Through a Ready to Learn grant from the US Department of Education, PBS in partnership with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has developed innovative, free learning suites of interactive math content for preschoolers. The modern learning materials are available to parents and educators, without cost, at a fresh, educational gaming space, PBS KIDS Lab.
The Ready to Learn grant program, managed by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Innovation and Improvement, promotes early learning and school readiness, with a particular interest in reaching low-income children. Ready to Learn supports the development of innovative digital media targeted at preschool and early elementary school children and their families. This is critical as national assessments show over 60 percent of the nation’s students are performing below proficient levels of math and reading by grade four. Innovation and development in educational media, coupled with technologies already embraced by today’s children, build on the science of learning to develop modern strategies of effective learning.
Accelerating learning’s effectiveness
Lesli Rotenberg, Senior Vice President, Children’s Media, PBS, indicates, “As the nation’s children continue to fall behind, we need to embrace new technology to help them learn. Our goal is to leverage the power of media to make anytime a learning time for kids. We’ve tapped the best children’s media producers and technology developers in the country to create this collection of math games that demonstrates the very best of what media can do.”
Game-based learning
PBS Kids knows that active engagement is a critical part of real learning. Games provide a basis for gaining skills based on the science of learning, tapping situations that engage with choice, motivation, intensity, challenge, rewards, readiness, and active use of skills. To help kids build the skills they need for school success, PBS Kids has raised the bar through an initiative that developed the educational gaming space, PBS KIDS Lab, that makes available for free its and largest and freshest offerings of interactive math content for preschoolers.
New, cross-platform games at PBS KIDS Lab
PBS KIDS Lab offers several dozen, new cross-platform games designed for children ages two through eight. The learning games comprise several suites, each of which is centered around a PBS KIDS media property, creating learning strands based on Curious George to The Cat in the Hat knows a lot about that! themes. Each learning suite links a set of games across platforms – accessible through computers, mobile devices and interactive whiteboards – so that kids engage with the same characters as they move from device to device. The content also is linked by a curricular framework, leveraging games on a variety of platforms to support key math skills.
Easy for parents and teachers to use
Reaching into this new learning content is easy, both for parents and for teachers. PBS KIDS Lab aggregates games by age and skill area. Parents can search for the games that will be the best fit for their kids. Parents and teachers also can search the game library by familiar and trusted PBS KIDS series. Additionally, the site helps parents and teachers learn how the games support learning by providing details on the games’ curriculum-based content. To guide the new content, PBS developed a math framework, which maps out key building-block skills such as numbers and operations, shape attributes, and data collection and analysis, and ensured that all of the games featured on the PBS KIDS Lab align with the framework.
What will you find at PBS KIDS Lab?
Examples from the new suites of games include:
- Curious George Monkey Jump: A kinesthetic learning game in which kids jump along with George to fill a toy store bin with bouncy balls (requires webcam) and count along as each ball is added. There is also an equally fun mouse-driven version of the game for kids who don't have webcams.
- The Cat in the Hat knows a lot about that! Hermit Shell Game In this game about size and shape correspondence, players help the Cat, Nick, and Sally fit hermit crabs into shells that are just the right size and pattern. The game is playable on mobile devices as well as desktop computers.
- Fizzy’s Lunch Lab Carnival Count-off: Kids face off against Fast Food Freddy in the Greasy World game booth where they practice estimation skills and counting by 5's and 10's in a set of carnival-themed challenges.
Learn more about game-based learning
Parents and teachers interested in learning more about game-based learning can explore research from the New Media Institute, a research and fact finding organization focused on public understanding of issues surrounding the Internet and new media communications. The New Media Institute indicates “learning doesn’t mean rote memorization—it means acquiring the skills and thought processes needed to respond appropriately under pressure, in a variety of situations.”
Redefining learning’s active deployment in real world situations is highlighted in a New Media Institute white paper, Game-Based Learning: What it is, Why it Works, and Where it's Going, authored by Jessica Trybus, Director of Edutainment for Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center and founder and CEO of Etcetera Edutainment, a Carnegie Mellon spinoff that delivers game-based training technology to corporations.
Jessica Trybus’ white paper indicates good game-based learning environments are characterized by sound linkages to principles that underlie how people learn effectively. Critical to those learning principles are active aspects identified by James Paul Gee, author of What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy:
- A domain with recognizable linkage to the real world.
- A learning environment that encourages active and critical – not passive – learning.
- Cycling probing that allows for a process of experimentation
- Encouragement of engaged practice, challenge, and continual honing of skills
Leverage innovative learning’s reach and effectiveness
Game-based learning’s critical capacity to engage and challenge as it delivers both knowledge and thinking skills transforms learning. The new collection of games at PBS KIDS Lab innovates across platforms to both educate and entertain America’s children, wherever they live, learn, and play, whether they are online, on mobile devices, on TV, or in the classroom. Engaging learners and making learning effective is what education is all about. Click on to the new PBS KIDS Lab and check out ways to build your learner’s skills while make learning engaged fun, anytime and anywhere.
Find the take in this article to be helpful? The writer is a former US National Technology and Learning Teacher of the Year, a former US Web-based Education Commissioner during the Clinton administration, and former Vice President of Global Knowledge Exchange, now writing on National Education issues. To keep current on similar articles, view the suggested links below and click the free, “subscribe to get instant updates” link at the top of this article to get a conveniently customized news delivery.
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