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May 2010 Issue: The iPad as a Rorschach Test

April 30th, 2010 posted by buckleit

Children’s Technology Review, May 2010

CTR No 122

Volume 18, No. 5, Issue 122

This is a free editorial by Warren Buckleitner. For full access, please subscribe.

Since Hermann Rorschach created his famous personality screening test back in 1921, many have used it to try to figure a person’s state of mind. Giving you the

Rorschach test is simple: I show you something unique (such as an inkblot), and then ask you to describe what you think you see. I then crank your answers through a set of instruments, and “DING,” I know if you’re mentally sound (or not). Now swap the inkblot for something else unique and open ended. An iPad. What do you see? More importantly, how does it make you feel?

Because this is an interactive column, I’ll allow you to sit quietly for a while as you study the photo on this month’s cover, and jot down your thoughts.

How do you compare to a larger population? I’ve been administering this test to a statistically significant sample now for 30 days. Here are my results.

Children <12 years can’t even do this exercise because they don’t know what “pause” is. They grab the iPad and start App-grazing. Even our cat seems to get the idea, swiping at the fish in the Koi Pond app. To children, they see an iPad, say “cool!” and start touching.

Adults >18 years who are experienced with computers (aka “geeks”) often take a “glass half empty” attitude, focusing on all the things the iPad isn’t:“It doesn’t run Flash,” or “there’s no mouse and keyboard.” Some view the iPad as a stain on their pre-conceived idea of what a computer should be. A lot of them seem to be pretty grumpy people altogether, which may help explain New Jersey drivers.

Old Software Reviewers Who Work With Kids see the iPad as a triumph, and the beginning of the end of a long struggle with hardware and operating systems. FINALLY we can hand a child a device that has successfully combined the “four pillars” of computing: multi-touch, strong batteries, a vast software library and Internet access. Before this, the only two devices that were even close came from Nintendo: The Wii and the DS. The iPad is more significant than the Wii because the device is the interface. You lean left, the car turns left. You swipe, and the page turns. It even can listen to you with the onboard microphone. As somebody who has struggled for years trying to get products working, iPad has cleared a path toward digital access for “the rest of us.” We can struggle less with technology, and use that energy to concentrate on the the content and children. The iPad isn’t about Apple, and it’s not about Steve Jobs. Apple didn’t invent these pillars, anymore than Sir Edmund Hillary invented the rope he used to be the first to make it to the top of Mount Everest. But “team Apple” was the first to successfully bring a product to the market that combined the four elements, and put them in your lap, backpack or desk. The iPad isn’t perfect, and competitive products will emerge. However, when Edison’s first light bulb went on, it marked an instant in time when everything from that point looked brighter. My reading of the iPad inkblot is that from now on, things will be much better for children and technology.

Publishers Talk Flash and iPads

I asked three publishers, a.k.a., “Flashmasters” what they thought about the fact that Adobe Flash won’t run on the iPad. Many children’s interactive products depend on Flash, including Disney’s Club Penguin, StarFall.com and Giggles. I’ll post this on our blog, in case any other publishers want to jump in. The publishers are Scott Traylor, CEO, 360KID; Tim Leverette, CEO of Leveractive, LLC and Karina Linch, Senior Vice President, Product Management, BrainPop. Read their thoughts on the topic, here http://bit.ly/9r8enj

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