Volume 18, No. 8, Issue 125
Tutor, Tool and Tutee, Revisited
Here’s some good news. Helping a child learn to program a computer has never been easier. Why is this important? It helps to recall a bit of history.
In 1980, Robert Taylor, a professor at Columbia Teacher’s college, put together a collection of essays on educational technology (see http://bit.ly/d8bR8w). In the book introduction, he defined three roles for computing in education: as a tutor (something that teaches you), tool (something you use to enhance your abilities) and tutee (something you teach or program). Now remember — back then, computers had 1 MHz processors and floppy drives.
Thirty years later, children are walking around with more computing power than NASA had to land on the moon. One of Taylor’s classifications, the computer as tutee — is once again very useful. That’s why, for this month’s LittleClickers column (p. 4) we took a closer look at helping children become teachers of the computer, aka programmers, a job made easier thanks to Scratch, App Inventor for Android (page 12) and Singing Fingers (page 10) and TonePad (page 10). See page 4 for more tips on helping children become programmers.
Buckleitner, W., 2010. Book Review: Engineering Play: A Cultural History of Children’s Software. American Journal of Play, Spring 2010, page 485-486.
Engineering Play: A Cultural History of Children’s Software
by Mizuko Ito
Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2009. References, index, photographs, tables. 234 pp. $24.95 cloth. ISBN: 978026203352
If you’re looking for a thrilling tale of corporate espionage and rags-to-riches (and rags-to-rags) careers, you need look
no further than the business of making children’s software over the past two decades. In Engineering Play: A Cultural History of Children’s Software, cultural anthropologist Mizuko Ito opens the door for a closer look at children and
technology during this time period. Limited in scope for reasons described below, the book breaks new ground in the way it attempts to interpret what happened during this period of optimism and frustration, when publishers were competing to produce and market 979 commercial products per year during the peak year (2001) and trying to market them in retail settings.
ROCHESTER – Strong National Museum of Play, 1 Manhattan Square, brings top scholars on the subject of play in America to Rochester for “Strong Perspectives,” a free lecture series.
The series, opening Tuesday, will explore the changing roles of children and play throughout American history.
The schedule:
- Monday, June 7, 7:30 p.m. “What Would Montessori Say About the iPad? When Old Theories of Play Meet New Media”: Since Edison’s talking doll, inventors have been eager to apply the latest innovations to children’s play; and these times are no different. In this historical and theoretical examination of the state of digital play, Warren Buckleitner explores the promise and perils of new technology in the play room—from inventor’s get-rich-quick schemes to significant and lasting cultural influences. Buckleitner is a nationally recognized expert on children and technology. He is founding editor of Children’s Technology Review and founder of the Dust or Magic Institute on the Design of Children’s Interactive Media. He also covers children’s technology for the popular New York Times Gadgetwise blog.
Lectures are free, but advanced registration is requested. To reserve a space, call 585-263-2700 or send e-mail to info@museumofplay.org.
The Strong Perspectives series is made possible by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
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.
Scott Traylor, CEO, 360KID
In the 20 or so years that I’ve been making interactive products, I’ve seen tools come and go, and used almost all of them. What I’ve found to be most annoying about these tools is that, for the most part, they are not made with an engineer in mind. They are made to sell to the largest development population possible to create the largest revenues/profits possible. In the heat of a project, you will find you all kinds of wacky issues will appear. The most dreaded is the memory leak. There are a number of other specific software needs that these tools don’t provide, but memory leaks prevent me from shipping product. I also find that these tools are also huge processor hogs on computers. Ever leave a browser page open with a Flash asset running and hear your laptop fan start up? Does this mean that I don’t use these tools or don’t even like these tools? No. More than 80% of our work every day is done in Flash. When I used to teach, I had one concept I would introduce early to try to dispel the myth that “a hammer is a hammer.” Some hammers are shiny, some hammers sleek, but choose the hammer that’s best for the project you wish to build. Flash is a good hammer, but it’s not great for building everything. Yes, I feel there are shananigans going on between Apple and Adobe, but I also understand that the processing power of an iPad is finite. Supporting a tool that monopolizes processing power on any platform is problematic. There’s a lot of great Flash product out there created by developers who know their stuff. Is that reason enough to support Flash on the iPad? Sadly, I have to say no. Not when I see the volumes of other Flash product that stinks, created by novice developers that don’t know how to make savvy software. Others will strongly disagree with my position, but this is what my experience as a developer tells me.
