We were delighted to be part of The Ontario Library Association Super Conference, and Reading For the Love of It. These two conferences gave us the opportunity to meet librarians and educators from all over Canada. Thanks very much to Karen, Mark and Naheed for their time and contributions!
We’re also excited about the release of our fifth book of philosophy for kids, Epistemology: How Do You Know What You Know? A book of ethics is now in the works, along with more fantastic apps and teacher materials.
Congratulations to Ben Zimmer, our intrepid leader, who is now a Certified Labview Architect!
A very warm welcome to the newest “Enabler”, Melisa. Melisa has joined our curriculum development team, and brings experience in teaching, math and science. She has spent the past couple of days surrounded by educational toys and lesson plans, and we couldn’t be more pleased to have her on board.
Happy New Year! After a brief, but much-needed respite, the Enable team is back in the office, and already showing 2012 who’s boss.
We’d like to formally welcome our new co-op students, Kevin, Hank and Naheed, and we’d like to welcome Matt back for his second work term with us. Kevin and Hank will be learning the ropes with our education and training team, Matt will be working in the programming department, and Naheed will be lending his skills to marketing. We’re delighted to have all of them on board, and we can’t wait to see what new and amazing ideas they’ll bring to the table.
Two of us spent Friday and Saturday at the Ontario Conference for Exceptional Children, and met some extraordinary teachers, parents and students. Conferences and trade shows are always great for making new connections, but they also serve to inspire and reinforce that what we’re doing is important.
A point of focus in this organization is the use of technology to engage learners with learning challenges, behaviour issues, or autism spectrum disorder. Karen and I were both thrilled to think that we might reach and assist such a variety of children, especially since our first iPad app was submitted the day before the conference, and is likely to be available in the next week or two. I can’t tell you how amazing it is to find that something we’ve created has such potential!
Thanks so much to everyone at CEC for their insights!
Our first app is almost ready to be launched, and four more are in the works! I thought it was cool when Mark Hughes (our illustrator) put a face to “Sophia”, our narrator. It makes me downright misty to see her walking, talking and teaching philosophy on a screen. What more could a writer wish for?
First, a big thanks to all of the amazing minds who have been toiling away on design, programming, editing, and animating, including (in no particular order):
Mark Hughes
Karen Smolenaars
Ruth Riddell
Ami Moore
Sarah Bonin
Greg Sullivan
Octavian Ciubotariu
Ben Zimmer
Thanks also to the marvelous cast of voices who will be helping to bring these books to life!
Here is a list of nifty features this set of apps will have:
Scrollable text (they are interactive books, after all)
Full-color, animated illustrations
Fully-narrated, for kids who like to listen and follow along
Interactive maps and timelines
Interactive activities, including some pretty cool colouring pages
Stay tuned for news about where and when these masterpieces can be found!
Um, yeah, well, it’s been a while since we posted here. The good news is, our lack of blogginess over the past couple months has been due to our abundance of busyness. In an effort to get on schedule, here is a highlight reel.
With heavy hearts, we said goodbye to a fantastic bunch of summer co-op students (thanks for the hard work, guys). In September, we welcomed back Greg and Sarah, two bright lights from the University of Waterloo, for their second co-op term with us.
Karen Smolenaars joined our team as Office Manager, and Ruth Riddell came on board as our new video editor. Hooray!
ThinkAboutIt, our series of philosophy books for kids, has been making the rounds! Since our last post, we’ve released two new books (environmental philosophy and aesthetics). Three more books will be on their way early in 2012.
We also participated in Word On The Street in Toronto, as well as Milton Green’s “Green Holiday” event. This past weekend, we celebrated with an official launch party.
Work has begun on both IPad apps and teacher packs for our books! Both are scheduled for release at the end of 2011, and we’re so excited to be starting into this new venture.
Check out the new addition to our publishing repertoire! “According To Phil: A Young Thinker’s Guide to Robots” is now available at www.kidsthinkaboutit.com.
Packed with fascinating facts, high-tech history and awesome activity pages, this book invites readers aged 7-10 to jump into the wonderful world of robots! It’s also great for grown-ups who’ve also been curious.
We’re excited to announce that five of our team members have officially added the letters “CLD” (Certified LabVIEW Developer) to their titles. This means that Enable Training and Consulting has more CLDs than any other company in Ontario. Congratulations to Ben, Matt, Dean, Octavian and Mike!
I’ve just spent two days at the first ever PLATO Institute at Columbia University, and am newly-inspired. The conference was composed of educators and thinkers from Canada, the United States, Finland, Turkey, Chile, Germany and beyond, all of whom were committed to bringing philosophy to pre-college classrooms.
I heard stories of how a little deep thought can help to make children better communicators, better problem-solvers, and better citizens. I also saw demonstrations of philosophy being taught to children through stories, film, art, sport, and even through food. If I weren’t already a believer in the power of big questions, I would have definitely gone home a convert.
In case you’re curious, here’s a video clip of Tom Wartenberg (a PLATO presenter) in a primary school classroom, teaching philosophy through literature.
‘Tis the season for festivals, and we’ve been busy bringing mechanical merriment to kids and parents in our community. Sporting our new philosophy for kids books, our stylish new t-shirts (thanks, Mark), as well as some nifty robot demos, we’ve been hitting the streets in search of brilliant young minds.
First came Osprey Woods Public School in Mississauga for their annual Funtastic Fair. Then came Milton’s Downtown Street Festival (Mother nature put the brakes on that one with a pretty spectacular thunderstorm). Yesterday was the Big Daddy Festival in Georgetown. Kids and their parents got to ask big questions, learn about how robots work, and even test-drive a TETRIX Ranger Bot.
I’m happy to report that we were a hit! After hearing “Hey, wanna drive a robot?”, passers-by couldn’t resist coming in for a peek. They were flipping through books, jumping up and down in front of motion sensors, and no one (big or small), could keep their hands off the controller. One parent even bestowed upon us the title “Coolest Company On The Planet” (we’d like to thank the Academy).
Many, many thanks to Ben, Pat, Scott, Octavian, Damian, Alex, and our future co-op student, Rebecca, for helping to make these events such a success!
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