While visiting my parents last weekend, my mom left an article sitting on my laptop from the October 5, 2010 edition of the Wall Street Journal (can anyone say packrat?). The title of the article, How Handwriting Trains the Brain: Forming Letters is Key to Learning, Memory, Ideas. It talks about the increase of brain activity shown via a “functional” MRI scan in children who had practiced printing by hand versus those who were simply shown different letters. The article made me think of the exhibits we create for children across the country as well as changes in school curriculum.

A couple years ago, I began reading about a number of school districts dropping cursive writing from their curriculum. As the daughter of an English teacher, the news did not delight me. In another WSJ article from January 2013, a North Carolina school board member was quoted, “We’re trying to be realistic about skills that kids are going to need. You can’t do everything. Something’s got to go.” Students now are expected to know how to type by fourth grade! I took typing my freshman year of high school and I think I’ve turned out just fine (I’m also efficient at printing and cursive, too, although I must admit I regularly use more of a hybrid).

My point: why do we push electronics on our youngsters so early? I’m not against kids using iPads, computers, smart phones; I’m questioning why can’t we teach the basics without a screen? Give our kids a good foundation (math without calculators anyone?); then enhance the foundation with electronics as they age. Let’s give them time to develop their imaginations and thinking and reasoning skills before sitting them in front of a screen.

I’m not anti-technology; I simply believe we shouldn’t jump to a high-tech solution every time we want to add interactivity to an exhibit. I think touchscreens have their place, but low-tech interactives are often much more popular with youngsters. I visited the Children’s Discovery Museum in Normal, IL a few weeks ago. We could barely get near the dress-up theater and water table because there were so many kids in these areas. The exhibits we had no trouble using? The high-tech interactives.

Here are a couple engaging low-tech interactives.

I spend the majority of my day in front of a screen as many Americans do, so let’s not give our kids a screen for every game or task. They’ll have the rest of their lives to live in front of a screen. Pull out a game board, gather the family, and provide children opportunities to be creative and hone their fine motor skills the old-fashioned way.

Today, I was reviewing our Google Analytics for our website.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you can find more info here, but, in a nutshell, it’s our website statistics (e.g. number of page views, overall traffic, pages visited, etc.).  If you don’t have an Analytics account set up for your site, I highly encourage you to set one up now…OK, not right this second, finish reading this first, then go set one up!

Via our analytics account, I can see where our traffic comes from, the search engines used to find us, the search terms used, the number of views via a mobile device, and tons more really interesting information.  I can also see which posts you found interesting and which ones you didn’t like at all.  For instance, our posts about Jackie, Tips on Marketing the Experience, Fr-otter Day, Help from Students, and Operating Procedures have been the most read blogs so far this year.  Overall, however, the post regarding Honesty and Integrity has been our most read post to date followed by one about Business Development Objectives.

Why is all this important?  It gives us a better idea of our readers’ interests.  It helps us create more engaging content which hopefully provides you will some value.  You can use your analytics account the same way, even if you don’t have a blog.  You can see which pages hold your readers’ attention the longest and which pages they just skim.  Knowing that information can help you revamp your content to increase the time a visitor stays on your site.  If you do have a blog, seeing which keywords are used to search for you can be a cure for writer’s block.  Simply review the keywords then write a blog about one of them.

If you don’t have an Analytics account, then you won’t know your site is being viewed in India, Malaysia, and Brazil on iPhones, iPads, Sony Ericssons, and HTC Incredibles, or Internet Explorer, Chrome, and Firefox are the top three browsers used when viewing your site.  Like I said, the amount of information available is remarkable and I’ve only scratched the surface on how all the information could be used.  What do you think?  What are some other ways you use the statistics offered in your Analytics account?  Please share in the comments section below!

With the multitude of fonts available online, it can be overwhelming trying to find a font that is project-appropriate, legible, and still has a bit of character (hehe).

While free fonts can seem like a dream, there are many typefaces out there that are a designers (or readers) nightmare. The websites below offer great selections of well-designed fonts, many of which are available for free!

