Family Tech Blog

Category: education

  • New Tech Products for Your Youngest Children

    New Tech Products for Your Youngest Children

    Every kids loves technology and screens. How often should we allow screen time for our younger children? Companies are making tech for children of every age and much of it was on display at CES2020. We should allow our kids to use tech while allowing them to remain kids. Here are some new tech products for your youngest children that I found at CES2020.

    Marbotic

    Many new learning methods are founded on the fact that the manipulation of physical objects is a key factor in learning for young children. This has been discovered to be a downfall of screen-based learning for pre-school kids. Games like Marbotic give kids an opportunity to learn on their screens while using tangible letters and shapes to control what happens. This taps into the “full interactivity of the screen” to enrich their learning experience. 

    There are several different games available. They use a tangible item to touch the screen and answer questions, the app can tell if they are right are wrong and rewards them or help them. The app teaches shapes, letters, writing, and pronunciation by showing different pictures as a result of what you use to answer questions. They have even partnered with Sesame Street to put out a version of the app with those characters.

    Roybi

    Do our young ones need robots? Many companies are making robots for our kids, even our youngest children. Most of them seem to be pointless companions that are just “smart” stuffed animals. Roybi is different, though. This robot is a teacher.

    Roybi is a personal tutor that interacts with your child to teach them languages and STEM skills. The team at Roybi has harnessed evidence-based practices to help your child learn through play. Listed as one of TIME magazines best inventions of 2019, Robyi Lets kids ages 3-7 learn at their own pace and focus on what they are best at and most interested in. 

    Roybi doesn’t move around but does see and has educational conversations with your child. The robot uses these games to teach science, math and language skills.

    How Much Should My Kid Use Tech?

    Seeing all of these new tech products for our youngest children brings about the question. How much should my kid use technology? The issue is not as much the amount of time our kids use tech. Experts are more concerned with what they are doing during the time they are on these products. The answer is more education and less entertainment. These products give your kids opportunity to use the tech they love while learning skills they will continue to need. Studies have shown that learning only on a screen isn’t as helpful for our preschoolers as learning with things they can touch, feel, and manipulate. These products that combine the screen, voice, and tangible items set our children up to learn important subjects that they will require throughout their education.

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  • Tech Toys Teach the Love of Reading

    Tech Toys Teach the Love of Reading

    Using technology to teach the love of reading isn’t new. Amazon and Barnes and Noble did it with their Kindle and Nook. Now we’re seeing products come out to help children love reading as well. The show floor at CES2020 had several products designed to teach the love of reading. Here are a couple of those products I thought were super unique and cool. 

    Bookinu

    Audiobooks are a great way to consume content while you’re busy doing other things. Reading out loud to your children has been touted as critical for their development. Some products give your kids the ability to hear books being read to them but Bookinu allows the narrator to be you. 

    Bookinu is for children from three to seven years old. It encourages them to love reading through an easy to use app for parents. Moms and dads open the app and read any book they would like into the app. You put a sticker on the book and scan it with the Booking. The Bookinu will then playback your reading of the story through the Bookinu devices so that the child is hearing the book read to them in your voice. It is very easy to use and can be taken anywhere. It can store books internally so that you don’t need a wifi connection to play the content for your child. There is also a headphone jack and a speaker built-in. 

    Dipongo

    “Dipongo is the first creative app for personalized stories mixing both real and virtual worlds.” – Dipongo Website 

    Using voice recognition the app chooses the right story for kids based on their likes and dislikes. You then use tangible objects to influence the story through photos and augmented reality. Kids create, draw, build, and mold to get the story to continue. The story changes somewhat based on what you choose to insert into the narrative. If you build a bridge to get over the valley they’ll cross it. If you take a photo of a plane, they’ll fly across. 

    Stories on Dipongo are co-authored with childhood and creativity professionals. The award-winning app was designed to educate kids on problem-solving, socialization, and contributing to a story. Watching the example on the show floor at CES caused me to smile a silly grin that wouldn’t go away. The cute characters and unique challenges are sure to keep your kids entertained for a long time, all the while teaching them some very useful skills. 

    Counterintuitive? 

