December FableFriday: CAST’s Steve Nordmark, Director of Business Development, and Cassandra Sell, Senior Interaction Designer

With the growing trend of personalization in education and educational design, people are realizing that personalization extends beyond technology. While technology is an important part of addressing the needs of all types of learners, equity and inclusion are becoming crucial to building and designing whole education systems. CAST, an education nonprofit research and development organization, is addressing this by not only providing physical access to supports through technology but also supporting personalization across all design domains, focusing on accessibility and usability.

Partnership and cooperation is at the forefront of CAST’s work. “The more we continuously improve inclusive communication, trust, and foster an iterative mindset, the more we can put our common goals at the forefront and real people at the heart of the work to make continuous barrier-busting progress,” explains Cassandra Sell, the Senior Interaction Designer at CAST.

CAST, through their Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework and other learning platforms, works to expand learning opportunities for all individuals. FableVision worked with CAST on their reading and reading comprehension platform, Udio. The online platform serves “as both an intervention and a context for conducting research” and is a holistic approach to learning resources for middle school students. 

The UDL framework is a set of principles to guide the development of inclusive and effective learning environments. “Ultimately, it comes down to proactively and intentionally designing for learner variability in order to reduce barriers in the learning experience,” says Steve Nordmark, CAST’s Director of Business Development. “That’s what UDL is all about. This is at the heart of how CAST designs solutions.”

This intentionality also serves as the basis for how they design, develop, and maintain Learning Designed, an online learning platform that provides a supportive and collaborative community for educators and learners. To explain the mission of Learning Designed, FableVision designed a one-minute animated explainer video, which is now live on the website. In our December FableFriday, we sat down with Cassandra and Steve to learn more about CAST’s research platforms, the Learning Designed community, and their educator and learner-focused projects. 

Tell us about CAST and your roles there!
Steve: CAST is a nonprofit organization that believes learning should have no limits. We strive to help meet the needs of every learner, at any age, in any learning environment. We created the UDL framework over 20 years ago. It remains one of our core levers of change to make education equitable, inclusive, and transformative for everyone.

As the Director of Business Development at CAST, I focus on building strategic partnerships throughout the global education field to advance the adoption and implementation of UDL. This includes fostering strategic growth opportunities for CAST's products, consultancy services, and membership services, including:

1. Assisting publishers, technology firms, and other constituents to infuse their products with inclusive best practices.

2. Assisting federal, private, state, and local education agencies to identify, acquire, and use inclusive and responsive products and services.

Advancing quality UDL implementation through the promotion and implementation of Learning Designed and affiliated products and services.

Cassandra: I’ve been the Senior Interaction Designer at CAST for four years and I've been honored to contribute to a variety of awesome projects and initiatives within our organization. I work with our interdisciplinary teams in design and development, applied research, and professional learning. I also collaborate with others across the organization, supporting CAST with art direction and communications design as we find more opportunities to share who we are and what we do with the world and bring more of the world into CAST’s work. We try to hold ourselves up to a standard of constant and deliberate iteration around best practices for engaging the field and reaching beyond.

How did you start working at CAST, and what drew you to the organization?
Steve: I’ve been in educational product research and development for over 25 years. I always admired CAST’s work, especially the development and promotion of UDL, since I first encountered them in 2002. About six years ago, I became more directly involved with building awareness, adoption, and implementation of UDL throughout the global education industry. In 2016, I partnered directly with CAST to build Learning Designed, and global standards for UDL credentials and certifications for people, products, and schools. Then, at the beginning of 2019, when given the option to join CAST full time, I jumped at the opportunity. 

Cassandra: I came to CAST in 2015 from WGBH Digital where I was the lead digital designer on a handful of robust websites and experiences for PBS national brands, such as Masterpiece and Antiques Roadshow. One of my design mentors mentioned her hope to build a design team at CAST, which I had not heard of at the time. As I got to know CAST and UDL, I saw so much kinship in how we applied design thinking and got super nerdy about the process. I also saw what intentional and goal-oriented collaboration could look like in the service of nothing less than all learners. I couldn’t pass up the chance to join a team of people so dedicated to learning and raising the bar for each other every day. 

