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Happy International Dot Day!

12 years ago, Dot Day began with a celebration of the messages found in Peter H. Reynolds’ book, The Dot. In the book, a dedicated teacher helps an unsure student learn to trust herself and “make her mark.”  

Today, almost four million people (3.9 million this morning and counting!) around the world (in 115 countries) are celebrating creativity, courage, and collaboration – and you can be one of them! Here’s how:

  • Step One: Make a dot. Anything you want! Big or small, no matter what, it will be unique to you.

  • Step Two: Sign your name. Dot Day is about having the confidence and courage to make your mark and be proud of what you’ve made.

  • Step Three: Share it with us! We want to see all of your wonderful creations. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, just use the hashtag #DotDay15 and let the world know you stand for creativity.

Need some inspiration? Check out some of the dots made by the people here at FableVision Studios. To learn more about International Dot Day and how you can get involved, sing the song and visit the official website.

Want even more Dot Day? Participate in World Education's #Pages4Progress campaign, an official International Dot Day partner! Read more on our blog. 

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Animated professional development? Now that’s some “Good Thinking!”

Marjee Chmiel is a curious person. She’s curious about stories and science and where the two cross paths. Marjee is the Associate Director for Curriculum and Communications at Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC). Earlier this year, SSEC and FableVision Studios unveiled a new free animated (yep, we said animated!) professional development series, entitled Good Thinking!: The Science of Teaching Science. Explaining science can be tricky, and explaining “the ideas we build in our mind to make sense of the world” – as Marjee calls it – required a non-limited visual medium. FableVision talked with Marjee about the Good Thinking! series, the subject matters we tackle, and how this research-based series is providing a one-of-a-kind resource to science educators everywhere. And be sure to watch the entire Good Thinking! series on YouTube here. 

What is the Good Thinking! The Science of Teaching Science origin story?
A few things came together. I was in Johnston County in North Carolina to see some of the teacher professional development going on as part of our Investing in Innovation Grant from Department of Education. I was amazed by how in-depth and fantastic the content was that the teachers were getting. While most teachers were working at the elementary level, they were learning things about science pedagogy that I didn’t learn until I was in a doctoral program for science education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (which is considered one of the top programs in the country). I was really impressed and thrilled with this training and the teachers seemed to love it, too.

The down side was that the training takes place during the summer, which means that a lot of teachers miss it, or teachers are not hired on yet, or get transferred to different grades or schools by the time the school year starts. So teachers and principals were asking us to come up with a way to provide some of this training. But what I saw in the face-to-face training was so collaborative. Teachers were learning from other teachers. How do you capture that dynamic while making it accessible and flexible to accommodate hectic schedules?

Good Thinking! certainly can’t replicate that sort of experience, but I felt like the videos and their format started to get at some of the needs that had emerged.

My doctoral dissertation was a content analysis of science education web video, so I had a mental catalog of what was out there and what we were lacking. The thing I saw was that there was a lot of content out there on the sort of the “just the facts ma’am” parts of science. But the finer points of how humans understand their world and what it means to shepherd developing brains into scientific inquiry were locked up in research journals. Unless you were lucky enough to take a world-class doctoral course or participate in our professional development, it would be a challenge to get your hands on that knowledge.

I discussed the feedback we had gotten from our teachers and administrators with people back at Smithsonian Science Education Center and the idea for these brief videos that address common misconceptions about science and how science is taught began to emerge. The title “Good Thinking” seemed obvious and catchy.

Who’s the Good Thinking! audience? How do you imagine accessing and utilizing the information in these videos?
Our primary audience is elementary school teachers who are teaching science. In elementary school, you have to be quick and nimble with the content you teach and it isn’t uncommon to move through the grade levels and teach different grades. Accessible content refreshers are critical for this type of work and online web video has been an amazing resource to that end. But instead of offering a general science lesson, we wanted to couch the science in a way that matters most to educators. We wanted to tie into the types of questions that might arise in your students. Furthermore, we thought there was a need for providing this type of information from a trusted resource such as Smithsonian. That is why we were careful to provide citations with each video. This is a research-based resource that is accessible and available for any teacher anywhere, anytime.

In addition to teachers, we imagine the series will appeal to science nerds everywhere.

Some might say it is unusual to create an animated professional development resource for adults. Why did you choose to animate Good Thinking! vs. a live action instructional video?
At the heart of this video series are mental models: the ideas we build in our mind to make sense of the world. We wanted to explore mental models that people have about cells, atoms and rain clouds. Live action felt too restrictive. We wanted to go places that cameras can’t go. Animation was a logical choice. It allows us to convey multiple ideas at once and construct actual mental models, watch the water cycle take place, or see the total energy of a system. I honestly don’t see how this would have worked as a live series.

What’s your favorite way that a science topic has woven into an episode?
I love the way we talk about what it is that scientists actually do in the Learning Styles video. I get sad when I hear people talking about things like “dancing mitosis” or making a rap about the rock cycle as a way to “engage multiple learning styles” in order to learn science. All that does is have kids memorize facts. When people go into the voting booth or make health decisions for their family, I don’t care if they know the difference between prophase and anaphase. We don’t need people in congress who know the difference between metamorphic and sedimentary rock (though it would be nice)! And that’s all that stuff does, it is a disguise for rote, decontextualized recall knowledge.

