January 12, 2010 – THQ Inc. today announced that Beat City for Nintendo DS — with 20 mini-games — will be available “spring 2010.” Players must find their rhythm in order to help Beat City. Using the stylus, players tap, swipe or hold on queue to the music’s beat in order to receive a high star rating within each mini-game. While players are tapping to the beat, they can watch the city transform. The better a player is at keeping the beat the more items are unlocked in the environment. Beat City is being developed by Universomo. Watch for an upcoming review.
- Reading: “SMART Table in my Classroom – My Conclusions | ICT in my Classroom” ( http://bit.ly/8sFzey ) #
- Watching: By way of Dave Maki, the video I just showed Ned Davis for NJECC (Sweet Georgia Brown & traktor http://bit.ly/6PmO7s ) #
- Watching: By way of Dave Maki, the video I just showed Ned Davis for NJEC (Sweet Georgia Brown & traktor http://bit.ly/6PmO7s ) #
What’s colorless, odorless and has been silently seeping into your child’s backpack, classroom, playroom and library? Your child’s digital future. After 25 years of rosy predictions from experts, there are signs that the long-awaited tipping point for technology & learning has arrived. If you’re one of the many impatient people—like me— who have been waiting for that LED at the end of tunnel, I think that this time it is really happening. Here’s why.
• Batteries. For the first time, batteries are able to power a netbook through a six-hour school day on a single charge. They’re smaller, lighter and powerful; the heart and lungs of iPods, Nintendo DSis, toys and netbooks. See the Cinemin, on page 20 (November issue) for example.
• LEDs. (Light Emitting Diods) are molded into your child’s shoes, and lighting the earrings on the new Dora Links doll.
• Wi-Fi. Thanks to eRate, most schools were wired years ago. Unfortunately the Internet never made it to the child’s desktop. There are signs this is starting to change. For the first time in her K-12 education, my daughter, a high school senior, is now encouraged to bring her laptop to school. And half of her teachers are using Moodle for assignments.
• The App store and Google Ads. Small publishers can make money from their interactive ideas, and reach their intended audience, sidestepping the retail bottleneck.
• Cloud computing. Google’s gmail, YouTube, Facebook and Flickr have earned the trust of the masses, including many of our children who are flocking to games like FarmVille (page 21).
• Flash 10. It used to be that online animation chugged. Not anymore. I just previewed a virtual world for children that is fast, responsive and — for the first time— is in 3D.
• Kinesthetic (motion based) interfaces. The Wii was magic. This year, there’s more. Besides the Wii-Motionplus, there’s Microsoft’s Project Natal, which uses cameras to detect motion. Interface guru Jakob Nielson points out two motion-based Windows 7 features: “Snap” (the ability to resize open Windows) and “Shake” (grab a window, hold your mouse button and give it a shake to hide the windows behind it). Nielson writes, “Both may herald a renaissance for the gestural interaction styles.”
• Multitouch. Apple’s multitouch/accelerometer combination is “the perfect storm” for children’s interactivity. Compare it to the DSi monotouch screen and you have “dumb touch” and “smart touch” from this point forward. Have a look:
Multitouch at NECC 2009
• There’s a Wii in the Whitehouse. Barack Obama is the first president to type a book on a computer, use a Blackberry and post speeches on YouTube. Both of his daughters play video games. This could open the door for more research and policy related to interactive media.
Now that the digital future has arrived, what does it mean? For one, there will be a lot more to review. It’s safe to say that 2010 will bring a surge in new children’s apps, sites, games and toys, and we’re ready to critique them. Enjoy the issue.
W. Buckleitner, Editor