After more than 25 years at Saint Vincent College, the last four as executive director of the Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media, Rita Catalano will retire at the end of 2013. In December, RemakeLearning.org, a publication of Pittsburgh's Kids+Creativity Network, sat down with Catalano and Bill Isler, CEO of the Fred Rogers Company, to discuss Rogers' life and...
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Recently, author Paul Tough was the Saint Vincent College Threshold Series lecturer, as the opening event in celebration of the Fred Rogers Center’s 10th anniversary. Tough’s recent book, “How Children Succeed,” explains the brain science behind the toxic effects of long-term stress on young children and how to prevent and undo the harm it produces. Fred Rogers knew the importance of...
Read MoreHow does screen time affect brain development? At what age should kids begin to be exposed to TV, tablets, and mobile devices? How can parents use technology to help preschoolers learn? Is reading to a child from an iPad or Kindle better than reading from a book? This is the online broadcast of 2013's Kristin Anderson Moore Lecture! Hear from a...
Read MoreRichard Fernandes has been named executive director of the Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media at Saint Vincent College, according to an announcement by Br. Norman W. Hipps, O.S.B., president. The appointment becomes effective Jan. 1. Fernandes succeeds Rita Catalano, who is retiring at the end of the month after 25 years at Saint Vincent. She has served as an administrator...
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“Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning. They have to play with what they know to be true in order to find out more, and then they can use what they learn in new forms of play.” – Fred Rogers In 1999, I participated in a play-testing session with preschoolers from a Head Start center in Arlington,...
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This post was originally published at RemakeLearning.org. It appears here with permission. There may be some light at the end of the great recession. At least that’s what urbanists like Bruce Katz think. Katz is one of the economists who’s been cheering on the revolutionary models he sees in cities across America, because as he sees it, the economy of the...
Read MoreOnce upon a time, about fours year ago, apps were something you served before a meal. Today we can barely imagine life without handy digital tools that put a world of information at our fingertips. There are apps for the weather, directions and entertainment, even tools to teach the youngest, down to the tiniest of mobile users. Mobile applications for early...
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This summer, my husband brought home an iPad as a surprise gift for our son’s fourth birthday. I found myself looking at the tablet with a mix of excitement and foreboding. I had many questions. Should my son be using an iPad at age four? Will all those fun apps ruin his attention span for other activities? At the same...
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