    It may seem silly to use technology to try and encourage your kids to love a not so tech-centric activity like reading. Why not harness something they already use to encourage such a helpful skill. If reading out loud to our kids is such a great thing then an app that lets us read to them whenever we would like can only be super helpful. If we don’t allow it to replace the times we sit with them in person it can be a great tool. Using behaviors from Alexa and GoogleAssistant to read to our kids is neat but the voice of their parent isn’t being heard. Bookinu gives loved ones the ability to re-insert themselves into the read-aloud activity that is so beneficial. 

    Giving older kids a way to interact with stories through augmented reality and building with tangible items is a wonderful idea also. This allows them to get lost in storytelling in a way that they may have never before. Storytelling and creativity is critical and will always be skills that kids can harness to be successful in the future. Dipongo gives them a head start on those problem solving and storytelling skills. 

    The goal is to find tech that entices our kids to learn and gives them tools that they’ll need to succeed. There is a lot of tech out there that distracts our children and can even become harmful. I was excited to find these two options that give parents the ability to harness their kids’ love of tech to encourage a love of learning. The love of learning will serve their children well for the rest of their lives. 

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  • Toys Teach Computer Science and Coding

    Toys Teach Computer Science and Coding

    I have said it before, there will likely not be a lot of low wage jobs available for our youngest children when they reach employment age. We’re seeing burgers ordered and prepared by machines and having our groceries check out, stocked, and even bagged by computers and robots. What will be necessary is the workers who know how to operate those machines and program those computers. That is why coding education is becoming so important. It is important for our kids to have toys that teach computer science and coding. 

    There is never any shortage of coding toys available at CES. While many have seemed to be copycats of things we’ve already seen, there are some cool options out there. Here is a look at some of what I found to be most interesting. 

    Artie3000

    Artie3000 is an artist. He’s a cute little robot that draws pictures based on the code you enter on his app. He comes with preprogrammed designs, shapes, and games and there is a library of videos to let you learn all about what Artie can do. 

    Artie introduces coding logic and basics, encourages creativity, and provides STEM and STEAM education. He is secure with no connection to the internet, his app is designed to work one way, from the tablet to Artie himself. This keeps your kids offline and out of danger. Artie also doesn’t collect any data from the user. That’s a huge plus.

    Watching Artie draw was cool. He is intended for kids above 7 as some of the coding assignments assume you’ve learned a bit of the logic already. I think the blending of robotics, programming, and art is a big win for parents since some of our kids may not see the benefit of coding robots. Our more creative type of kids may see a benefit to robotics and engineering after all. 

    Botley 2.0

    My kids love Botley. They’ve put hours and hours into programming him to go through their obstacle courses and tracks. It has proven to be a fun way for them to learn the language and logic of programming. I don’t know how many times I have said, “If he isn’t doing what you want, it is because you didn’t input the right commands.” That, my friends, is the essence of programming and coding in a single phrase. 

    Botley 2.0 brings the same adorable robo-friend with some new behaviors and lots of cool new features. He lights up in the dark thanks to his new light sensor and he can use those lights to do a programmable light show. He also features a Simon Says type game and code by color features. 

    Doodlematic 

    Doodlematic is an app that takes any photo that contains the color combinations required and turns it into a playable game. Kids can draw a picture with markers, paint a scene, or even bake a cake using red blue and green icing. When they take a photo of their art and import it into the app it applies features to each color, turning into a game that they can play. Blue becomes collectible targets, green is your character and red turns into platforms and scenery in the game. Doodlematic isn’t a coding app but it is a really neat way to get your kids who are interested in gaming and making games into drawing out their ideas on paper first. 

    Doodlematic isn’t a coding app but it is a really neat way to get your kids who enjoy playing and learning about video games to design their own. It even rewards them for using paper first. I am really excited to play with Doodlematic with my kids. I know they’ll have a blast challenging each other to the games they’ve designed.

    Important Skills for the Future

    Having toys that teach computer science and coding is very important for our kids. There are a lot of toys that teach computer science and coding but I liked these the best. One of these options doesn’t even use a screen while the other two combine tangible products with the screen to teach computer skills. These toys are getting better and better at teaching our kids. I highly recommend you check out these items. Maybe one of them is something your kids with truly enjoy.

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  • The Worst Thing About CES2020!

    The Worst Thing About CES2020!