Tim Leverette, CEO of Leveractive, LLC
I feel a bit like a child who is being unnecessarily traumatized by two fighting parents, that I both love… Flash has been a pretty enduring tool, even with it’s shortcomings. I think that blaming the tool for all memory and playback issues is not looking at the entire picture. There are definitely memory issues with Flash in general, but on top of that there are many designers who do not know how to use the tool correctly. So I just want to be sure we’re not always blaming the hammer every time we hit our thumbs. I also want to point out that there are two different issues and discussions that are often getting interchanged here. There is the issue of supporting Flash via the browser on the iPad and iPhone platforms. The second issue (the one I care most about) is about supporting Flash exported iPhone Apps via the new Flash CS5 exporter. The new Flash CS5 iPhone exporter exports native iPhone code – it is no longer flash. I am worried about Apple shutting down the new capability of Flash CS5 to export to iPhone/iPad App. Many people out there are using arguments against the CS5 exported self-contained iPhone Apps issue that are only valid against issue #1 – the browser-based Flash issues. It’s easy to confuse the two, but I feel very important not to.
Karina Linch, Senior Vice President, Product Management, BrainPop
This is an issue BrainPOP has been following closely. BrainPOP has a featured free movie everyday, which can be viewed on our homepage, embedded into class blogs, or accessed through our free iPad app. For example, on World Book and Copyright Day, and you can view our free copyright movie and take our copyright quiz on BrainPOP’s website, or on your iPad via the BrainPOP Featured Movie App. Visit http://www.brainpop.com/featured to see today’s featured free movie, get the embed code here: http://www.brainpop.com/educators/featured_movie/ or download the iPad app here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/brainpop-featured-movie/id364894352?mt=8 We believe there’s great potential for mobile devices in the hands of students.
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OK, so what do you think?
Yesterday I learned that Apple had removed an App called “Scratch Viewer 1.4″ from the App store (by way of a Facebook post by Scott Traylor). This decision has ruffled some feathers (see http://computinged.wordpress.com/2010/04/15/apple-removes-scratch-from-ipadiphoneitouch/ for a taste of the comments, including one by Alan Kay).
So I decided to dig a bit deeper into this issue. 
WHAT DOESN’T THIS APP DO?
This app is not Scratch. This might be misleading because it appears the Icon for the App is labeled merely as “Scratch.” The true name is “Scratch Viewer.” So let’s be clear — this is not the free, NSF funded, full-fledged version of programming toolkit called Scratch that we’ve all come to know and love. It’s an $4 App that lets you do something you can currently do for free on your computer.
A procedure in progress
MEET Ellen, a 59 year-old woman with advanced Parkinson’s Disease, waiting for you at http://www.edheads.org/activities/brain_stimulation/. She’s the patient, you’re the surgeon. During a 20 minute or so procedure, your mouse becomes a shaver, scalpel, drill and swab, as you work through each step of Ellen’s brain surgery. At the end, you can get a happy patient and a deeper understanding for what a real neurosurgeon does.
JP Dyson of the Strong Museum of Play’s National Center for the History of Electronic Games demonstrates a historic toy that raised the bar in electronic games. He starts by providing hints. How quickly can you guess which toy he’s talking about?
Presented at the Ninth Annual Dust or Magic Institute on November 3, 2009.
KAPi Pioneer Nominees
On January 7, 2010 at the Kids @ Play summit at CES, one of these individuals will be give a KAPi award for the “Pioneer” category. There are seven individuals on this list, selected in a survey given at the 9th Annual Dust or Magic institute. Do you have a favorite? Is there somebody that is missing? Comments welcome.
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Jeff Braun hosted the pizza party that started the company (Maxis) that allowed Will Wright to make an unconventional game that you can’t win, and “nobody will ever buy.” Of course, that game was SimCity, which lead to The Sims and Spore. “Believe in your idea, and don’t give up.” |
 Jeff Braun |
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Caroline Hu Flexor weaves nursery rhymes into App store gold. She is one of three founders of Duck Duck Moose Design that has raised the bar of excellence for iPhone/iPod Touch Apps for children. |
 Caroline Hu Flexor |
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Krista Marks is passionate about using interactive media to empower the creative artist in every child. Her use of vector-based graphics/Flash has set the standard for web delivered creativity experiences for children. Under Krista’s leadership, her company (Kerpoof) became the creativity portal for Disney Online. |
 Krista Marks |
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Lane Merrifield is the leader of the small team of dads in Canada that created Club Penguin. He was one of the first to prove that children could play and learn in a virtual world that was completely safe. He is known to millions of children by his penguin’s name: “Billy Bob.” Today, Club Penguin is owned by Disney, and Lane is still the top penguin. |
 Lane Merrifield (from Dust or Magic) |
| Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo is one of the reasons there’s a Nintendo DS in nearly every child’s pocket. His passion for quality has become legendary; and it shows in the products that he’s worked on. He has been called “the father of Mario” and “the soul of Nintendo.” |
 Shigeru Miyamoto: Photo from Nintendo.com |
| Mitchel Resnick is the Director of the Lifelong Learning Group at the MIT Media Lab. Many people agree that we should empower children with technology, but Mitch Resnick has put theory into action in the form of SCRATCH. |
 Mitchel Resnick |
| Will Wright is the “creative genius” behind SimCity, The Sims and Spore. His combination of vision and passion has helped to shape the video game category into more than scrolling RPGs. |
 Will Wright |