Zoodles is an Adobe-air based app that is designed to put pre-selected materials at your child’s fingertips; while keeping everything else out. The idea is to provide a safe, virtual playground that can be adjusted to your child’s age and skills. Once it’s installed on your Mac or Windows computer, your child sees games from popular children’s sites like PBS Kids and Starfall.com, stripped of any advertising content. The service is free for the basic service; the Premium Membership is $6/month. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Seek Your Own Proof is a web-delivered detective adventure that follows the story of three investigative siblings – Aidan, Milanie, and Heiko Munro on a series of missions. Each Flash-based mission is sold for $4 (the first one is free, after you register); or you can buy ten for $20. Created by Canadian-based Rocketfuel Productions, in partnership with Discovery Kids. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
The size of a typical door mat, this folding cardboard map of the United States has been coded to work with the $50 Tag Reading System — Leapfrog’s fat, talking stylus which has been out for several years. The stylus is not included in the $20 price of the map, and using the interactive features requires downloading and installing Leapfrog’s free, 50 MB or so “Leapfrog Connect” software utility on your Mac or Windows computer. This is required, along with a USB connection to transfer the audio files to your Tag. This process takes about 30 minutes, and only has to be done once. The map has two sides — each with two modes of play and several hide-and-seek types of games. One side deals more with state identification and the capitals, and the other has cultural highlights, with snippets of state related trivia, and music. Both sides feature a racing game, where you try to touch as many states or capitals before the music runs out. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Fresh from Disney, a children’s virtual world based on the movie Cars, making it possible to drive into Radiator Springs, chat with other car avatars, enter races, or just explore. If you have a Mac or Windows computer, you can have a car up and running by the time you finish this article by visiting www.worldofcars.com. There are three areas to explore, each with a different theme, stores and four player racetrack. Features include two types of chat, the ability to make friends and have private chat sessions, and subscription access to special areas of the world. In addition, Mattel is selling a set of die cast vehicles that come with special race codes. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
In this game, you play as Buzz, Woody or Jessie as you run, ride and fly through scenes inspired by the film. For example, in one scene, you jump along the cars of a moving train, ducking under low poles or swinging buckets, and navigating across train cars with moving logs. You can complete missions to earn rewards such as gold and new customizations, and purchase new toys with your virtual earnings. Or you can customize new buildings, and then change how they look with paint and accessories. A “Toy Box” mode lets you add new characters and game elements. Developed by Avalanche Software for Disney Interactive. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Kung Fu Panda World (KFPW) is a richly animated Flash-10 based online destination for children aged 8-up that is free to register and play, or available as a subscription for $6/month sans commercials. In many ways, the site resembles a “design your own avatar, explore a movie-themed world” type of experience.
After you register, you can design your own avatar and start exploring the first levels of the game. A sponsored play game model lets you play for free, as long as you watch a commercial for a “kid friendly” sponsor like McDonalds. If you subscribe, you can skip the commercial and reach the highest levels of the game. There is no in-game commercial content. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Named after the main character in “Alice in Wonderland”, Alice has recently been upgraded.
Like MIT’s Scratch and Alan Kay’s Squeak, Alice is a free programming language for children that can be downloaded and installed on a Macintosh, Windows or Linux computer. It is designed to turn programming into a drag-and-drop process. Alice was funded by Electronic Arts, Sun Microsystems, DARPA, Intel, Microsoft, NSF, and ONR. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Fantage, or “fantastic age” is a responsive, safe and no-fail MMO that resembles Club Penguin back in the good old days, minus the penguins. The Fantage theme is a bit like Disneyland with nine-themed areas, including a castle, a forest, a lighthouse, uptown, downtown and others. In each you can chat (freely but filtered) with others, invite others to become friends, decorate your room, or play 11 Flash-based games. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Zon is a free (registration required) virtual world — or MMOG — designed to teach English speakers Chinese language and culture through games and chat. There are five levels of play. First, you design your avatar, and then become a tourist at the Beijing Airport. You must pass through customs and get to your hotel, while completing challenges designed to accomplish various tasks.
You start by exploring to learn about myths and legends, investigating famous temples or shopping in public markets. Players can advance to rent apartments, buy a car, or own their own business. The site was funded by the Office of the Chinese Language Council International (Hanban) and Michigan State University. Disclaimer: I (Warren Buckleitner) went to this graduate school; one of the principle designers was on my doctoral committee. Learn more at www.enterzon.com. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Great science and ecology content is combined with low levels of interactivity and a didactic presentation in Wonder Rotunda (www.wonderrotunda.com), a subscription-based ($45/year) web delivered service first released in the summer of 2009. In order to make the site work, you need a Flash-enabled browser and a credit card. No other software or downloads are required. We evaluated the service using a complimentary password provided by the publisher.
After you create a male or female character to represent yourself in the game show portion of the experience, you see a map representing 11 topics including: orchestra, rain forest, great barrier reef, American government, digestive system, Apollo 11, planet earth, kangaroos, healthy eating, the Serengeti and business adventure. By clicking on an area of the map, you launch a 20 minute or so animated adventure, in which pop-up facts appear. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Best described as a work in progress, Kidos, or “Kid Operated System” is an Adobe Air application that makes it possible to design your own desktop for your child (or children) by mixing parent-and expert selected videos, music, pictures and websites with a iTunes-like store. The store is how the service makes money, by making it easy for a parent to soup up the experience for a child, with a picture of a cute dog ($.50), a non-interactive storybook for $2 each, or a $10 musical album. The store uses a shopping cart model, and your credit card is billed automatically, iTunes style. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
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.
