“The best way to get children to learn is to make them think they are playing!”, observed Julie Kuhn, founder of Super-Julie Apps during her session at Casual Connect Tel Aviv 2015. As a matter of fact, kids love apps that aren’t their parents’ favorites. Parents mainly see the tablet as an educational tool (and they can be skeptical, but minds are changing). The kids just want to play. The best apps use the best parts of the video game design to help children learn something new, step by step, challenge after challenge. Here are the ingredients of success you won’t want to forget. To learn more about what Julie has to offer, tune in below.
DOWNLOAD SLIDES
Julie Kuhn believes in learning through happiness. She was a teacher who knew children could learn with fun and laughter. And so she was inspired in a new direction for her career: giving children the tools that would allow them to learn in this way. She founded her company, Super-Julie, as an on-line resource to help parents and teachers discover the best apps for their children.
Seduced by the iPad
Her experience as a teacher sparked a strong desire to establish a company that valued education, but it was not until iPad was launched that she discovered exactly the sort of company she wanted. She began using it in her classroom and with her own children and, as she relates, “I was completely seduced by this little but powerful tablet.” Then, as the app store grew bigger, she realized it was the perfect time to begin advising parents and teachers.
Julie’s experience as a teacher gave her the guidelines for determining which apps would be best for certain groups of children. She discovered, for example that before a certain age tablet-based learning doesn’t work. Yet the same app could be a perfect fit for an older child.
A Powerful Way to Learn
Julie became involved in this industry by making sure it received the attention it deserved from parents and teachers. She also managed to prove the industry is not harmful to children; rather it is a powerful way for them to learn new things, particularly numeracy.
She began by testing apps, writing about them and being empathic with editors. As she did this she found herself sharing their problems and listening to their joys. She was in contact with communication media, and as she met their needs she received more and more opportunities to write articles.
The games she looks for have several key characteristics: ease of becoming familiar with the app, pleasant graphics, perfect gameplay, and, of course, educational value.
Everything is About Creation
Julie’s enthusiasm for her work comes through clearly as she says, “What I love the most is that everything is about creation: how to use the device at school, how to teach and learn with the tablet and what piece of advice to give to create the best apps ever.” She also finds the apps editors she works with unbelievably fascinating and clever people. And equally exciting for her is inventing a new, more enjoyable way to learn. Of all the possible subjects, she is most enthusiastic when she proposes to editors the new ways for children to learn numeracy.
The challenges of her work are multi-faceted, most related to the fact that this is a very young market. Often editors are not able to invest in her advice because they are simply not generating enough income with their apps. And parents do not easily realize that tablets and video games can be better for their children than watching TV.
Changing Adult Thinking
Her most urgent need is to reassure the adults and help them change their habits. To do so, she has organized meeting-snacks to prove to parents, teachers and journalists that children acquire real skills using digital devices.
As a parent and teacher herself, she has been able to build up trust with other parents and teachers: they know she will always do what is best for the child and be clear about what children can learn from an app and what skills they will develop. She is also able to guide editors on how to organize and present their apps to meet teachers’ needs.
She is still looking for the most effective way to market her company, but is thinking of devising an algorithm to help parents and teachers find the apps that best meet their child’s needs. She also continues writing articles in order to measure the differences they generate and monetize the increasing sales.
Julie is seeing a growing trend for children to learn through serious games. She claims that games will soon create parallel worlds and the next devices will be so powerful that tablets will no longer be needed. So she is now considering how they can best learn with any device, not only with a tablet. She also foresees digital being linked to a book for an augmented reality experience or to a game in plastic or wood for a child younger than eleven.
ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER THIS AD FROM SUPERSONIC
With a company to grow and two children to raise, Julie feels she has no free time. But she somehow manages to incorporate quite a variety of interests: skiing, biking, diving and jogging, as well as piloting a boat, reading the news and books, discovering new apps, attending classical and rock concerts, going to the theater and watching films and documentaries.
