5 Features of ABC Apps

The first book I bought for my daughter, all those years ago, was an ABC book from the Brooklyn Museum. She is now a PhD candidate in Art History and lives in Brooklyn. 
Probably not a direct correlation, but a nice coincidence.

ABC Egyptian Art from The Brooklyn Museum by Florence Cassen Mayers

After many years producing fine art and linear animation, my media production for kids turned to apps. An interactive, animated ABC book with images from museums was the first project I wanted to develop. Soon after that the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. released 20,000 images into the public domain and I was off to the races. ABC.DC: An Art Alphabet was released in February, 2014. I has just been updated.

Here are 5 reasons I think the alphabet is a great structure for children's media.

New App in Development: New Workflow

Kristin Reiber Harris
KristinHarrisDesign.com

I am fixating on bird these days; little birds, big birds, silly birds and even realistic birds. My new app project is all about birds. Birds that will make three year olds giggle and hopefully a lot more.  I am combining some of my favorite old and new tools on this project as well as getting back to my roots as an animator.

 

Step One: Textures in Procreate

I start this process of creating a menagerie of birds by developing textures in Procreate on my iPad. I became familiar with Procreate teaching students how to use it working with Demibooks Composer Pro, a development tool for iOS apps. The beauty of Procreate is the artwork is created on the iPad which facilitates import to Composer Pro.

Digital Experience with Bones at the National Museum of Natural History

Kristin Reiber Harris
KristinHarrisDesign.com

National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC

With almost 7 million annual visitors, the National Museum of Natural History on the Mall in Washington, DC is the most visited natural history museum in the world. The iconic elephant in the rotunda is a familiar site to people all over the globe and one I have known since childhood.

During July I had the opportunity to spend two days in the museum. My visits focused on the Bone Hall, an historic part of the museum's collection. I was fascinated that key components of the current display date back to the original exhibition on comparative anatomy in 1881. I had invited the developers of the app Skin & Bones for the Bones Hall to speak at a meeting of the Women in Film & Video's Education & Children's Media Roundtable. I wanted to be prepared for the event.

Bone Hall, 1881     Photo Credit: Smithsonian Institution Archives

Kids, Art and the World

Kristin Reiber Harris
www.KristinHarrisDesign.com

I Can Do That! A Kids World Art Game

(updated 12.1.14)

 

Inspiration

This summer I participated in a Digital Storytelling Workshop at the Startup Summer Institute at Howard University's Middle School of Mathematics and Science. As a trainer for Demibooks, I was helping students use their app development tool Composer Pro to publish animated interactive stories for iPads. I came to assist Geeta Raj. She is the founder of Global Sleepover and brings years of experience in international development and humanitarian assistance with USAID. She has lived in Afghanistan, Columbia, South Sudan, Albania, the UK, Bosnia and Herzegovina. She has degrees in Creative Writing and International Peace and Conflict Resolution.

Global Storytelling, iPad Camp and Publishing Student Authors/Illustrators

Kristin Reiber Harris

I joined Geeta Raj of Global Sleepover on Monday, July 28th at Howard University in Washington, DC for the Digital Storytelling Workshop at the Startup Summer Institute

at Howard University's Middle School of Mathematics and Science. This program provided a group of students with the opportunity to explore app design as well as storytelling and interactivity.  I arrived for the second week of the camp on behalf of Demibooks to help the students produce interactive books on iPads. The first week of the camp, Geeta worked with the students writing stories with a focus on global adventures. Each story that took place in different countries with characters from that country featured in the stories.

I was very impressed with the campus. Undergraduate Library, Howard University, Washington, D.C.

Lessons Learned from Seven iPad Camps

This camp was my 7th iPad Camp of the summer but my first specifically as a trainer for Demibooks. Emboldened with a wealth of experience working with students 8 to 13 (some adults too) I had a grasp on what could be accomplished in this short period of time. Earlier in July, I spent two weeks working with students at Linkhorne Middle School in Lynchburg, Virginia. Our sessions were only 3 hours long for four afternoons a week. The students had been able to write, illustrate and produce stories that incorporated a variety of interactive components and animation. I appreciated that we would have a lot more time with the students at this camp and I saw the benefits of this extra time.

What We Learned at iPad Camp

Kristin Reiber Harris

I am in the middle of a new series of iPad camps for Lynchburg City Schools. Here are a few thoughts about what I learned during 4 sessions of iPad Camp sponsored by the Daura Gallery at Lynchburg College in June. You will see lots of samples of student work and get an idea of what they learned. Some students came with some experience with animation or video, but many did not.

iPads As Creative Tools
I am even more convinced iPads are incredible tools for stimulating creative problem solving and critical thinking. The students at the four sessions at Lynchburg College ran the gamet from kids as young as 8 (by just a few days) to a retired college professor. There was a broadcast media professional, an artist, four sets of parent and child and high school students. This rich tapestry of participants produced an wide variety of work, as you can imagine.

These creative experiences with technology reinforce the value of being a content creator, not just a content consumer. 

Artist Nugent Kos used Procreate to paint this beautiful spider web for her interactive Composer Pro project.

App Review: MOMA Art Lab

MOMA has announced the release of a new app Art Lab, this one for kids. I love their Abstract Expressionist AB EX NY offering. They have done a good job online for years making their exhibitions and collection available to everyone, not just those who can visit the museum.

How does Art Lab compare in terms of value, the AB EX NY app is free? Art Lab costs $4.99.

MOMA's new app for kids

On the opening screen Art Lab offers access to three categories of activities on the left side.  The light bulb opens a window with suggested ideas for things to create with geometric shapes or drawing tools. The Go button takes you to the above screen with shapes to place by tapping. Drawing tools are also available.  This is fairly standard fair but it is a little surprising there is no undo function.

Second menu item provides six choices seen above.

Where this app shines is in the integration of image and audio, something I am finding is a big plus for young kids.  Create A Sound Composition pairs a selection of 11 audio files with an Elizabeth Murray painting.  Kids can click on a number to hear the sound and then are invited to drag that sound over a section of the painting. The images stay connected to the art and are played back on touching. Fortunately playing only one at a time.

Elizabeth Murray, Do The Dance

What I especially appreciate about this activity is how it engages the viewer with the painting.  It's easy to appreciate this lively work of art, but not spend the amount of time carefully investigating it that is required to add 11 sound effects to the work.

Create a collage used the iPads shaking functionality. Something I'm pretty sure I would not encourage a young child to do with my iPad...that's just me. There is an optional button that does the shaking for you.


Jean Arp, Henri Matisse, Jim Lambie, Brice Marden and a composite image from seven French artists are the works of art featured in this app. I would certainly expect/like to see many more images available for these activities. I do wonder if as they update they will either swap out images or add more.


In terms of value it pales in comparison to the AB EX NY.  Obviously a very different audience. It will be interesting to see how it will be updated.