This construction game for Windows, Mac and Wii lets you drag-and-drop sticky blobs to construct structures that look a bit like carbon molecules. You quickly learn which structures work best to solve a particular problem. On one puzzle, you must construct the highest tower using the fewest possible parts. Another presents you with a spinning set of teeth that requires a curved structure.
There’s a lot of different ways to solve the same problem, making this game addicting. Content includes 15 different varieties of blobs, each with different properties; enough to keep things interesting. Note that a Wii-Ware version is available, as a download. This is a fun way to introduce building dynamics to young science students. Created by 2D Boy (www.2dboy.com) for Brighter Minds Media. Winner of the 2010 KAPi Award. Teaches: science, creativity, building, physics, forces, potential energy. Brighter Minds Media, Inc. www.brightermindsmedia.com, $20. Best for ages 7-up.
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or .96%
Looking for a bare-bones video editor that a child as young as four years of age could use independently? Classroom Video Editor is designed to meet that need. After you install the program, you need to find an existing QuickTime (.mov) or .avi movie. Once it is imported, the over-sized, simplified editing tools make it easy to cut out a section of the video, add a title and paste on some scrolling credits at the end. You can also import a sound track or background photo for the credits. Once you are done, your movie can be exported in QuickTime. A handy teacher’s guide contains ideas on how to use videos in a preschool, kindergarten, or early elementary classroom. Prices are $40 for a single user, $190 for a lab pack of 6 users, and $890 for a network site license. Please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Looking for a baby or toddler’s ideal first computer experience? Available as a $20 download from www.giggles.net (think of it as an App for your computer), for Macintosh or Windows, Giggle’s: Computer Funtime for Baby My Musical World expands on Leveractive’s library of baby/toddler selections. This title, with a musical focus, succeeds in letting your busy child freely explore a standard mouse/keyboard interface, sans worry. Please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This third title in the Didi & Ditto series features the same film-quality animation that has become a trademark of the Canadian developer Kutoka Interactive, mixed with 16 games.
In the story, Didi & Ditto (young brother and sister beavers) are preparing for a visit from Mother Nature, but a sneaky wolf has been hiding the musical instruments and the food. After they sign in (to save games), children can choose to play in the adventure mode, or jump directly to one of the games, where they can sort letters, construct short words or match numerals with quantities.
The hybrid game comes on one disk that can be installed on either Macintosh or Windows computers. Please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Can you create a cell phone your grandparents could easily use, and would purchase? That’s the c
hallenge behind this free, Flash based simulation from Edheads, a group that has become known for bringing abstract ideas to life (see also Virtual Knee Surgery) by putting the learner in the role of decision maker and inventor.
First, you review the market surveys, a good exercise in reading graphics and interpreting information. Next, you go to the lab, and try out different screen sizes, batteries, key layouts and so on. You learn that extra features cost money, which increases the price and can reduce sales. Finally, you take your design to the test group, who give you feedback. While the number of responses is limited, you learn through trial and error how to get the most sales. This simulation was created by Clearly Trained, with support from Ohio State University, with support by the Motorola Foundation. It was released on June 15, 2009. Rating: 
Based on a real surgical procedure, this step-by-step simulation teaches you how to implant a small electrode in the center of a patient’s brain. The process, called Deep Brain Stimulation, is used to remedy the effects of nerve disorders such as those
caused by Parkinson’s Disease.
Your patient is a 59 year old women named Ellen, and you are provided with a case history before the procedure, which takes about 20 minutes from start to finish. You control each step — from putting the six small screws (called fiducials) into the skull by clicking on each marked spot, to inserting the electrical probe at exactly the right depth, by dragging your cursor over a lever. Later, you put in the battery packs and adjust the charge.
At various points, you’re given a multiple choice quiz asking you to justify your actions. If you make a mistake? No worries and no malpractice. The computer gently moves you to the next step.
This title was created by Clearly Trained and published by Edheads with funding from the Ohio State University Medical Center Department of Neurosurgery. Please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Create on Disney.com (http://disney.go.com/create) is a suite of four open-ended activities that pushes the envelope for
Digital Painter
web-delivered creativity tools. Because it uses raster graphics (vs. bitmapped graphics), you can zoom way in with no reduction in resolution. You can also resize or rotate objects for just about any effect. At the core of Create is Digital Painter, with features that Photoshop users used to dream about: unlimited undo or redo, layers that can be moved after they’re placed, and no limits to the number of objects that can be stamped on the screen. Basic drawing tools let you highlight, sketch or blob on watercolors, with an innovative color palette that can be programmed with your favorite colors.
Besides the Digital Painter, three other activities include: Animods, for creating animated creatures; Comic Creator, with white blank panels waiting to be filled in with graphics and text, and Disney clip art; and Photo Mashups, an open-ended celebration of Disney celebrity, where you can drag-and-drop the Jonas Bros. and compose a room poster. Projects can be tagged and stored on the Disney site, after it’s been approved by a panel of screeners based in Disney’s Kerpoof Studios, in Bolder, CO.
So what’s the catch? Besides the ads — images of Toaster Strudel will flash as you draw — you learn that you can’t save your work unless you become a Disney Guest. This means giving up a bit of your identity, specifically, your birthday and email. You also can’t upload your own images, or export your work as a graphics file; an important feature that currently has a “coming soon” sign on it. You can print at any time however. Once you join, your work is saved in your portfolio — your own little corner of the virtual magical kingdom. Rating: