It’s late on a Sunday morning, an overcast day with a high chance of rain over the next few hours. I’m trying to get a few household chores done, along to the background noise of our toddler playing Peek-a-Boo Barn on my iPad and one of the twins refreshing her reading of musical notation on the app Music Tutor (sight-reading); the other twin was quietly replacing the floors in a building in her sister’s most recent Minecraft home, an activity that would lead to a short squabble in a couple of hours as we negotiated what are appropriate actions in this space.
Is this a version of dystopian family life? Or an example of three kids involved in important learning activities? How do we know what limits should be placed on these types of activities?
Welcome to my blog. I’m a mom, a step-mom, an education professor with a focus on educational technology and I struggle all the time with the ‘right’ choice when it comes to technology and our kids. We are a tech-friendly family, who try to find a balance. I love technology, and I worry about it.
This blog was born out of a frustration for the very limited reviews that are available for apps in the early childhood years (and beyond). I base it on our actual experiences using the apps, and other software and technology and my expertise in the field of education, educational psychology, learning sciences and educational technology.
Who am I?
I’m Emma Mercier Newton. I grew up in Ireland in the 1980 and 90s, and completed my undergraduate degree in psychology at The University of Edinburgh. During those years, I also worked with kids with autism and in a local school. I then moved to California, completing my PhD in Educational Psychology at Stanford University‘s Graduate School of Education. I worked in the UK for four years, doing some of the foundational research on multi-touch screens (like iPads) at Durham University before returning the US in 2013, and beginning work as a professor at The University of Illinois Urbana Champaign‘s College of Education. Here I focus on supporting collaborative learning and social interaction, often designing technology for students and teachers.
In 2018, I became a stepmother to twin girls – then aged 8 – and right as the Covid-19 pandemic was being declared, gave birth to a baby girl, who completed our family.