What is “Universal Design for Learning,” and in what ways does CAST continue to lead the national conversation around UDL? 
Cassandra: Universal Design for Learning is a set of principles to guide the development of inclusive and effective learning environments. Based on scientific insights into how people learn and decades-long observations about what works in the classroom, UDL synthesizes a number of best practices into a clear framework to address the needs of all learners at all levels.

In the 25 years since CAST coined and defined the term, UDL has provided leadership to a growing, global field. We research and develop creative solutions to education’s thorniest challenges, usually in partnership with major research universities, R&D organizations, and companies. We work closely with educators at all levels from California to New Hampshire to improve the implementation of UDL’s best practices. We have also authored comprehensive guidelines for implementation, and UDL is endorsed by all the major federal education laws covering children and adult learners in formal and informal learning environments. Recently, CAST partnered with the UDL-IRN, an international research and implementation network, to scale up UDL and launch a credentialing and certification process. We’re busy!

What is Learning Designed? How does being a part of the Learning Designed community impact educators and learners on the individual, school, and district levels?
Steve: The animated video that FableVision helped us create really explains Learning Designed the best. FableVision brought our words to life. In summary, Learning Designed is a state-of-the-art, online learning platform for professional learning and collaboration that provides personalized experiences for educators in a supportive community. Learning Designed harnesses the evidence-based UDL framework to support educators in designing more effective learning environments and experiences for all learners. Ultimately, educators can better serve all types of students—especially students with learning disabilities, learning and attention issues, those suffering the effects of trauma, those who are often not served well by the system due to gender, race, language, class, culture—at scale.

How can educators best integrate the research of CAST and Learning Designed into their classrooms?
Steve: We view everything CAST works on as an opportunity to integrate research into educator practice, from technical assistance on accessibility and inclusion to innovative educational product R&D, to professional learning, to our consulting work, to Learning Designed. Research is embedded in all our work, and our research is used to empower educators and educational leaders to better design and implement learning experiences for all learners.

Learning Designed contains links to a variety of research-based resources for educators, including:

1. Universal Design for Learning Theory and Practice: a well-known resource book that provides a comprehensive research background on the UDL framework.

2. UDL and the Learning Brain: a white paper that provides a summary of cognitive neuroscience research within UDL and how it can be used to inform the design of environments that support all learners.

CAST Professional Publishing produces books that help educators at all levels improve their practice—and change students’ lives—through UDL. Also, CAST Professional Learning partners directly with educators, teachers, administrators, and organizations to enhance their professional understanding of UDL.

What are the biggest difficulties when making education accessible, and how do you strive to overcome them?
Steve: Providing accessible learning for every learner requires an intentional and proactive design of many aspects of accessibility and usability, such as cognitive, developmental, cultural, etc. We must actively consider all learner variabilities to reduce barriers in the learning experience.

Cassandra: As a designer, I enjoy helping individuals designing in isolation to become problem-solving, collaborative teams. With all members’ skills and perspectives, we can improve access to education and move us all forward. Listening to, earning, and seeking honest feedback from all learners and other stakeholders is key - and so is agreeing on what to do with that feedback. It’s challenging, but satisfying when teams nail it.

You worked with FableVision in 2016 on a website for Udio, CAST’s online literacy intervention and research context. What’s happening with Udio now?
Cassandra: The Udio project was a fantastic opportunity to try out some new ideas we’d been working on, including data visualization and supporting student/teacher decision-making. One of the great things about CAST is that the work we do on each project always influences our future work. The ideas we had and the things we learned with Udio are now present in our CISL project as we think about accessible digital learning environments, our digital science notebook project, and many of our other design, development, and applied research projects. The concepts and ideas also make their way into our professional learning and publishing offerings.

We know that collaboration and user-testing are important, especially in the education field. How does CAST form and strengthen strategic partnerships, and how do you ensure that your audience—educators and learners—are at the forefront of all your decisions?
Steve: Collaboration and partnership are really important to our work. CAST is always seeking and working directly with partners who share our passion for increasing equity and inclusion in learning. We have partnerships with schools, districts, states, universities, government agencies, research organizations, companies, and foundations to explore challenging questions in education. We collaborate with these organizations due to their representation of the learners we care about. We often remind ourselves, “nothing about us without us,” to highlight the importance of having authentic relationships with people we design for and with on our projects. 

