Our House
Where does the buck stop on #ScreenTime? Advice for Parents in the Digital Age
This post originally appeared in the MomsWithApps Blog on February 28th, 2016. Since then I have had many requests for details about how we implemented our ‘buck’ system. If you have any questions, please feel free to email Carisa at digital.storytime@gmail.com. We continue to have great success with this system! Do you have a media-obsessed […]
Are there Ways to Make a Timely Response to Messages in the Digital Age?
Recently I searched on the “interwebs” to see what other people consider a timely response to emails, RSVP requests and other messages like voice mail and social media DMs (direct messages). I regret to say that I did not find Miss Manners especially helpful. She suggested that you should respond to email within 24 hours […]
The Cost of Being Online
This post is simply one to ‘set the record straight’. I have been running, on my own, a review site for nearly four years now that focuses exclusively on book apps for kids ages 2-12. The site is Digital-Storytime.com. Many of you are familiar with it or even regular users. This website, our deal site […]
Parenting in the Digital Age: Teaching Kids to Balance Their Own Media Diet
Over the past two years, I have begun to transition away from full-time work on my book app review site, Digital-Storytime.com, in order to work on more outreach and training projects, especially within the public libraries in California. I have also done a number of presentations to parents, educators and content creators in the past […]
CYBILS: Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Awards – Nominations open Oct. 1st!
People often ask me what the top award for a book app might be … and I’ll admit to be being biased but my favorite hands down, is CYBILS. Every year now, for the past three years, I’ve been involved with the fabulous people who founded and run the CYBILS Awards for children’s books – in […]
Fast, Cheap and Out of Control – The Perils of the New World Order
Recently, Porter Anderson’s column for authors, “Writing on the Ether” (in Jane Friedman‘s most excellent blog) had a post titled, “Faster, Authors, Faster!” It inspired this post and has given me something to chew on intellectually for several days now. I’ve been following Anderson’s delightful curation, usually weekly, for over two years. He gives an up to the […]
Screen Time Vs Screen Quality: Why the Current Media & Kids Debate is About the Wrong Topic
In a recent ALSC – Association for Library Service to Children – blog post, Cen Campbell wrote about the idea that “Screen Time is Bad” and how that is truly not the conversation we want to be having today, in 2013. She goes on to point out that, “What most people mean when they talk […]
Is Education Broken? The Problem with US Standardized Testing in Public Schools
Last night Jayne Clare from TeachersWithApps held their EdAppTalk on Facebook to discuss standardized testing in US schools for 2nd-11th graders, based on their recent post, “Isn’t it TIME to Stand Up Against Standardized Testing?” It made me realize it is also time for me share my concerns and why I would like to see […]
A Digital New Year’s Resolution: Wear the Web Like a Loose Garment
“Wear the world like a loose garment,” is a wise bit of advice, credited to St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226). Essentially he taught that we should try to be in the world without becoming overly dependent on it for our sense of self. This is my 2013 New Year’s ‘thought to chew on’ … since I […]
Parents, Kids & The Digital Shift: Strategies for a Balanced Media Diet
This guest post is brought to you in collaboration with Lorraine Akemann of Moms With Apps. This is Part 1 of a 2 part post … the 2nd part will appear in the MomsWithApps.com blog in December of 2012. From Lorraine, “Carisa and I have both been blogging about family-friendly apps since 2009. We realized through our […]
Technology, Teachers & Our Kids’ Future: Why Funding Training Matters More Than Buying Tablets
I have spent most of my professional life (over 20 years) working for, in support of and in collaboration with programs that functioned to support primary & secondary school-aged kids, parents & teachers. In this capacity, I have seen booms & busts in funding, priorities shifting from one collective program we thought would ‘save our […]
Does Mommy Need a Social Media Diet? (Why Modeling Matters)
A post several months ago, on Mashable.com, caught my eye. It was called “5 Lessons for Parenting in the Digital Age” and had a nice list of things to consider when parenting our digital natives – kids that are immersed in a digital world that excites and challenges today’s parents. The list included: Technology No Longer […]
The new iPad vs Nook Color vs Kindle Fire: Who has the best family tablet?
With the new iPad just released, there’s never been a better time to buy a tablet device. But what’s the best tablet for your whole family? We’ve been an iPad family for a couple years now, but we’ve also enjoyed testing out a Nook Color and Kindle Fire recently, getting both tablets over Christmas. For now […]
iPads in Education – How you & your iPad can volunteer together in your child’s classroom, Part 2
Earlier this school year I began volunteering in my child’s Kindergarten class with my two iPads and a suite of apps that focused on early literacy skills. Now half way through the school year, I’ve discovered more about engaging kids with learning apps. You can read my first post, “iPads in Education – How you […]
Marketing Kids Apps – Polishing, Promoting, Pricing … and a Good Dose of Uncertainty
Last year we had a series of posts in this blog about marketing children’s apps. Once it was done, I still wanted to summarize this series and add a few more thoughts (and resources) that have come to me from comments and discussions about this topic with other kids’s digital content creators. Among the most […]
It’s a book … it’s a screen … wait, it’s transmedia! How storytelling is at the center of it all …
Great storytelling never gets old, just re-imagined! Over the past year I have met many amazing people, but not many have been as influential as Danielle from www.Theresabook.com. She asked me to do a guest post about a favorite holiday book and what it meant to my family. It wasn’t easy to choose a digital […]
iPads in Education – How you & your iPad can volunteer together in your child’s classroom
This fall I offered to help out in my child’s Kindergarten classroom. At first I came just once a week to offer support to the teacher during their ‘literacy hour’. I began paper assessments of the basic literacy skills of the kids in class. This was time consuming but did give me some immediate information […]
Why the iPad has revolutionized bedtime reading for parents & kids …
There is no getting around it. The iPad has transformed the reading habits of some of the littlest readers. The lines between reading and ‘media’ are even blurred. I knew this to be a fact when my child began to choose iPad books over television & video games, even. But when it comes to reading […]
Top 10 iPad Kids Books – My Preschooler’s Favorites
My son loves books, especially iPad books. He often asks to help me review a new book and he plays a very important role. We share almost every book I review together, and my child’s ‘job’ is to help count the pages and test the book, in part to get an average amount of time a […]
Our House
“Our house, is a very, very, very fine house. With two cats in the yard, Life used to be so hard, Now everything is easy ’cause of you … ” ~ Crosby, Stills & Nash, 1970. I could sing this song to my iPad, iPod, Wii and maybe even to PBS for letting me shower in peace. But […]
A Valentine for my webmaster …
When I asked my husband to create this website for me, he was at first a bit skeptical. But he trusted me and more importantly, he wanted to support me completely once the project was underway. He did that by making the site easy for me to use, gradually making little changes just to make […]