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Friday 21 January 2011

Appy Talk

I've been contemplating a post about children's book apps for a while, and then up popped Kate Wilson's article in the latest Books for Keeps. Kate is Managing Director of Nosy Crow, a new children's publishing company which will include apps for children aged 2 to 7 in its output, as well as books for ages 0 to 14. Her article explains why they have decided to do this and the approach they are taking to apps - Kate doesn't believe they should be squashing existing books into a new format but creating original reading experiences for touch screen devices using their capacity for sound, animation and interactivity to tell stories in a new and engaging way. Kate makes the case much better than I can, so please read the article.

Someone else who has written about apps recently is Trevor Cairney in his blog Literacy, families and learning. He's covered them in three recent posts:
"Alice", the iPad and new ways to read picture books
Literacy and the iPad: a review of some popular apps
Literacy and the iPad: a second review of children's literature apps

Finally, apps are not just for fiction - they can help with all areas of the curriculum. Even the Scottish Government has noticed - see Help with school: there's an app for that from the Engage for Education site.

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