For example, CAST is currently partnering with career and technical education schools, industry partners, and colleges to produce prototype career exploration modules that showcase the varied pathways into these new industries. One example is our partnership with the Santa Clara County Office of Education (SCCOE) and several Local Education Agencies (Districts and County Offices) across central and northern California. SCCOE and the partner education agencies are using Learning Designed to enhance and support the state-funded California 1: Highway to Success for ALL initiative to address the equity needs of all students. 

Another example is our partnership with SRI International and the Inclusive Design Research Centre. Together, we are exploring and creating tools to ensure that K-12 students with disabilities receive engaging, high-quality, accessible digital learning materials, especially open education resources (OERs). This project, called the Center on Inclusive Software for Learning (CISL), is actively seeking co-design and beta testing partnerships with schools and students who can help strengthen the quality and effectiveness of the software designs.

Fun Facts About Steve & Cassandra

Skill you’d most like to learn:
Steve: Playing guitar.
Cassandra: Playing the drums—let’s start a band, Steve!

Quote you live your life by:
Steve: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” — Ghandi
Cassandra: I have a new favorite every week. The communications team always comes across words of inspiration we want to share with the world. Right now it is, “Talent is universal, but opportunity is not” by Nicholas Kristof. But my go-to usually is “... the world owes me nothing, and we owe each other the world” from Ani DiFranco’s song, “Joyful Girl.” 

Favorite educational game:
Steve: I love word puzzles and really enjoy the Wordbubbles and Wordscapes apps.
Cassandra: I’m not sure if it counts but my brother and I got really into history, geography, and strategy by playing Age of Empires together as kids. That’s probably an all-time favorite. 

Ultimate comfort food:
Steve: I could eat pizza every day, and I cannot say no to strawberry Twizzlers.
Cassandra: My husband has been making the most amazing soups lately, so at the moment it might be a rich soup —with warm, fresh, crusty bread. 

Favorite winter activity:
Steve: Downhill skiing. I would love to be able to enjoy it every winter.
Cassandra: Anything that combines being crafty with my family, a roaring fire, and the perfect blanket.

November FableFriday: Olubunmi Mia Olufemi, Children’s Programming Producer at WGBH

For Olubunmi Mia Olufemi, inclusivity is not just an important concept, it’s a crucial and integral part of every project, meeting, and decision as a children’s programming producer at WGBH. As a producer for Molly of Denali, the first nationally-distributed children’s television series to star an Indigenous lead, Mia uses her voice to not only keep the production schedule and budget on track, but also to ensure that the right people and experiences are included and considered in every aspect of creating the show. 

“Being the only person in the room who looks like me is not a new experience,” shares Mia. “Being the only person in the room who looks like me and has a voice in how a project is run, is.”

Mia and her team work with a team of Alaska Native advisors to inform how they approach character design, backgrounds, script, plot, and more. Though these conversations surrounding race, ethnicity, gender, and culture can be challenging at times, Mia and the WGBH team know that the time and money put in is worth it to ensure that the project is authentic and the teams are inclusive. And this is something that Mia carries with her in every project she is a part of. “I know I have to throw myself into each project head, shoulders, feet, and all, otherwise I won’t have the passion, belief, and love I need to advocate for it, work hard for it, sacrifice for it, and proudly promote it,” says Mia. “And a huge part of building a project to believe in is not being afraid to get in there and do the work.”

This FableFriday, we spoke to Mia about her personal and professional journey, how the Molly of Denali team keeps in mind the real experiences of Alaska Natives when creating the show, and how companies and organizations can navigate conversations about representation and inclusivity. 

Mia in Haiti in 1996 with a Goosebumps book. She always had a book somewhere on her.

You worked in consulting for six years before entering the children’s media industry. What initially attracted you to the industry, and what made you stay for another six years since then?
I’ve always loved children’s media, books in particular. My parents read to me every night when I was little until I could “read” my favorites to myself from memory. Later, I read books to my brother, and devoured the boxes of books my aunt, who worked at Scholastic at the time, would send me. Growing up, I took a book everywhere I went: parties, concerts, games, you name it. After college, I knew I wanted to become a young adult fiction editor, so that I could help bring wonderful stories to other kids who liked to bury themselves in books like I did.

