September 18, 2013

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Pictures of the Week: A Future Librarian Enjoys SLJ’s ‘Early Birds’ Cover Story

A reader's daughter (and hopefully future librarian) reads through SLJ's Early Literacy-focused July issue, which featured the iconic Sesame Street character, Big Bird, on the cover.

An SLJ reader’s daughter peruses our Early Learning-focused July issue, which featured the iconic Sesame Street character, Big Bird, on the cover.

Are Learning Apps Good for Babies?

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Rachel G. Payne, coordinator of early childhood services at Brooklyn Public Library, offers advice for parents.

A Brace of Apps | Touch and Go

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What child can resist a book or app about animals? Incorporating vocabulary-rich texts and gentle environmental lessons, these apps will also find favor with teachers and parents.

Best of Apps & Enhanced Books | August 2013

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Our favorite apps this month include a tribute to Ludwig Van Beethoven’s ‘Ninth Symphony,’ and a rhyme based on a classic children’s song. If summer’s lovely weather hasn’t got you humming, these productions will.

Tweets, Drums, and Warbles: A Digital Field Guide to North American Birds | Touch and Go

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The perfect companion on a summer hike? National Geographic’s digital guide to North American birds allows nature lovers to identify winged creatures, learn about their habits, and record sightings, all before they can say Ladder-backed Woodpecker.

Augmented Reality with Aurasma | Tech Tidbits

Aurasma Star Trek

Aurasma is an augmented reality tool which allows you to overlay images and videos on to static content, sort of like “QR codes on steroids.” The Guybrarian has incorporated it into his back-to-school library orientation plan, and thinks you should too.

The Early Bird: How Sesame Workshop is adapting its revolutionary educational content for devices

A young tester puts an app through its paces at the offices of Sesame Workshop.

A peek behind the scenes of Sesame Workshop, which is negotiating the digital shift with care. The venerable brand has conducted more than 76 tests over two and a half years to understand how children, ages three to five, adopt and adapt to touch devices in their learning.

Beyond the Diorama: Punch Up Presentations | Tech Tidbits

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Gone are the dioramas of yesteryear. Times have changed, and students can ditch ancient techniques for new cool tools that can give them a deeper understanding of what they are studying. Here are a few resourceful ways to create and implement multimedia presentations that educators should explore during the summer.

Burn Note: The Snapchat of Texting

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Burn Note gives users the feeling that they can talk to anyone about anything because each text conversation “self-destructs,” much like Snapchat (the real-time picture chatting application) does with images.

Best of Apps & Enhanced Books | April 2013

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From stardust to remote galaxies, this month’s app standouts look toward the heavens.

Deluxe and Digital | Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men’

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A deluxe edition of John Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men’ offers educators a variety of multimedia resources to share with students.

Behind the Scenes with Spielberg’s Lincoln | Touch and Go

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‘Lincoln: Discover the Story’ is a free app that explores the passage of the 13th amendment and takes viewers behind the scenes of the Steven Spielberg movie.

Serving Truth, Justice, and Tighty Whities | The Captain Goes Digital

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Dav Pilkey’s Captain Underpants bursts onto the digital scene with full-color illustrations, nifty animation, and activities galore.

BiblioBoard’s Curated Collections for the iPad

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With the free BiblioBoard iPad app readers can dip into curated collections of “licensed, open source and public domain materials” on topics ranging from Punk Rock to The Brothers Grimm.

An Arctic Tale for Digital Devices

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With snow blanketing the country there’s not much else to do but pour yourself a cup of hot cocoa, grab your iPad, and get ready for a wintery adventure featuring two boys, a whale, and a polar bear or two.

Home-Schooled Florida Teen Creates ‘Jurassic’ App

Home-Schooled Florida Teen Creates ‘Jurassic’ App

Most kids who are obsessed with Tyrannosaurus Rex end up playing with figurines or poring over dinosaur-themed books. Not Evan Frost. Instead, the 13-year-old from Palm Beach Gardens, FL, turned his interest into an app he developed for Android phones.

Global Issues, Digital Perspectives

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Population growth, extreme weather, global warming—are all topics of interest to students and digital producers. Here’s a round-up of some recent apps that address these issues.

SLJ’s Top 10 Apps: 2012

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App production has skyrocketed. But curiously, a number of children’s book publishers and app developers are now thinking twice about the format. But that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been a slew of exceptional products this year, and you’ll find a number of them on our list.

Global Education Conference: “Apps Galore”

Photo by Pixland

The Global Education Conference, held around the clock November 12–16, offered a wide range of sessions by and for educators. In particular, “Appls Galore” emphasized a variety of ways to use this technology with young students.

Touch and Go | Animal Fact and Fiction

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It’s no secret children love learning about animals, and picture books about them are some of the most popular titles in libraries. Three apps combining story and facts about animal life have recently been made available. “Touch and Go’s” reviewers took at look at them.