Introduction
What are appisodes?
Appisodes are digitally animated stories that are interactive. Appisodes are a combination of the traditional cartoon and an adventure game. Appisodes are designed specifically to work with tablet computers.
Who are appisodes developed for?
Appisodes were developed for parents who want to help prepare their 3-5 year old child with the necessary skills for Kindergarten and beyond. At this age children are within what Jean Piaget calls the preoperational stage of development. The learners in this stage of development are not only learning to use symbolic representation such as speaking, writing, drawing and using numbers, but other foundational skills such as attention control, emotional awareness, and problem solving. Appisodes use a variety of techniques such as storytelling and game-based learning to hone in on both the concrete and abstract skills that children need at this stage of development in order to be successful later on.
Example of an appisode
Although most appisodes exist as downloadable apps, some exist on Youtube. In this example from Disney's Junior Appisodes, the story follows the familiar Disney story of Frida Fairy flies again. In the story, Alma's fairy flier gets caught on a branch that rips a hole in its wing. The story then stops and asks the user to choose what Doc McStuffins should use to fix the wing, a dinosaur head or a patch:
If you click on the dinosaur head, the story goes on to show that in fact the correct answer is a patch. If you click on the patch, the story goes on to congratulate you on your correct choice and show you how the patch is used to fix the kite. You can watch and interact with the appisode here:
Educational Implications
Most experts believe that integrating technology is developmentally appropriate for children older then 3 years old. Gardner (1987) states that children over the age of three exhibit a diversity of learning styles, and that the optimum way for children over the age of three to learn is multi-modal and therefore direct verbal instruction should be parlayed with other teaching methods.
It is clear that appropriate use of technology matches up well with these developmental needs especially in the areas of exploration, manipulation of symbolic representation, and rapidly changing learning modalities that children can control and pace to meet their own learning needs. Technology is also a very powerful tool for children with specific learning disabilities.
The promise of appisodes is that they help reinforce good habits and give children who are 3-5 years old a platform to develop the following foundational skills:
It is clear that appropriate use of technology matches up well with these developmental needs especially in the areas of exploration, manipulation of symbolic representation, and rapidly changing learning modalities that children can control and pace to meet their own learning needs. Technology is also a very powerful tool for children with specific learning disabilities.
The promise of appisodes is that they help reinforce good habits and give children who are 3-5 years old a platform to develop the following foundational skills:
- Problem solving – Giving children choices and allowing them the opportunity to work on solutions to progressively more difficult problems.
- Identifying patterns – Allowing children to
recognize different shapes and patterns and make predictions on what a
character is likely to do following a predictable pattern of behavior.
- Attention control – Having children focus on one task at a time without getting distracted.
- Impulse control – Having children interact with an adaptive set of circumstances that challenges their impulses and helps develop self regulation.