I went to Emerson for my master’s after two years of working in consulting to get my degree in publishing, literature, and writing. A mentor, Gary Hill, offered me a job, and then kept me flush with part-time work when I eventually made my way back to Boston to work an editorial job for a medically inclined publishing resource. 

About a year into that, I was itching to get back into a creative field. I was mostly looking for editorial jobs, but by chance, I saw WGBH was hiring a production assistant for Arthur. I had no production experience, but my younger brother and I had grown up on the show and loved it. And I had all the other skills a PA might need (I was detail-oriented, organized, able to juggle multiple tasks, and I was a decent writer), so I took a leap and applied. When I checked back in with Carol Greenwald (Executive Producer of Arthur, Curious George, etc.) about the status of my application, she told me they had hired someone else with more experience. BUT, she liked me and would offer me a part-time gig three days a week if I wanted to take it. I did. 

Since then I’ve worked on several projects: Arthur, Curious George, Martha Speaks, Sara Solves It, Design Squad Global, The Ruff Ruffman Show, and Molly of Denali. The work of making educational kids show is incredibly challenging and stressful, but it’s also meaningful in a tangible way. In a “you taught me how to read/inspired me to become an engineer/taught me to be proud of who I am” kind of way. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of that.

IMAGE CREDIT: Molly of Denali, Trademark/Copyright 2019 WGBH Educational Foundation. All rights reserved.

How has your role grown and evolved at WGBH since you began? 
Because I started off part-time, I helped out in little ways on all our shows. I’d take animation notes, help gather clips for marketing, go on live action shoots and do PA field work, etc. I’d sit quietly in team meetings, transcribing minutes as fast as I could while also trying to take everything in. I had no clue what a producer did before I started working there. Now I see we do everything: from getting a show idea created and funded, to hiring the writers and animation company, to overseeing the distribution and marketing of it, as well as the creation of all ancillary materials associated with the show. As a producer on Molly of Denali, I’m now the one leading team meetings. I oversee junior team members and give animation notes. I help hire the writers and advisors, and work closely with the animators to make sure our shows are delivered to PBS on time and up to spec. I review marketing assets to make sure they stay on brand and true to our show. I oversee all live action interstitial production and review our digital games. I have a voice in the direction the show takes, strategically, creatively, and philosophically. Three years into Molly, all of my previous experiences are informing the development of my own children’s television show. It’s been quite a hike, and I’ve still got a long way to go.

What is Molly of Denali?
Molly of Denali is an animated television series for kids ages 4-8 that features the story of Molly Mabray, a gregarious 10-year-old girl who runs the Denali Trading Post with her parents in the village of Qyah (which means “community” in the Dena’ina Athabascan language). With her dog Suki and best friends Tooey and Trini, Molly adventures through picturesque Alaska on dogsled, snowshoe, ATV, bush plane, canoe, and foot. Along the way, she solves problems using knowledge from her Elders, as well as books, maps, apps, and other informational texts. Through her vlog, she shares knowledge about herself, her adventures, and Alaska Native values, such as honoring your Elders, knowing who you are, and sharing what you have. 

Molly is also a multi-platform series, with games, apps, a podcast, books, digital teaching tools, and lesson plans, printable family activities, and a rural educational outreach initiative.

IMAGE CREDIT: Molly of Denali, Trademark/Copyright 2019 WGBH Educational Foundation. All rights reserved.

Sydney Isaacs working on totem pole design.

Core Alaska Native Advisory Group. Pictured from left to right: Dewey Kk'ołeyo Hoffman, Rochelle Adams, Elder Luke Titus (seated), Adeline P. Raboff. Also pictured, Creative Producer Princess Daazhraii Johnson (far right).

We know that representation matters and that the producers of Molly of Denali partnered with Alaskan advisors to consider all aspects of real experiences of Alaska Natives in the show. Can you share an example of when you worked with your team of advisors to accurately and authentically portray Native Alaskans’ lives or traditions?
Molly of Denali is a partnership with Alaska Native people. Who Molly is, what she wears, where she lives, what adventures she has, the things in her room, the people she meets, all of these decisions were made together by the WGBH producers and cultural advisors. There are so many examples of this partnership I could talk about, but there are two I’ll mention as I think they get to the complexity of what it means to work on an inclusive production like Molly.

