Toontastic Jr: Pirates App - A Toy Box With a Telephone

Launchpad Toys is the creator of Toontastic and other apps that facilitate digital storytelling and digital play. When it first emerged with its iOS apps I was taken by its approach and philosophy that was driven by a belief and understanding of the importance of play - for both learning and just as a thing we should do, part of what makes us human. The team understands that play in the digital space can be as enriching and purposeful as play in any other space. They know that children learn through play. They promote the fact that play is fun and frivolous and immersive - and that is required in a life full of learning.

Toontastic has been used by educators across the globe, with thousands of children telling their own stories and creating their own narratives in classrooms and at home. I was one of those educators who engaged children in an app that didn't just offer a space to tell stories, but taught children about the structure and form of storytelling through the design on the app. This is what puts Toontastic above all the other similar apps.

However, there was an issue. When I tried to use the app with younger children the interface was too much. The complexity of the process and the storytelling became limiting for children. Launchpad Toys observed this as well. And it has done something about it, along with adding features that explore how digital technology offers play experiences and a co-presence that is important for families and friends who live far apart.

Toontastic Jr. Pirates offers a way for younger children to tell and record their stories on the iPad and share them with family and friends in new and dynamic ways.

The way Andy Russell of Launchpad Toys described the latest developments in their creative digital play world was, "[w]e wanted to build a toy box with a telephone in it." What does he mean? Well, Andy is part of a small but growing collective which is willing to see the play and connection potential of the digital world in a way that has more to do with our humanity and our development than we perhaps give credit for. Along with realizing they needed an interface that suited pre-schoolers who needed a simple beginning/middle/end structure and who needed a start to the story because the blank beginning wasn't suited to their level of development - LaunchPad Toys realized that they needed to connect people. This can be thought of as co-presence. Consider a child (like a boy in my son's grade) who has to take 6 months of school off for cancer treatment. This type of app offers him a way not just to connect with students, but to be "inside" the classroom collaborating on storytelling and playing with his classmates in a way that a simple video link can't provide.

You can see what I am talking about in the video below. Toontatsic Jr. Pirates allows two iPads to sync across space and time, just like many boardgame apps and others do, but it allows both screens to see what the other is doing and conversations to take place while a story is being recorded and told.

This approach is backed up by recent research coming out of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center. This month they published The New Coviewing: Designing for Learning through Joint Media Engagement. It is part of a larger project looking at how families engage together with digital media. This piece is really just the start of a longer discussion into what it means to engage as adults and children together using different media. It asks questions about how we use and should engage with TV and our children. It recognizes that we need to understand how we use digital books to support literacy and just because they exist doesn't mean they will all be fantastic for co-reading experiences. It is probably the best thing out there talking about these issues and it is great to see.

The Toontastic app even got a mention at the launch which involved more of the discussion we need to have. But, this is not just a discussion and a place for researchers and academics to have; we are all part of this ongoing experiment that involves the rapid expansion and change in the media landscape for us and our children. We all need to work our way through it and come up with the best ways to engage our children and the best ways to manage the experience, and apps like Toontastic Jr. Pirates will helps us explore that in better and more valuable ways.

The fact this app can be used across countries, or even suburbs, offers us new ways to think about how we connect with those we want to share our stories with. It is different from a Skype call or a telephone call; it allows grandparents to play with younger children. It makes it possible to be present in different ways, even though we are physically separated from those we love or want to play with. LaunchPad Toys is offering a tool that changes that. We can have a co-presence, we can hear voices and even see how the other person is playing. Of course it isn't the same as playing in the physical space, but that isn't the point. It is a new way of playing, not more or less, just different. As Thatch (age 6) who has told stories on the device said, "I liked it because it felt like my friend was close and not far away. He lives in California and we live in Chicago. It was like a play date. It was the best play date ever. It was so fun."

And parents see the value too. Sabrina spoke about the app in this way: "I love how this app makes it possible for families and friends to play together, no matter the distance between them. My husband travels a lot for work, and this app allows him to play in real-time with our children while he's away. They're not just making movies, they're making memories."

The quality of this app is astounding. It is $1.99. Downloading and having a play with this app is essential for those interested in being a part of exploring how to engage with our children and help them to become strong digital citizens for the world they are growing into.

Download Toontastic Jr. Pirates on iPad or iPhone.