Dot Learnt

Interactive infographics, GPS locators, dynamic texts and pop-up images. This is the future of literature. And this captivating TED talk gives you a first hand look at the power of the digital book.

As the next generation becomes our generation, the way we learn must evolve with the times. Books serve a purpose – to teach and immerse readers in a different world. With everything else in our world getting tech-ed out, from the way we travel to the way we do business, it’s about time our books converse back with us. (more…)

In celebration of summer vacation and the extra time families have for reading, we’ve decided to release “BB and Sam: The Return of the Champion” for FREE to teachers, students and families around the world this summer.

To download the book for free on iTunes, visit: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/bb-sam-return-champion/id523805816.

BB and Sam have never left the sleepy little town where they were born, but that is about to change! Unexpected adventure awaits them when their journalist parents take them on assignment to Thailand. 

Arriving in Bangkok, they meet a prize-winning muay Thai boxer, Kak, who has suddenly lost his fighting spirit. Eager to find out the “real story” behind Kak, BB and Sam go on a quest to unravel the mystery. Their journey leads them to a mysterious bookshop, flooded jungles, an elusive white elephant, remote villages and more. Along the way, BB and Sam discover what it means to have courage and the importance of respecting culture and tradition.

BB and Sam: The Return of the Champion is Book 1 of The Adventures of BB and Sam–a classic travel adventure series for families with global curiosity. Ages 8+ (more…)

Before making your next app purchase, Silvia Rosenthal Toilsano is here to help. Her  great guide helps ensure parents and teachers that their app purchases have educational value beyond pure entertainment.

Before dishing out your credit card information in the App Store, take a step back and assess the elements that Toilsano poses:

1)    Value – Does this app bring something new to the table? Does it motivate the learner on a new level?
2)    Connection – Does the app relate to the curriculum taught in school? Is the content relevant?
3)    Possibility – Does the app have the potential of getting the learner to apply certain skills beyond the initial context? What is the app’s impact?
4)    Difference – What is the difference in using the app as opposed to teaching the material yourself? What is your opportunity cost?
5)    Potential – Will this app transform the learner’s thinking? (more…)

If you intend to excite your child about the world of books, our recent reading research is meant to help spread the word on ways to turn your tike into a confident enthusiast of reading. Utilize your eReader or tablet and check out our lucky 7 list of top reading apps for this summer!

The Going to Bed Book:
For the hands of your 2 – 5 year olds
Ridiculously cute, this book turned app follows the story of little critters as they get ready for bed. Striking the perfect balance between interaction and comprehension, you’ll love its focus on reading skills and creativity!

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore:
For the hands of your 4 – 12 year olds
With an enthusiasm and zeal for words and animation that bursts off your eReader’s screen, this  app drives your little learner’s desire to read. Taps will change the season, swipes will work the pages – in its entirety, Mr. Morris Lessmore does justice to the reading process.

Aesop’s Quest:
For the hands of your 2 – 6 year olds
This learning game quizzes students on different elements of the story in order to progress to the next chapter or level. With a reward at the end of each segment, the quest is completed once you have acquired all the puzzle pieces – read, play and solve!

Reading for Details:
For the hands of your 4 – 11 year olds (different levels)
This MiniMod Bingo game helps students extract from their stories the 5W’s (Who, What, Where, When and Why). The interactive feature allows users to sync up their iPad with a buddy for a friendly round of reading competition!
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At Bon Education, we focus our work at the intersection of education, technology, literacy and global awareness. It is our mission to bring these vastly differently elements together through our creative endeavors. That’s why when we came across Primary Source World we were beyond excited to find others striving towards a similar cause.

The non-profit organization based out of  the United States aims to promote history and the humanities by linking up teachers and educators to individuals from cultures around the world . It is all about making history books and world cultures come to life. Primary Source’s online resources bridge the gap between K-12 educators, scholars and the global community by issuing curriculum resources that introduce classrooms to diverse global content.

Primarily, the organization offers school-year seminars and summer institutes that can take qualified teachers on study tours to different countries such as China, Japan or Ghana, with over 40 schools and school districts participating in their programming.

The classroom ready activities incorporate primary resources such as audio and visual clips, artifacts and written documents in order to demystify misunderstood and under-represented topics and their histories.

For example, the Cultural Snapshots of Daily Life in Japan for Elementary Students lesson plan escorts students on a Japanese excursion, taking students beyond the stereotypes of Hello Kitty and sushi and into the realities of Japanese life. It is an effort to bring the unfamiliar and far away a little bit closer. (more…)

The recent Joan Ganz Cooney Center quick study, “Print books vs. eBooks” has caused quite a stir in reading and techno-panic circles—inspiring paper book purists to condemn eBooks all together and the eBook curious to become more vociferous about the merits and potential of tablet-based literary experiences. These articles beg the questions: What were the results of the study? Why should parents and children’s book lovers care?

“Print books vs. eBooks” study in a nutshell:

Purpose of study:  To compare parent-child reading interactions, child reading engagement and child reading comprehension across basic, eBook and enhanced (multi-media) book formats.

Methodology: The Joan Ganz Cooney Center “recruited 32 pairs of parents and their 3-6-year-old children at the New York Hall of Science’s Preschool Place. Each pair read a print book and either an enhanced or basic e-book while researchers videotaped their interactions and took observational notes. Following the co-reading task, researchers tested the children on their comprehension of the story and interviewed parents about their reading practices at home and elsewhere.”

Results:

“Across all book formats, children performed nearly equally when asked to explain a critical element in the story.”

“Children who read enhanced eBooks recalled significantly fewer narrative details than children who read the print version of the same story.”

“When measuring overall engagement—a composite of parent-child interaction, child-book interaction, parent-book interaction, and signs of enjoyment—63% of the pairs were as engaged reading the print book as they were when reading the e-book (both types).”

“When measuring child-book engagement (e.g., direct attention, touch), more children showed higher levels of engagement for the e-books than the print books… Children also physically interacted with the enhanced e-book more than when reading either the print or basic e-book.” See full study details here.

What does this study have to do with my child? Why should I care? (more…)