Who We Are

Roger lived in California when his daughter Hana was born. His parents lived in Brooklyn. They visited now and then, and he visited them, so Hana knew who they were. Then, when Hana was just over one year old, they moved to Switzerland. In those days, phone calls were somewhat expensive, especially overseas, but this didn’t stop Roger’s parents from calling every week. This was their only grandchild and they were far away from her, so they wanted to talk to her. But talk about what?

It’s not that easy to talk to a one-and-a-half year old on the phone. For Hana’s part, she loved talking to them. She walked around in circles as she talked, just like her father did, and made noises into the phone.

One day, Roger had a thought. Hana had a book called One Two Three with Ant and Bee or something like that. In this book Ant and Bee collected stuff and then counted it out. There was a piece that Hana had memorized that went something like: one apple, two tarts, three bananas, four whatever…

Roger told his mother to say “one apple…” into the phone. She did so and Hana said loudly back to her “two tarts!” This was a fun game. Now Hana was talking to her grandmother. They both loved the experience.

More than thirty years have passed since then. Hana has a son. She lives in New York (oddly enough), and Roger lives in Florida (somewhat less oddly). He wanted to interact with his new grandson, Milo. The question was: “How?” Hello internet! Thanks to Milo (and Hana too) Grandparent Games was born.

Two years of doing this with Milo on his mother’s lap has taught him that it is fun to play on the computer with Papa, and more and more he is able to do it with his mother nearby while he sits at the computer. Soon it will just be Milo and Roger. Milo loves it and most important, Roger is in his life.

 

 

Who is Dr. Roger Schank?

Dr. Roger Schank is a grandparent, well-respected educator, and creator of Grandparent Games. Utilizing his extensive experience in learning sciences, he founded the renowned Institute for the Learning Sciences at Northwestern University, where he is currently the John P. Evans Professor Emeritus in Computer Science, Education and Psychology.

In 2002, he founded Socratic Arts, a company devoted to making high quality e-learning affordable for both businesses and schools. He is also founder of Engines for Education, a nonprofit organization whose goal is to radically change our notions of school.

Schank was a professor at Yale, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, and the University of Paris VII.

Schank holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics from University of Texas and is the author of more than 20 books on learning, language, artificial intelligence, education, memory, reading, e-learning, and story telling. Click here to view and purchase some of his books.

Learn more about Dr. Roger Schank or visit Roger's site.