Lost Type Co-Op is a pay-what-you-want type foundry that provides users the opportunity to pay whatever they like for a font, even zero dollars, but 100% of the payments go directly to the font designers.

Fontfabric is an independent type foundry based in Sofia, Bulgaria. Their goal is, “to create high-quality fonts which stand in a unique class of their own, and which will serve as a good base for any designer project…” New fonts are released weekly that can be purchased or downloaded free of charge.

Font Squirrel does the searching and sifting for you, providing a collection of “only the best commercial-use free fonts.” The website has a handy filter feature and allows browsing by format or style.

The League of Moveable type states, “We’re done with the tired old fontstacks of yesteryear. Enough with the limitations of the web, we won’t have it. It’s time to raise our standards.” In offering well-made, free fonts their hope is to raise digital typographic standards by equipping designers with high-quality resources.

Plan on using any fonts from the resources above? We’d love to see how you’ve put them to work!

My family got their first computer in 1997. It featured a couple different interactive educational software, including encyclopedia Britannica, and totally changed the way that I viewed learning. Instead of having to pick-up a huge encyclopedia for the information on the Mississippi River, I was able to watch a video of a time it flooded and listen to an audio clip on species native to the surrounding area.  Technology and education have continued to grow together and enhance the way that children and adults learn.  This is especially true for mobile technology and education.

Many schools are now purchasing iPads and other tablets as educational tools in the classroom. But perhaps the most valuable aspect of that hardware is that it goes outside the classroom. The Lincoln Park Zoo of Chicago and the Hurvis Center recently launched a program called Observe to Learn.  It allows participants to study animal behavior with the help of a specially designed iPad app which allows learners to conduct their own individual research at their local zoo, nearby park or their own backyard.

These kinds of programs are just the beginning to expanding the educational experience that can be found from a Museum, Zoo or Nature Center.  The Field Museum of Chicago offers virtual visits and games to get students interested in subjects like anthropology and biology. QR codes at national parks allow guests to access information and carry it with them easily on the trails.

So what’s the best way to introduce a mobile learning app or hardware to your audience? Luckily it’s is terribly difficult anymore. Few people won’t recognize a QR code and with wifi available in your facility, guests can download apps right on site.

Making education mobile and tech-friendly will only continue to expand the reach of institutions all over the world and add value to the on-site visitor experience.  In the future we will most likely see fewer students with worksheets marking down answers. The new norm will be the swipe of a finger across a touch-screen and the click of a button that sends their homework right to teacher.

As a kid, some of my fondest memories are from crazy adventures my best friend and I used to get ourselves into. We swore the tiny brick building that was found on a hidden sidewalk between two neighborhoods was some sort of spy shelter. We visited it on occasion for weeks on end, coming up with different ideas as to what it might be. We never did figure it out, but I still think about it every time I drive by.

Then there was the time we investigated the huge footprint behind her house, certain we were on the path to discovering bigfoot. Or using the bricks and rope we found to re-create our own version of Bridge to Terabithia.

An article I read recently talked about how children with healthy imaginations typically grow up to be creative adults who can see things in new ways and find solutions to problems others might miss. They lay out some ways to help your kids spark that imagination. Not only are these good to use for my kids at home, but I definitely find that these are also good points to keep in mind when we find ourselves working on an exhibit that is primarily aimed at school-age children.

Encourage free play. Of course structure has its time and place, but some times it’s fun to grab random objects and see where their imagination takes them. They also mention choosing toys that are open-ended. Toys such as blocks, figurines and dolls all take playing to another level instead of toys that just have buttons and/or video.

Some of the other points were: tell stories, get crafty, and limit screen time. In a society where iPads rule play time and video games can be taken wherever you go, it’s so easy to forget that the best toy we have is our own imagination (and maybe a few popsicle sticks and a bottle of glue to help it along). I challenge you (and/or your kids) to spend a day without being plugged in. See where your imagination takes you!