The first is about a story we did around totem poles. In “Tale of a Totem,” Molly heads down to Sitka in southeast Alaska to visit her cousin and attend her first totem pole raising. It was a story idea we had passed on earlier that I suggested we revisit after hiring our production assistant Sydney Isaacs. A Tlingit Alaska Native, Sydney is a talented artist and an apprentice totem pole carver who studied under a master carver in her hometown of Klawock, Alaska. She served as this script’s cultural advisor, reviewing every draft. She educated us about the different purposes of totem poles, how some were created to preserve the stories of the Tlingit through the ages. She steered our well-meaning script writers away from using a sacred story belonging to a group of Haida people that the authors had found on their own. And when the time came to animate the episode, she designed the totem pole Randall and his community raised with the blessing of her master carver, gifting the series with a special story of its own. 

The second example I’d like to share is about a story we “killed.” One of our writers wanted to do a script on a set of bear cubs that end up in Molly’s village. We were cautious about this to start, because bears can be very dangerous. But we decided to move forward because we thought it might be interesting for Molly to help with an animal rescue by observing the cubs and taking notes from afar for wildlife rangers who would eventually get them back into the wild. Our Creative Producer Princess Daazhraii Johnson had some slight misgivings about the story, and when she shared it with our Advisory Group, she found that she had good reason. The Koyukon people have a complex set of protocols around interacting with bears, much of which is specific to gender. For Molly to interact with bears in this way, much less engage them, would be incredibly taboo. From what I understood from Princess, this was not a taboo that her group, the Neets'aii Gwich'in, share. 

It was a great reminder of a few things. The first is that dominant culture norms are very different from Alaska Native norms. The second is that, although the Koyukon and Neets'aii Gwich'in are neighbors and share some cultural similarities, like their respect for the land and animals, they are different. And the third was that WGBH was right in thinking that we could not make this show without Alaska Native people at the helm beside us.

Three main kid characters of Molly of Denali, Molly, Tooey, and Trini.

How do you navigate conversations around representation when balancing all aspects of production, from timelines and budgets to creative decisions like landscapes, character design, and native language?
It was difficult finding my voice and asserting it in a space where it was not welcome at certain points in time. It was difficult learning that I had a right to ask questions born out of my identity as a woman of color. That the three main kid characters on our show, Molly, Tooey, and Trini, are all children of color is due to my finding the courage to question our team’s choices and notions around representation, race, and ethnicity. That Molly is voiced by a talented young actress who is Tlingit Alaska Native and Muckleshoot is in large part because my team and I knew from the very beginning that if we were going to make this show work, we would have to cast an Alaska Native child. We looked for her everywhere. Our animation partners, Atomic Cartoons, were instrumental in this, researching local theater groups, putting out calls for auditions on First Nations radio stations, and contacting tribal offices. The search for Sovereign was long and cost the project a lot of time and money. And it was one of the best decisions we’ve made to date.

I would tell media companies that the best way to navigate conversations around representation and balance all aspects of production is to be inclusive, not just diverse. Inclusivity demands a level of effort way beyond that of diversity. All creators of children’s media should have teams that are inclusive. And if you are going to make a show about a group of people of a certain race/ethnicity, those people must be in the room. They must participate in the conversations that decide the budget and inform the project timelines among other things.

Molly of Denali is a truly transmedia property. Children can access games, podcasts, and classroom interactives on multiple platforms. How do all these media components complement each other, and what strategy decisions did you make when thinking about dissemination and reaching the biggest audience possible?
Because we are a PBS KIDS show, it was planned from the start that we would premiere with a certain amount of episodes along with a suite of digital games and mobile apps. WGBH has been at the front of the pack as far as seeking out opportunities to pair with our shows, like TV tie in books, Alexa skills properties, and educational outreach materials for families and teachers. We try to reach our audience of children, families and educators by giving them a number of ways to engage with our shows at every level we possibly can. But the Molly of Denali podcast was a first. 

