring. Those two little apps are very simple, visually friendly and engaging.

Simon's Cat iPad app - now, we love this one simply because we love Simon's Cat.

Lego Ninjago - we love it, because we love lego;)

Dinopedia by National Geographic - great app for dino lovers!

And now we are getting more and more interested in apps related to books, but the only one we like so far is Peekaboo Forest.

That's all from me - let me know, what YOU like, so we can test it too!;)

Kids Safety on-line for Barcamp UAE

As I gradually get enough sleep to be able to ruin my nights again;) I need to update you on developments of last two weeks, while I was traveling. I will start will short presentation I prepared for Barcamp UAE, and partially managed to discuss during a virtual session a week ago in Dubai.

Kids safety for Barcamp UAE

View more presentations from Sylwia Presley.

The team of barcamp attendees has gathered to discuss implications of growing interest of kids in new technologies, and thus social media channels as well. We seemed to agree on two points: kids safety on-line is parents and teachers responsibility and should be included in school curriculum but there is also a need for centralized, governmental support too.

Mashable is posting an interesting article about it here, so I hope those of you who so patiently put up with my ...well...poor wifi from the hotel in Santiago de Chile will find it useful to continue discussion. I really hope to see it continuing both on local, as well as global level! Thx for attending and thx to Barcamp UAE organizers for invitation!