Educationtipster: Kathy Stemke, Author/Educator: Ruckus Media Group CEO Rick Richter to Present Key Findings on Children’s App Use at Sandbox Summit

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Ruckus Media Group CEO Rick Richter to Present Key Findings on Children’s App Use at Sandbox Summit

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ruckus Media Group, the global children’s digital media company, today announced the results of a national study that explores educational app use by children, ages 4-8, and parental preferences in selecting children’s apps. As a featured speaker at the Sandbox Summit, taking place April 17-18, 2012 at MIT, CEO Rick Richter will present on the topic of “Digital Guilt: What Parents Really Think about Screen Time.” In this session, Rick will introduce quantitative research conducted by PlayScience that sheds new light on how children and parents select and engage with educational apps.

“As more and more children engage with tablets and choose to read or listen to stories on mobile touch devices, it’s important that parents understand what to look for in an app”

While the increased use of tablets by young children has been well-documented, Ruckus Media Group set out to learn more about how children interact with apps and how parents select apps for their children. Specifically, Ruckus was interested in the correlation between children’s educational apps and early reading behaviors, as well as feelings of guilt parents experience around their children’s abundant use of touch devices. Following are some top-line findings from the survey on children, ages 4-8, and their app usage on touch devices:

More than 60 percent of children read or listen to stories on touch devices
60 percent of children use apps more than four times per week
24 percent of those children use apps everyday
29 percent download apps on their own

Additional findings on what parents are looking for in apps for their children and how they feel about their children’s usage of touch devices:

More than 60 percent of parents have more than five children’s apps on their mobile device
39 percent of parents have more than 10 children’s apps on their mobile device
88 percent of all parents are interested in the educational value of the apps they download, but 78 percent of respondents have less than five educational apps for their children on their device
58 percent of parents feel some guilt when letting their child play with their tablet or mobile device
Of the parents who have 10 or more educational apps, only 42 percent feel guilty when letting their child play with their tablet or mobile device

“As more and more children engage with tablets and choose to read or listen to stories on mobile touch devices, it’s important that parents understand what to look for in an app,” said Rick Richter, CEO, Ruckus Media Group. “The results of this survey echo our mission to provide a digital environment that finally allows parents to measure the value of screen time. It’s more important now than ever to engage children in apps that are interactive, age-appropriate and keep the parent and the child coming back for more.”

Yesterday, Ruckus Media Group announced the release of the Ruckus Reader, a breakthrough learning program for the iPad featuring digital storybooks that provides parents with personalized feedback on their child’s reading experience. The Ruckus Reader is designed to help young children practice important reading skills and develop a love of reading with characters they love. Moreover, it addresses the needs of parents and caregivers with weekly Reader Meter e-mail reports and an online dashboard that provides details of their child’s progress.

The Ruckus Reader is the first library of mobile apps to deliver a safe and interactive learning environment filled with iReaders (digital storybook titles), eReaders (e-books), narrated video books and videos, and activities for children to enjoy without leaving the library. Ruckus iReaders feature well-loved characters such as The Wiggles, Hasbro’s My Little Pony and Transformers as well as activities designed to appeal to the creative learner, the science lover, the math and the music enthusiast and more from popular brands such as Crayola, SeaWorld, Dino Dan, Cyberchase and VeggieTales.

Developed by educational experts, the Ruckus Reader is designed to match age-appropriate standards determined by the Common Core State Standards.

The Ruckus Reader App is available for free from the App Store on iPad or at www.itunes.com/appstore.

To learn more about Ruckus Reader, please visit www.RuckusReader.com.

About Ruckus Media Group
Ruckus Media Group creates interactive applications for mobile devices designed to entertain and educate children ages 3-8. Launched in September 2010, the company’s centerpiece is the Ruckus Reader (released April 2012), a breakthrough learning program for the iPad featuring digital storybooks that delight children with interactive content from the most popular names in entertainment (Hasbro, Crayola, SeaWorld, The Wiggles, Cyberchase, Dino Dan, Veggie Tales). Parents are provided with an innovative reading assessment tool and personalized feedback on their child’s reading experience.

Previously released award winning digital storybooks include the #1 iTunes best-selling and Mom’s Choice Gold Award winner “My Little Pony: Twilight Sparkle, Teacher for a Day,” based on the ever-popular Hasbro toy characters; Parents’ Choice and Mom’s Choice Award winners “Spot the Dot” by pop-up legend David A. Carter, and “Chuck & Friends: Friends for the Long Haul;” About.com Readers’ Choice Award winner and Best App Award finalist “A Present for Milo,” written and illustrated by Mike Austin; “The Velveteen Rabbit: Told by Meryl Streep” and other read-play-and-record-along classic animated storybook apps.

For a full listing of titles and additional information, see our website http://www.ruckusreader.com and the Ruckus Media Group iTunes page and follow Ruckus on Facebook and Twitter.