- by Anne Finlay-Stewart, Editor

This Wednesday, June 28, Eileen White will be launching her Click Me app for early learners at the Owen Sound and North Grey Union Public Library. 

Click Me is Eileen's answer to meeting children's needs and giving them what they want to know, when they want to know it.

The program is focussed on the beginnings of literacy for early learners.

When Eileen was a teacher, she realized that there were times when she was engaged with a group of students while other children could be working independently – if only they had the answer to one question.

Her program is not a replacement for a loving caring teacher who listens, but allows students to accomplish the reading or writing task they want independently, and gives teachers more uninterrupted time to deal with more complex subjects.

Eileen was home-schooled until she went into Grade 2, and her mother was always around to answer her questions.

Like a great mother, ClickMe doesn't care how many times the child asks the same question.

"Children today are very capable with technology," Eileen says, but the program itself is nature themed, to take children beyond their devices.

Eileen took a Master's program at Toronto Metropolitan University in Media Production to prepare to design her program.

It was a challenge to help her developer understand that Eileen was not looking for a traditional early learning app – one that is sequential and repetitive and builds on prior learning. You can't get an answer to your own question from these apps.

Eileen says it is easier to think of her program as a talking dictonary, an as-you-need-it resource – the closest thing to a reading buddy. 

Every child learns at their own pace, and Eilleen wants them to enjoy the journey.

As she described it, “If we are taking a trip across Canada from east to west, some people will still be in St. John's, while others are in Montreal and some will have already arrived reached Vancouver Island. But there are lots of beautiful things to see and do in each of those places and along the way, no matter how long it takes.”

The program includes perspectives of the teacher and aural, visual, kinesthetic and sequential learning.

The development of the app has used loads of local expertise.

Tourist Town – the folks responsible for some great local campaigns – have done some beautiful graphics.

Neighbour Josh Ritchie has done sound production, and Rob Ritchie interviews authors like Conchila Easton, in part of a  guided reading series used to build in-depth content.

Philomene Kocher gives a guided reading piece on Haiku.

And Fiona Moreland made sure that the nature details were based in accuracy.

Many of the voices in the program are local children, trained and prepared by a professional on the scripts. Video clips of those children's mouths, teeth and tongues making the phonetic sounds adds another dimension to the learning.

While there have been people to pay for their work along the way, and Eileen is grateful for the support of a Starter Company Plus and her family, it is essential to her that the program be provided at no cost to users.

Most children will become familiar with it at home, on their own devices, but if the school boards and provincial ministry of education can be convinced it is fun, safe and effective, she hopes it will be made available to classrooms.

Eileen taught for 31 years in Lion's Head and Owen Sound and has seen many changes in the pedagogy of early literacy.

Her program will assist teachers who are new to teaching primary grades and early literacy concepts of letters, sounds and gradually word and sentence construction.

Eileen will be at the launch from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., and anyone interested in seeing or trying the program is welcome.