{"id":4366,"date":"2012-12-10T18:20:49","date_gmt":"2012-12-10T18:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/?p=4366"},"modified":"2014-08-05T15:53:14","modified_gmt":"2014-08-05T15:53:14","slug":"ikenbot-reading-rainbow-might-stop-the-ipad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/?p=4366","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-4366 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/?attachment_id=4367#main'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/tumblr_mesgnm3dat1qbn5m1o1_1280-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p><a class=\"tumblr_blog\" href=\"http:\/\/ikenbot.tumblr.com\/post\/37596946828\/reading-rainbow-might-stop-the-ipad-from-ruining\">ikenbot<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><big><a href=\"http:\/\/gizmodo.com\/5919771\/reading-rainbow-might-stop-the-ipad-from-ruining-the-brains-of-all-children\"><strong>Reading Rainbow Might Stop the iPad From Ruining the Brains of All Children<\/strong><\/a><\/big><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><small><strong>For a generation now creating advanced things and placed in corridors of power, LeVar Burton was a god-king: both Star Trek\u2019s Geordi La Forge, and the guy who taught us to like books on Reading Rainbow. Now, the two Burtons are fused\u2014and it\u2019s pretty incredible.<\/strong><\/small><\/p>\n<p><small>LeVar Burton has an app\u2014it\u2019s available starting today. Sure. Lots of people have apps. But it\u2019s doubtful anyone cares as much about their app as LeVar Burton. I step into an expensive hotel room in Midtown Manhattan, and Burton springs up, greeting me by name, shaking my hand, talking almost immediately about reading. There\u2019s an iPad in front of him.<\/small><\/p>\n<p><small>But this isn\u2019t just any product pitch\u2014which is good, because Burton lacks all the unctuousness of a salesman or marketing player. He just\u2026 cares. His enthusiasm for an app designed to encourage little kids to read is almost overwhelming. How many people care about anything this much? And how much can I possibly properly appreciate an app designed for tiny kiddo brains? I can\u2019t\u2014so we brought our own: two boys, 3 and 5-years-old, stuck in that valley of super-hyperactivity spanning the end of school and the beginning of summer camp. As Burton lays out the app\u2019s basics\u2014a free download, a $10 per month subscription for unlimited kid-friendly titles, a vibrant cartoonish interface with hot air balloons and floating islands that capture the original series\u2019 acid trip charm\u2014the kids fidget. The older immediately covers himself in pretzel crumbs, the young starts chirping for mom\u2019s attention. The kids are kids. It\u2019s summer and they\u2019d rather not be in a Midtown Manhattan hotel room on a beautiful day. Nobody would.<\/small><\/p>\n<p><small>But then something incredible happens. We hand the older boy the iPad and fire up the Reading Rainbow app. He\u2019s transfixed. The only word is transfixed. The fussing and pretzel-crunching stops, and his little brother curls next to him. They don\u2019t fight over who gets to hold it. They both know intuitively how to use it\u2014complete naturals. He picks pirates, animals, and space as his three preferred topics to generate recommended books. He starts reading along with Burton\u2019s pre-recorded narration. The Wi-Fi sucks and the download stalls. He doesn\u2019t care. The kids are\u2014patient? Attentive? About a book.<\/small><\/p>\n<p><small>I ask Burton if he thinks this is ultimately good, this sticking of LCDs under the eyes of children. Having seen lots of absentee parenting by way of iOS\u2014kids handed a stray iPhone as they might be handed a pacifier, to shut them up in public\u2014could the ubiquitous computer hurt little heads? Can the touchscreen warp fingers that\u2019ve been flipping (and smearing chocolate on) paper for hundreds of years? \u201cWe can try to sequester ourselves from technology,\u201d Burton shakes his head. But this is pointless, he explains. Kids like those two mesmerized by an app are an inevitability\u2014and if we can make them mesmerized by a book instead of a game, we have to take the chance. We must. Burton is emphatic. \u201cEd[ucational] tech!\u201d Burton grunts, pounding his palm with his fist. It\u2019s imperative to him that we get kids using these everywhere-screens to become readers, writers, and thinkers, before they become something else. \u201cWe\u2019ve already lost an entire generation of children. Maybe two,\u201d he laments. This one, for whom touch screens are a given, should be different. It must be different, and you can see in LeVar Burton\u2019s almost crazed eyes that the dude really, really, really wants kids to read more. And it seems like they will\u2014if there\u2019s one young charm you can count on, it\u2019s that a little boy will tell you something is stupid and is bad and smells like poop if he thinks so. They\u2019re a brutally honest lot. But our kindergarten demo team gave shy smiles and thumbs up.<\/small><\/p>\n<p><small>Burton doesn\u2019t act surprised in the slightest. And why should he? He lived this world 30 years ago: \u201cI mean, come on\u2014Geordi was carrying an iPad around the Enterprise!\u201d<\/small><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ikenbot: Reading Rainbow Might Stop the iPad From Ruining the Brains of All Children For a generation now creating advanced things and placed in corridors of power, LeVar Burton was a god-king: both Star Trek\u2019s Geordi La Forge, and the guy who taught us to like books on Reading Rainbow. Now, the two Burtons are <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/?p=4366\">[&hellip;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","hentry","category-uncategorized","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4366"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4368,"href":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4366\/revisions\/4368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}