    I spent five days walking around the show room floor and attending conference sessions at CES2020. It is the largest trade show in the world. I saw all kinds of technology from smart cars, smart homes, and toys and ed products for kids. These people are why I am at CES. I’m there to learn how their products can benefit our kids in the future. Tech is super helpful and useful as a tool for education, entertainment, and development. Many kids are learning in ways they couldn’t before, children are getting opportunities they didn’t have before because of vr and ar classrooms. Technology is and always will be a part of our lives. The world is getting more and more tech-centric. The worst thing about CES2020 seems to be that parent’s concerns about the amount of tech in their kids’ lives are being ignored.

    The Worst Thing about CES2020

    I heard a lot of mixed messages at CES this year. Especially at the Living at Digital Times “Family Tech Summit.” It has become increasingly frustrating to listen to software developers and hardware engineers talk about how their new technology is going to change the world. While much of this technology is very neat, and as mentioned, can be helpful. There are also a small percentage of people on the stages at CES warning us that our kids are becoming too dependent on this technology. Parents and teachers are getting concerned because they feel like technology is moving far faster than they can keep up. The experts at CES don’t seem to understand the anxiety caused by new, “world changing,” technology being announced every single year.

    Most technology being announced at CES is a new take on the same thing we’ve had for the past ten years. I am walking in to the Family Tech Summit expecting to hear about what new products will be best for our kids. Instead I am hearing what will be best for these developers and companies. How to market and close sales with their new products. I did hear from a few people about ways to protect our kids on the technology we allow them to use.

    Unfortunately they were given a small amount of time. They were followed by someone who just got on stage to celebrate the latest voice control tech. This “expert” explained how great it is for our kids. He marginalized parents’ concerns by calling them misguided. then he touted the fact that parents seem to be concerned but don’t take action to protect their kids. He ignored the fact that companies make their products and advertise them as safe. They build in parental controls that are weak and hard to set up. Then they wonder why they show up in the news when a kid comes across adult content on a smart speaker or is visited by a stranger on their in-room nanny cam.

    It wasn’t all bad.

    There were highlights at CES2020, though. Dr Amanda Gummer with the Good Toy Guide, spoke of using tech to encourage kids to play and learn. Sean Herman, author of “Screen Captured,” shared about his own kids and how their attention to screens caused him to start Kinzoo. Kinzoo is a messenger app that “turns screen time into family time.” I met Carrol Titus, founder of GoldenPoppy Inc. who is making augmented reality games to teach physics, programming, and positive self awareness. I enjoyed speaking with Ahren Hoffman and Sue Warfield from the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association, “ASTRA.” We talked about the lack of attention to giving parents tools to learn and use tech wisely and the benefits of kids playing off of screens. Especially young children.

    Everyone can say what they want about screen time and the benefits or risks. The truth I see is ‘that technology should enhance our play and education. It shouldn’t replace it. Parents aren’t freaking out because their kids are spending too much time watching educational videos. They’re not concerned about them playing apps that teach them to read or do math. The concern is the unstoppable flow of entertainment that comes flying at our children at toy stores and app stores. Entertainment that has no intention of teaching anything, just using up your child’s time and attention to show them ads or sell them access to more entertainment. I understand that many want to see tech become the new norm for education, recreation, entertainment, and everything else.

    The issue is that we currently aren’t promoting balance. Surely not at CES2020, definitely not in our app stores or on the shelves of our retailers. Once again, it falls to us as parents to take the step towards a healthy attitude toward s tech. Digital wellness is our responsibility and the more I hear from app developers and toy makers, the more I am sure they won’t be taking it seriously, not really, so we have to.

    If you’re concerned about what your kids are doing online, be sure to check out Accountable2You.com. This software is my favorite accountability software and will help you keep a close eye on the websites your kids view.

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  • YouTube May Have to Stop Making Money Off Our Kids

    YouTube May Have to Stop Making Money Off Our Kids

    The US Federal Trade Commission is finishing an investigation into YouTube’s Children’s Data and Ad policies and at least one member of Congress is now asking for YouTube to make some major changes. Massachusettes Senator, Ed Markey has officially requested that the FTC enforce some major policy shifts on Google for how YouTube handles advertisements to children and the collection of kids’ data.

    The request states that:

    Personal information about a child can be leveraged to hook consumers for years to come, so it is incumbent upon the FTC to enforce federal law and act as a check for the ever increasing appetite for childrens’ data. – FTC YouTube COPPA 2019

    This three-page document outlines a plan for rules that the FTC should enforce upon YouTube in order to keep them compliant with  COPPA and to better regulate their child advertising practices. The rules include requiring Google to stop collecting data from users under 13, requiring YouTube to develop a way to identify users under 13 and implement COPPA compliant policies, disallow influencers from marketing products geared towards children under 13, and forcing Google to create a fund for developing content meant for children that is ad-free and COPPA compliant. 