This opportunity was proposed by our sponsorship team and our partners at PRX. We weren’t quite sure what it would lead to, but Carol Greenwald, our Head of Children’s Podcast Strategy Priya Desai, and the Managing Producer of Podcasts at WGBH Nina Porzucki saw something special. They linked up with the talented founders of GenZ Media, who have been wildly successful at creating podcasts for children, and brainstormed a new podcast idea, a standalone prequel to an animated television series yet to be released. We rolled out the episodes in the weeks leading up to the premiere as a content teaser for folks to latch on to and get them excited about the upcoming television series. The experiment was a success, garnering millions of streams and downloads, and a following so strong that we received comments on social media to the effect of “Did you know the podcast also has a related television series?” We are now hoping to release a second season.

How do you work through writer’s block, and where do you get your creative inspiration?
I like to write in the morning. I’m one of those producers that will often wake up in the middle of the night with an idea that I like to jot down, so when I wake up (and drink my coffee), my mind is fresh, unencumbered by other things, and ready to work. I draw inspiration from everything I absorb of interest to me: other shows, life, my family’s stories, things I see on Instagram, etc. Anything can serve as good story fodder. 

We hear you are a big fan of cooking. What is your signature dish, and how does cooking, along with other activities, balance your career?
I think I’m more of a fan of eating good cooking than cooking myself, but I do like to try things from time to time. My mother is from Haiti and my dad is from Nigeria, so I’m always proud when I can recreate a dish I grew up with. I’ve often used cooking as a break from work. As much fun as work can be, it can also be all-consuming, so I try to unplug completely on the weekends.

Fun Facts about Mia:

Favorite cartoon character: Pucca.

Current book on your nightstand: There There by Tommy Orange.

Special talent no one knows you have: I played the french horn and flute in high school. 

Favorite winter activity: Holiday dinners with my large family. We laugh, eat, joke, play games. It’s a blast! 

Which movie, TV series, or book character are you most similar to? Too many to name.

Your vice: Earrings and jewelry. I just came back from New Orleans with a wild set of earrings made a Frida Kahlo pin made with multicolored vinyl. I can’t get enough!

FableVision Games for Good: Extra Life 2019!

Most video games don’t give you seven extra lives, but here at FableVision, we’re gearing up for our seventh year participating in Extra Life, a 24-hour game-a-thon! Never heard of a 24-hour game-a-thon before? Extra Life unites thousands of gamers, Team FableVision included, to play games for a full day, raising money throughout the process. Through generous sponsors and some excellent gaming skills, Extra Life has raised over $50 million for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals across America. The proceeds from FableVision’s sponsors will benefit children in our local branch, Boston Children’s Hospital. 

Team FableVision will be “gaming for good” between November 2-3 at the studio. As a studio, we’re committed to creating content that inspires, teaches, and moves people to action, and Extra Life is a fantastic way to take action ourselves. The event helps us directly channel our interests into helping others in a different way than usual, and we’ve loved participating these last five years!

Can FableVision beat last year’s record of $6,609? Only if we get help from our amazing supporters. Each participating member of the FableVision family is looking for donations, and no amount is too small. Sign up here to join our team or to donate to a team member and support a great cause. Thank you so much! 

While we anxiously await the 2nd, read on to learn more about some of our players this year. Get ready to game on!

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This is your first ExtraLife. What about the game-a-thon excites you the most?
Julie Oliveira, Production Artist: In the time I've been at FableVision, I've heard the term "Extra Life" come up quite often. Whenever I hear a coworker talking about it, it’s always in the context of something fun or a fond memory. I fully support the cause Extra Life supports, and I also really enjoy playing games of all kinds, so I think this is the perfect event to have fun with everyone at the studio while also supporting a great cause. I can't wait for my first Extra Life with FableVision and to make a lot of great memories this year! 

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This is your second year participating in Extra Life. What tips do you have for playing games late into the night?
Allie Caton, Production Assistant: I only made it to 10:30 p.m. last year, but this year I'm aiming to stay up later! In addition to caffeine, I've been saving a few games I'm really excited to play at Extra Life. I won't leave until I've played them all!

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Why is the Extra Life cause important to you?
David Welsh, Game & Narrative Designer: Extra life is important to me because kids deserve the best medical care, especially when they’re sick and vulnerable. Gaming is a unique way to build excitement for the fundraising that provides hospitals with the resources they need to help children.

