Author Archives: Ben Kramer

KLRU and PBS Kids at the Texas Book Festival!

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KLRU Educational Services will be on hand for two events connected to the Texas Book Festival. The first, a joint presentation by the Texas Book Festival, KLRU, and the AISD Department of Communications and Community Engagement is a book reading and signing by the bilingual children’s author Yuyi Morales, who was profiled by PBS and regularly has a spot airing during the PBS Kids block (which you can see here). The book signing will take place at Mathews Elementary, 906 West Lynn, on Friday, October 25, from 4-5 pm.

The second event will be our three-hour appearance at the Texas Book Festival itself, on Sunday, October 27, from 12 noon – 3 pm. We will be at the Children’s Activity Tent (on Colorado St. between 12th & 13th) with our iPads loaded with learning apps and with none other than Clifford the Big Red Dog.

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KLRU’s new Kids lineup begins October 7!

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Download a pdf of the Fall 2013 schedule

KLRU wishes to announce the following changes to the 6:30 am – 5:30 pm (M-F) program lineup:

1. The new series Peg+Cat, an adorable show on early mathematical thinking, will run M-F from 9-9:30 am.

2. In response to popular demand, Sesame Street will now air twice daily, once from 7-8 am, and once from 2-3 pm.

3. Thomas & Friends will now air daily M-F from 11:30 am – noon with lots of new episodes.

4. Signing Time moves to noon – 12:30 pm.

5. From 12:30 – 1 pm, we have different programs each day: Monday is WordWorld, Tuesday is Bob the Builder, Wednesday is Angelina Ballerina, Thursday is Peep and the Big Wide World, and Friday is a new show, Bali.

Now, what gets lost in these changes? Because we have no new episodes for Maya & Miguel or for Barney, and because of a slowdown of production for Electric Company, we have currently dropped them from the daily lineup. We especially feel the loss of Electric Company because it’s popular for older kids, so we are hoping that we can build up a bank of new episodes for airing later in the school year. In the meantime, all of these shows can be accessed online.

If you have questions or comments on the new lineup, please contact Benjamin Kramer, Director of Educational Services. We hope you enjoy these changes!

KLRU, Extend-A-Care, and Dell Powering the Possible

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During the 2012-2013 school year, KLRU Educational Services has benefitted from a Dell Powering the Possible grant, which provided us the opportunity to purchase 20 beautiful, sleek new Dell XPS 13 laptops for use at the Extend-A-Care sites at Graham and Walnut Creek Elementary.

This video spot highlights a visit by Dell volunteers who got to hear from the kids as they talked about the various ways the computers have been used to further their learning during out-of-school time. Moreover, they had a chance to play games and talk about new options together.

The event was so successful that on June 28, we’ll hold a Create-A-Thon, in which 30 Dell volunteers will come together with kids at the Brentwood Summer Extend-A-Care program for a half-day burst of creativity. Teams of kids and adults will use the laptops to shoot and edit movies, create written projects, slideshows, e-books, and video games!

KLRU-TV is thankful for the support and collaborative spirit from Dell and Extend-A-Care. Together, we are enriching kids’ out-of-school time.

Smart Screen Time / La Pantalla Inteligente™

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Download a printable version of this guide (pdf): Smart Screen Time™ | La Pantalla Inteligente™

With the proliferation of screen-based activities available for and embraced by youth, KLRU Educational Services has developed a set of guidelines for digital media use called “Smart Screen Time / La Pantalla Inteligente™.” In addition to offering quality educational media, KLRU Educational Services staff believe that explicit guidelines for how to use these media has never been more needed – for parents, caretakers, educators, and the children themselves. The guidelines have been incorporated into all of KLRU Educational Services’ messaging and are now appearing on-air and online in a series of explanatory video clips. The guidelines are as follows, with the video clips to follow.

  1. Knowing “smart time” vs. “silly time” - Kids instinctively know when they are viewing or playing media that is cognitively stimulating, and media that is pure entertainment. We believe that there is a role for both in kids’ lives. Adults who provide access to digital media ought to have conversations about the appropriate balance of smart and silly with the children in their care, and help children monitor their own media habits.
  2. When the brain slows down, turn the screen off! - All viewers of digital media have experienced moments when they are neither asleep nor alert, but in some in-between “zombie” zone. For adults, this may be a reasonable break from a long day’s work. For kids, it’s a different matter because this time is neither truly restful, nor is it meaningfully engaging. In short, it’s lost time during a period of rapid brain growth and development. For that reason, it’s important for adults in kids’ lives to turn the screen off and send them to another activity (including sleep!). Kids can become self-monitors of their own zombie states,  and can learn alternatives to drooling in front of a screen.
  3. Talk throughout the day, including during screen time - Studies have shown that dialogue can enhance the learning outcomes of using educational digital media. Look no further than our own characters to see role models for our kids – our characters use sophisticated vocabulary, ask good questions, and seek solution pathways for desired information. In short, they are all “smart” chatterboxes! Adults can ask kids for narrative summaries of show episodes, or to describe strategies they are using to advance in games.
  4. Watch and play on screens together - This is corollary of guideline #3. Whereas dialogue about kids’ viewing or playing is great, an even stronger learning experience occurs when adults and kids engage together with educational media. KLRU Educational Services selects PBS evening programs each month for “Family Choice” viewing, when we encourage generations to sit, watch, and discuss together. This idea can be extended to our programming throughout the day, and to game-playing online and on mobile media. One caution: current research suggests that all screen time stop 90 minutes before a child’s bedtime. It appears that the blue/light white from LCD screens can signal the brain to wake up, making bedtime a more difficult proposition.
  5. Read both at home and at school – every day! As proud as we are of the educational quality of our media, KLRU Educational Services recognizes that reading remains the most efficient, effective method of acquiring new information, building vocabulary, and experiencing new worlds of learning. In fact, a good number of our programs and games explicitly steer children to reading experiences. Most children still need adults to bridge the gap from screen to text, and to help them locate appropriate reading materials. This cannot solely occur in school – children who practice literacy as a desired activity during out-of-school time have markedly better learning outcomes that endure throughout their lives (International Reading Association, 1998). We know our job is done when kids instinctively and enthusiastically turn from our media to books as a logical next step in their learning lives.

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