How do the Good Thinking! characters explain or personify the science topics being communicated?
All of the characters in the series are curious people. Ms. Reyes wants to learn more about her profession. The children want to learn more about their world. Those curious humans are at the center of the series and they are at the center of science.

We’re asking you to play favorites – who’s your favorite classroom character on Good Thinking?
Definitely Bunsen. My undergrad is in chemistry and I taught chemistry, so we’ve already got that connection. He cracks me up.

Marjee Chmiel is the Associate Director for Curriculum and Communications at Smithsonian Science Education Center. In this role, she oversees print and digital product development for the unit. Marjee is a former high school chemistry and physics teacher who has also worked as a technology administrator at the elementary and high school level. Marjee has lead development on numerous award-winning projects at Public Broadcasting Services (PBS) and National Geographic's The JASON Project. Marjee holds a doctorate in educational research and evaluation with a special focus on the intersection of science education and educational technology. Her publications on education range from the practical to the theoretical with articles ranging from The Science Teacher to the Oxford Handbook on Mixed Methods research. As a hobby, Marjee has her own micro-press which was nominated for best new small press and best book design in 2012. Marjee resides in Maryland with her husband and their two small, yippy dogs, but she retains the pizza snobbery of her native Chicago.

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Spotlight on World Education's #Pages4Progress

The following is a guest blog post from World Education, an International Dot Day partner. World Education is an international nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of the poor through education, and economic and social development programs.

World Education’s #Pages4Progress campaign builds awareness about the critical need to improve access to education around the globe.

The #Pages4Progress and International Dot Day communities are partnering to help millions of people around the world who cannot read or write.

Participating in #Pages4Progress helps raise both awareness and funds that enable World Education to continue to build communities’ capacity to improve access to high-quality education. A few examples include:

  • Basic education, technology, and livelihoods training for migrant youth in Indonesia;
  • Education and critical support services ranging from health care, child protection, and psychosocial support for orphaned and vulnerable children in Swaziland and Zimbabwe; and
  • Training for job-readiness, literacy skills, and college mentoring for adult learners in the U.S.

World Education is delighted to join forces with the International Dot Day community and invite all of you to participate in our #Pages4Progress campaign to Make Your Mark for education and literacy!  

Participating in #Pages4Progress is really simple. Register and submit the pages you’ve read this summer at pages4progress.worlded.org. Together, we can help improve the lives of the poor through education.

Here are three easy steps to #MakeYourMark for millions of people around the world who cannot read or write:

  1. Sign up and log the pages you read at pages4progress.worlded.org and help us reach as many pages as possible by International Dot Day on September 15.
  2. Tell us why reading is important to you. Use the hashtag #Pages4Progress to share on social media (and make sure your post is public so we can see it).
  3. Make a donation to World Education to support our global education programs.

Join #Pages4Progress today! We need EVERYONE'S creative energy to solve the issues around global literacy and education.

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September FableFriday: Karen Bresnahan, Executive Producer

Here’s the thing about Karen Bresnahan, FableVision Studios’ executive producer: you can’t help but like her. Which is a good thing, since she’s integral to running a ship-shape crew of FableVisionaries.

Karen has been with FableVision since its inception and has watched the studio grow both in size and abilities.

“In the beginning we held the company together with love and paper clips, but now there is a solid business structure in place,” she said.

Her history with the company gives her an invaluable perspective on internal and external affairs – it’s her job to say, “That was fantastic. How can we do it better next time?”

As the head of our production team, she oversees all aspects of our projects from project manager to budget milestone to technical deliverable. As September’s FableFriday, we chatted with Karen about her passion for rock ‘n’ roll, work with NASA (seriously!), her packed daily schedule, and how her touch on every project is filled with craft and caring.

What makes FableVision unique?
FableVision truly follows our mission to bring the world to a better place in every sense – from the projects we take on, to the way employees are treated, to the office culture.

You were once a science teacher? Can you talk a bit about that time in your life? Why make the switch to communications?
I had just graduated from college with a bachelor’s in biology and a New York State teaching certificate. I lived in Buffalo at the time and got a job as an 8th grade science teacher.  Then three years later, when I moved to San Jose, California, I decided I had enough of being in front of kids in a classroom and wanted to be in front of adults doing the news on TV. So I started graduate studies in communication.

You once worked on video and film production, can you share a fun story from that experience?
I had a lot of fun in the early ’80s, producing a series of rock videos with local bands including The Joe Perry Project (no Aerosmith, no Steven Tyler).  We came up with all kinds of crazy scenes including inside an underground bunker in Winthrop, keying a band into a toy farm set, and choreographing a crowd dance through the streets of Salem. I had a different kind of fun in the early ’90s when I worked at a film company with a contract with NASA and got to shoot at just about every NASA facility in the country.