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What about Extra Life makes it a successful event?
Peter Stidwill, Executive Producer: Extra Life is a highlight of the year for me. When else do you get such a great excuse to play games for a whole day? For me, the thing that makes Extra Life a great success is the range of different types of games⁠—digital, board, card, and physical⁠—that we can switch between during the day. Each year I get introduced to whole new games and experiences that I would never have tried otherwise.

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You’re an Extra Life veteran. What about the event keeps you coming back?
Gary Goldberger, President: I'm super excited for this to be my 7th Extra Life event. Supporting our Boston Children's Hospital has been very near and dear to my heart; it is an institution that has not only had a positive impact on my family's members lives, but also on so many in the area and around the world. The Extra Life Game-a-thon is a wonderful way to raise money. Not only do we get to do something that we love (playing games for good) but we also get to do it with people that we enjoy being around (co-workers, friends, and family). I love that every year there are new people joining and new games to play while we continue to support BCH.

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What advice do you have for other people who can’t be at the event but want to be involved?
Sarah Ditkoff, Communications Director:
Here are my three tips:
1. Participate in Extra Life by joining the Extra Life community! 
2. Support FableVision's Extra Life team by donating here. 
3. Follow Extra Life team's gaming the day of on social media by using #ForTheKids or join us on Twitch to play along.

Digital Citizenship Week

Happy Digital Citizenship Week!

As young people explore new ways to communicate online, the need for kindness and caution is increasing. But where can children best learn internet safety and practices? 

Enter Common Sense Education’s free online digital citizenship lessons! This revamped curriculum teaches students to both navigate the internet and actively make it better. To engage students and add a fun spin to the curriculum, FableVision created three animated music videos for K-2. 

In Media Balance is Important, Pause & Think Online, and We the Digital Citizens, a cast of colorful characters teach kids how to navigate the internet through catchy tunes. Country! Latin! Hip hop! Pop! Talented musical group The Wilders wrote these songs with many exciting influences to engage kids. FableVision artists adapted Common Sense’s characters to animation, enhanced their world with original backgrounds, and wrote scripts emphasizing key lessons with age appropriate lyrics.

As the nation’s leading nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of kids and families through reliable information and education, Common Sense is a trustworthy and accessible platform for digital citizenship lessons. The curriculum is based on studies from thousands of researchers, including those at Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, shaping it to address the deepest concerns of educators and parents alike, including Media Balance & Well-Being, Cyberbullying, and News & Media Literacy.

All three music videos, available in both English and Spanish, are available on Common Sense Education’s website. There, students can meet the “Digital Citizens,” who model positive online behavior. Each character represents a different part of the body and an accompanying aspect of the curriculum. The heart, for example, reminds students to be kind. It is also really cute!

This Digital Citizenship Week, make sure kids have the skills they need to stay safe while having fun on the internet. With these digital citizenship lessons, they’ll be ready to say: “We the digital citizens, with our hands up in the air, pledge to travel safely when we click from here to there!”

October FableFriday: Erin Carvalho, Junior Developer

With her wealth of knowledge in both programming and education, junior developer Erin Carvalho offers unique insight into developing educational games and interactives. Erin has a bachelor's degree in secondary education from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and a masters degree in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and it’s this background in education that pushes her to not only consider the code, but also the pedagogy in every project.

“Having teaching and administrative experience definitely helps me consider how people will use the programs I develop,” says Erin. “I’ve been fortunate enough to see how education affects everyone. I feel like I owe it to my mentors, colleagues, and students to develop programs that are student-centered and teacher approved.” 

As junior developer, Erin serves as a programmer on a variety of polished projects across mobile and web platforms. Her creative problem solving and technical skills enable her to quickly adapt to new programming challenges. So let’s get to know the newest member of the FableVision team and take a deep dive into Erin’s insightful advice for up-and-coming developers, her favorite activities, and her strong opinions on pumpkin spice lattes.

Welcome to the team! Tell us more about your journey to FableVision. 
Honestly, if you had told me in college that I would be a developer within the next three years, I probably would’ve laughed hysterically. I was sure that once I graduated I would just become a teacher. I had applied to a teaching residency in Boston when my sister contacted me about a course she worked for called CS50, Harvard University's introduction to the intellectual enterprises of computer science and the art of programming. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up. I helped develop content for their high school version of the course that mapped to the new (at the time) AP Computer Science Principles course launched by the College Board. It wasn’t long before I started taking on small development projects like the project5050.org website. That was probably the first time I thought, “I like this and I want to do a lot more of this.” 

