August House and SmartyPal Announce Strategic Partnership to Develop Learning Apps with Launch of The Drum
Atlanta, GA (PRWEB) August 17, 2015 -- Today, August House, the leading independent publisher of folktales, announced a strategic partnership with SmartyPal, an innovative learning platform, to adapt August House folktales for the iPad using SmartyPal’s mobile technology engine. The debut story, The Drum, a classic folktale from India retold by Rob Cleveland, was just released as a learning app for young children. It is the first in a series of August House award-winning picture books that will be adapted by SmartyPal into a series of interactive stories for the iPad.
Steve Floyd, CEO of August House, announced “We are excited to partner with SmartyPal since their mobile platform enables us to provide a richer experience for young children. In addition to reading the book, children will now be able to engage with this timeless story as it unfolds in much the same way that children interact with a master storyteller sharing a story.” He added, “Ironically, by working with SmartyPal’s state of the art learning technology, we will be able to replicate many of the attributes that make the oral tradition such a powerful and entertaining way to experience stories.”
SmartyPal’s innovative learning platform is infused with tasks, challenges, and activities that adapt to each child’s individual learning level. The games are designed to vary based on a child’s unique strengths, ensuring that kids are actively engaged in learning something new as they explore a story. By combining award-winning stories with meaningful challenges, children become part of the adventure and their imagination is more actively engaged than when they passively listen to a story. As a result, a new adventure awaits every time a child opens the SmartyPal app.
Developed in partnership with leading educational researchers and early childhood development experts Dr. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek at Temple University and Dr. Roberta M. Golinkoff at the University of Delaware, SmartyPal’s digital platform was developed to make learning more meaningful and more fun. The adaptive learning engine is also the recipient of a prestigious grant from the National Science Foundation.
A SmartyPal executive pointed out that “Our strategic partnership with August House not only broadens the diversity of our growing library, it also gives their gifted group of storytellers another way to impact children with their retelling of timeless stories from the oral tradition.” August House authors have collectively won well over 300 awards, reflecting the authenticity and quality of their combined work. Awards include: Parents’ Choice Foundation Awards, New York Public Library Best 100 Children's Book Picks, Book Sense Children’s Picks, Texas Bluebonnet Award, Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices, ForeWord Book of the Year, Storytelling World Awards, and Annie Izard Storyteller’s Choice, among a host of other citations.
August House is a highly acclaimed and award-winning multimedia publisher of children’s picture books, folktale anthologies, and resource books. Located in Atlanta, GA, August House has developed one of the most highly respected collections of folktales from the world’s great oral traditions.
You can find more information about August House at http://www.augusthouse.com.
Steve Floyd, August House, +1 (404) 442-4425, [email protected]
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