What is your journey to FableVision story?
I started in Boston media as a video production assistant (never got the TV news job), became a video producer, met Paul Reynolds [FableVision co-founder and CEO] through the ITVA organization, and went on to become an interactive producer. Then Paul hired me to work at CF Video with Gary Goldberger [FableVision co-founder and president] at the time when Peter H. Reynolds [FableVision founder] arrived with his ideas for FableVision. When the company was founded, I followed a freelance-to-full-time path across the hall, and never left.

What is your favorite project that you’ve served as producer on?
A series of educational programs for Carnegie Hall that included animated movies about the history of the hall, percussion, wind, brass, and string instruments, a website, and several interactive games. Traveling with the team to Carnegie Hall several times to see the audience interact with live performers and our media was a project highlight.

You’ve been part of hiring every producer currently on our team. Any words of wisdom for people interested in production or project management? What qualities do you look for in new hires?
Participate in as much production as you can in school or on your own, show what you’ve done, and have stories to tell.

I look for smart, proactive, kind, confident, and passionate.

From budgets to managing a team of producers, you have a lot on your plate, can you walk us through a typical day?
8:30 a.m. Get into the office, make tea, check email, and organize to-do list.
9:00 a.m. Answer many emails, including an email question from a client about a proposal we sent.
9:30 a.m. Meet with a producer to start a new project.
10:00 a.m. Complete a budget for a new game.
10:30 a.m. Start a budget for an animation project.
11:00 a.m. Write the scope section for a proposal including production assumptions, a timeline, and a cost breakdown.
11:30 a.m. Meet with a client who is in the studio for a project kickoff.
12:00 p.m. Brainstorm ideas for a website activity to present to a client.
12:30 p.m. Walk somewhere to get lunch and bring it back to my desk.
1:00 p.m. Review and offer feedback to a game design document.
1:30 p.m. Write a performance review for a team member.
2:00 p.m. Meet virtually with a user experience designer to determine if she is right to add to our project team.
2:30 p.m. Prioritize and juggle team members’ time on the weekly and long-term studio schedules.
3:00 p.m. Complete writing a statement of work for a new project.
3:30 p.m. Meet with producers about process improvement and to share best practices.
4:00 p.m. Call with a client about their next project.
4:30 p.m. Review and track current project budgets and follow up with FableVision producers where helpful.
4:55 p.m. Wash my teacup and water glass, walk to the train station.

How do you balance the creative with the budget?
Keep the budget in mind when suggesting creative and reviewing the approach, but remain open to great ideas that might mean juggling priorities.

Look at your desk at work and list five items from it. Then, take a sentence or two to describe what those items say about you.

  1. My 15” MacBook Pro Retina – I cannot work without it. Plus it contains the archival history of production at FableVision.
  2. At-A-Glance 2015 calendar book – This is probably my 18th iteration and even with Google and Apple Calendars, I plan my life with this book.
  3. Reading glasses – ‘Nuff said.
  4. A jar of local honey – Can’t have my tea without it.
  5. Two bobble head Red Sox dolls – gifts from co-workers who know how much I love and follow our team.

Favorites!

Month: June. I love summer and the longest day of the year.
Album: It’s too difficult for me to choose one. I have hundreds of albums, CDs, and digital downloads that are favorites. I listened to the radio at the start of rock ‘n’ roll music, and for me it was an immediate and lasting love.
Concert: The Bridges to Babylon Tour – Rolling Stones – October, 1997 – 5th row – Foxboro, MA
Food: Popcorn
Hike: Crested Butte, Colorado around Lake Irwin
Vacation: A trip to Italy for my 50th birthday. Everything there was so much older than me.
TV shows:
A very long time ago = American Bandstand (from Philadelphia)
A while ago = Twin Peaks
Recently = Friday Night Lights
Now = Nashville

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Making Headlines: Go Behind the Scenes at Zoombiniville

Zoombinis has been in the app store for almost a month, but the excitement hasn’t died down. We’re thrilled about the game, and we’re not the only ones!

“The second I saw the little blue characters, complete with a variety of hair, eyes, nose color and feet, I was transported back to my childhood. Zoombinis is coming back,” wrote Jessica Bartlett, reporter for the Boston Business Journal.

Lots of people agree – it's been one big, wonderful, nostalgic trip to Zoombiniville.

Boing Boing picked Zoombinis as Mobile Game of the Week.

“Zoombinis remains a wonderful game, and if I could figure it out and be transfixed by it as a young person there's no reason today's players of all ages won't be able to be drawn in,” Leigh Alexander, of Boing Boing, remarked.

To promote the release of Zoombinis, FableVision released a series of developer diary videos that provided a glimpse of our work along the way (you can watch them all here), but if you want a deeper look at what FableVision contributed to Zoombinis production, you’re in luck.

Still don’t know what we’re talking about? USA Today writer Greg Toppo gave a great history of the Zoombinis game and our development collaboration with TERC, and Learning Games Network, including original Zoombinis creator, Scot Osterweil. You can read that article here.

Curious about what others are saying? Read some of our favorite pieces:
Entertainment Weekly
Teachers with Apps
Kidscreen
BetaBoston
The iPad Guide

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