Brian Grossman, FableVision’s Technical Director, was a teaching assistant for one of the courses I took at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and he informed me of a developer position at FableVision. I politely declined to which he replied, “I’m gonna keep emailing you, hoping to find an opportunity to work together at some point. Hope that’s ok.  ;-)” It’s a year later, and here I am.

What does a typical day in the life of a developer look like at the studio?
One of the reasons that first got me interested in programming is that no one is an “expert.” My browsers always have a million tabs open, just like my brain. Programming changes rapidly, so you need to be comfortable being uncomfortable. While I was hired as a developer, I love being able to contribute to other aspects of projects like the UI and overarching pedagogy.

You were a Zoombinis fan before coming to work here. What’s your favorite part about the game, and how did learning about FableVision’s role in the 2015 relaunch influence your decision to join the team?
I have always been a HUGE fan of logic puzzles and brain teasers. I love challenging myself to consider various perspectives. One of my coworkers suggested that I try out Zoombinis, and I was hooked. I loved the variety of the various minigames and all the trial and error. The first time Brian reached out about potentially working at FableVision, I Google’d the studio’s projects and  as soon as I saw Zoombinis, I knew I had to do whatever it took to join the team.   

What team dynamic do you feel is most important for a development team?
I think communication is huge! People tend to think of a stereotypical programmer as someone who is alone in a dark basement drinking Mountain Dew. That’s simply not the case...I prefer Coke Zero. All joking aside, developing is almost entirely about collaboration. You may be the only developer on a project, but you typically work with a team of people who bring their ideas, perspectives, and backgrounds to help produce the best project possible. I don’t expect the people I work with to understand every technical term and I certainly don’t always have knowledge in other aspects of a project either. It is key to develop a shared vocabulary so that everyone can feel comfortable contributing. 

What are you most looking forward to in your career at FableVision Studios?
I’m excited to work with everyone in the studio. I feel privileged to work with such an amazing group of individuals who all provide critical pieces to produce amazing projects. I’ve dipped my feet into art a little and have also worked on content development,  so I love seeing the unique ideas people bring to the table.

We heard you’re a gamer! What are your favorite video and board games, and what has being an avid player taught you about designing and developing educational games?
Video Games:

• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

• SpeedRunners

• Borderlands 2

Board Games:

• Carcassonne 

• Code Names

• Jaipur

I think my biggest takeaway from the games I play is that a good game can be won in a variety of ways. I love using my knowledge of my opponents to inform my strategy. My favorite games are the ones that aren’t over until it’s over. As a developer, I strive to create experiences that are appealing and accommodating to all learners. I want people to be able to solve my games in whatever way is best for them. 

You’re also a certified Yoga instructor. What do you enjoy most about doing and teaching yoga?
In high school and college, I ran cross country and track. After moving to Boston, I started running, but the colder it got, the less I wanted to be outside, so I started doing hot yoga and quickly fell in love with it. My favorite part of yoga  was the mental aspect. I found that taking an hour to just focus on my breathing really helped me feel more at ease throughout the day. It also gave me strategies I could use outside of a yoga class if I was feeling particularly stressed. The community at the yoga studio became a family and teacher training just felt like the next logical step. It definitely added another level to my practice because I learned more about the anatomy behind the poses and various modifications to differentiate.

Tell us one thing that others never thought you would do, but that you have done. 
People probably thought that I would never move to Boston. A lot of people who grow up in Hawaii stay in Hawaii. It was a big move and very scary moving somewhere where I only knew a couple people. I think it was necessary, though. I’d advise anyone moving to get a dog. I got my dog as soon as I moved, and while it was stressful starting a new job and raising a puppy, it got me out of my apartment. I made a lot of friends in my building and at the dog park. Taking her for walks helped me get to know the neighborhood and all the hidden gems you only find by walking around. 

More About Erin: 

Dogs or cats: DOGS!
Favorite place to visit in Boston: The Charles River.
Favorite animated movie: The Croods.
Pumpkin spice lattes. Yes or no? No...just no.
Something you couldn’t go a day without: Spotify.
Favorite Halloween candy: Sour Patch Kids.