YogiPlay Appoints Learning Veteran Dr. Jim Gray As Chief Learning Officer

MENLO PARK, Calif., June 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, YogiPlay, the first personalized mobile learning recommendation engine designed specifically for children, announced the strategic appointment of Dr. Jim Gray as the company's Chief Learning Officer.

A noted industry expert on early childhood development, Dr. Gray joins YogiPlay after spending more than 7 years in key positions at Leapfrog Enterprises.  As Director of Learning he was responsible for overseeing curriculum and learning design of all products.  Dr. Gray also directed user experience and product development research for the Leapfog Lab.  

"We are thrilled to appoint Jim as Chief Learning Officer at YogiPlay," said Cedric Sellin, founder and CEO of YogiPlay.  "Jim is extremely well regarded in the early childhood development industry for his knowledge and ability to design beneficial learning products for children.  With Jim's guidance, YogiPlay will establish best practices for evaluating educational value in learning apps, so that parents will now have a trusted brand to turn to for all of their child's mobile learning needs."

YogiPlay has appointed Dr. Gray to lead the company's educational app quality program designed to ensure that each YogiPlay app is evaluated for educational value.  Dr. Gray will apply his educational knowledge and expertise in early childhood learning to design a rubric with specific criteria for evaluating educational quality.  Right now parents are having a hard time discerning if the learning apps they select will truly provide learning value.  This is why YogiPlay will implement this review process in order to ensure that only apps with known learning potential will be recommended to parents.

"The rubric will help us to evaluate apps in a detailed, fair, and consistent manner," said Dr. Gray, Chief Learning Officer for YogiPlay. "The evaluations will then be the basis for reviews that help parents understand the learning potential of each app.  They will also help developers improve their craft, especially those who participate in our developer network." 

"YogiPlay is an exciting place to do this work," added Dr. Gray.  "Cedric and co-founder Michal have assembled an extremely strong team with deep engineering talent to bring their vision to reality.  It is a small, nimble company that can be responsive to the needs of both parents and developers.  I am quite hopeful that YogiPlay will expand the availability of high-quality educational apps and make it easy for parents to find them."

Dr. Gray has been an advisory board member for PBS KIDS Next Generation Media and for Stanford University's Graduate Program in Learning, Design, and Technology. 
His academic background includes research at the Center for Innovative Learning Technologies and teaching Interactive Media Design at the Rochester Institute of Technology.  Dr. Gray holds a doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a bachelor's degree in Early Childhood Education from Michigan State University.  

ABOUT YOGIPLAY
YogiPlay is the first personalized mobile learning apps recommendation engine designed specifically for children from ages 3 to 8.  YogiPlay provides parents with valuable insight into their child's learning and play patterns, along with meaningful personalized app recommendations tailor-made to meet each child's specific learning needs.  YogiPlay is now available on Apple devices, Android tablets and smart-phones, so look for YogiPlay-boosted apps in your preferred app marketplace YogiPlay is a venture-backed company with investment partners that include DN Capital and Richmond Park Partners.

To learn more about YogiPlay please visit our website at: www.yogiplay.com

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Media Contact:
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SOURCE YogiPlay