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We believe that the most important learning in a
child’s life—perhaps in anyone’s life—doesn’t just teach new facts. It
doesn’t just teach new skills. It changes the way you think about the
world. We call that kind of learning transformational learning, and it’s what Clever
Island is all about.
Experts in child
development typically see learning as a change in how children think, not
as a change in the facts they have memorized. For instance, a child will
begin to understand that the unrelated items she sees every day can be
categorized together in limitless ways: they could be grouped in piles of
round things, red things, fuzzy things, cold things, or shiny things
That’s transformational learning. Learning to read contains excellent
examples of transformational learning: when very young children recognize
the letters of the alphabet as a special class of symbols, somehow
different from random scribbles, their world changes. Later, another
important transformation occurs, when they learn to hear words as a series
of language sounds (phonemes), instead of as a single sonic piece.
Typical CD-ROM products present children with
tests. These tests may be brightly colored, noisy, and exciting, but
ultimately they ask children, “Show us what you know.” Clever Island is
special because its central goal is transformational learning. As we
create Clever Island, our aim is not just to teach children that 2 and 2
make 4, or that Earth is the third planet from the sun. (Although both of
these facts are good things to know.) We give children a place to explore,
a place that teaches them to think in more advanced ways about the broad
range of topics that we offer.
How Children Learn with Clever Island
We want Clever Island to be the ideal supplement to
children’s classroom activities. Because Clever Island is an online
service, it can offer approaches in structure and content that textbooks
can’t. All of our activities take advantage of online learning’s
strengths. How do we do this?
Self-Pacing
On Clever Island, children are able to learn at their own pace, rather than at a speed set by
administrators or textbook publishers. They are free to move quickly
through easy lessons. They can slow down and repeat material that they
find challenging—and we make sure the activities are exciting enough to
make them want to do so.
Active Learning
On Clever Island, children learn by doing. For most children, this makes for more
personally meaningful learning than the kind gained by filling out
endless worksheets. Our users gain an intuitive appreciation of what
they are doing—an appreciation that can be applied again and again when
they reach beyond the facts they have memorized.
Vicarious Experience
On Clever Island, our interactive learning adventures feature characters who
serve as stand-ins for our users. Our characters ask questions that are in
children’s minds. They express doubts and confusions that children often
feel. As a result, children feel more comfortable when they find lessons
difficult—which gives them the encouragement to keep trying.
Emergent Literacy
On Clever Island, reading instruction comes out of a
mixture of experiences with written text, both formal (phonics
instruction) and informal (seeing signs and labels, and being read
stories). The educational principle of emergent literacy asserts that both
kinds of exposure are important to beginning readers, and Clever Island is
careful to provide them both.
Every child learns differently. We want to help them find their own
paths to success. Clever Island is where that journey begins.
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Favorites!
Does your child have favorite Clever Island activities? If so, have your child save them in the Favorites section of the child home page.
Color Wheel
Here's a cool trick for your kids using Clever Island: Spin the color wheel on the left side of the child home page and click a color to change the look of the page.
The Great Bug Divide
We've just added a new activity!
Jasper discovers The Great Bug Divide. Help him take notes on how the bugs separate. This application helps children learn the division facts from 1-10.
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