    COPPA imposes certain requirements on operators of websites or online services directed to children under 13 years of age, and on operators of other websites or online services that have actual knowledge that they are collecting personal information online from a child under 13 years of age.

    What Parents Should Know

    Parents have to be intentional about teaching their children about online privacy. Regulations from the FTC will, likely, be coming in the near future. Even if these changes aren’t as strict as the ones listed in the letter from Senator Markey, they will still cause major ripples in the YouTube creator and viewer community. The way that YouTube seems to try and handle these kinds of problems is by “demonetizing” videos that contain the type of content they are taking heat about. The heat they are getting from the FTC right now, though, is concerning some of the most profitable channels on any video sharing platform ever.

    Advertising is the way these companies make their money and collecting data is their sole model for targeting their advertising. If they aren’t allowed to target children anymore then there won’t be much content on YouTube for children at all. Our approach has always to only allow our kids to watch YouTube videos that we have selected and they must watch them on the television in the living room. That protects them from any surprises and we curate the types of videos they are allowed to watch. We also have YouTube Premium which removes ads. This is helpful since the algorithm that selects which ads show up on what videos often doesn’t take the age of the target audience into account. (i.e. an ad for the latest Childs Play film on a video about kids making slime.)

    As I always say, we should hold these companies accountable as much as possible but it falls to parents to be the responsible ones when it comes to our children’s digital health and online safety. What is your approach to YouTube, do your kids watch as much as they want? Do you limit their viewership on YouTube? Do you think this news will affect how much time you allow them to use the app? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

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  • The State of Education Technology in 2019

    The State of Education Technology in 2019

    One of the hottest topics of last year’s CES was coding education. This year was no different. From the show floor to the FamilyTech Summit ed tech was all the rage. It wasn’t limited to coding, though. There were plenty of products at CES 2019 that featured ways to teach kids how to code, use their creativity, and even build their own robots. Most of them used an app on an iPad or Android device that used Scratch or JavaScript (two coding languages) to program a toy or robot. 

    My favorite toys were the ones that didn’t use a screen to teach coding concepts. Those were a bit few and far between this year but there were some pretty fun options. Coding Critters was one that is meant to teach coding logic to pre-schoolers. There were also a few screen free products that read stories to your children. The discussion at the FamilyTechSummit featured a lot of education talk. Mostly discussing the importance of teaching coding and creativity and how robotics, engineering, and computing can strengthen those skills. 

    Botley the Screen Free Coding Ed Robot

    There were train sets that are controlled with colored tiles placed on the tracks. The set then can grow with the kids as they learn to code using the app that comes with the trains. A Harry Potter wand that teaches coding through wand gestures and behaviors was a highlight and one that my kids will love to play and learn with. As was Specdrums, a set of finger attachments that can be programed to play notes or beats based on what colors they are touching. These little toys turn your world into a musical instrument based on the code you program into the circuits.

    There were a lot of toys designed to teach circuitry and electronics. Many of these toys contain components that allow you to build on to them with your own legos and make your creations come to life by connecting circuits and coding behaviors into them. The ability to build and create on your own was a great feature of many toys at CES 2019, even taking over the coding robot trend. Building your robots, combining your creations with an augmented reality world, and even robots like Artie which let you program him to draw and create works of art. S.T.E.M. is becoming S.T.E.A.M. whether you consider art a part of engineering or something on its own, the toy industry is buying in to the ability to create while you work out the logic and mathematics required to build electronics.

    Robots, circuits, and coding aren’t the only exciting ed tech advancements. Augmented and virtual reality are getting into the game as well. This tech takes you right into the experience you’re learning about whether a science lab, outer space, under the sea, or ancient Rome. Being able to walk around in ancient cities to learn about the lives of our ancestors is remarkable and becoming more accesible to the general public and to schools all over the country.

    Ed Tech is advancing quickly and I think it’s good that it’s moving beyond teaching the same old things just on a computer. These toys are bringing new and interactive ways to learn about the topics your kids will need to understand in order to compete for that future job that doesn’t even exist yet. While it is always important to watch the amount of screen time our kids get. If we can keep the time safe, educational, and innovative, we go a long way to protecting them as we prepare them for their future.