- Back from e3… Survived earthquake and Laker victory mob. #
- Back from e3… Survived earthquake and Laker victory mob. #
Back from e3… Survived earthquake and Laker victory mob.
Write a blog post describing a day in the life of a specific child (say your own child or grandchild) in 2020 (or 2040). Predict how technology will influence your child’s growth and development. In doing so, you may want to consider:
• The current generation of kids is unique. No other generation will need to live through such a dramatic change. In other words, iPods, the Wii, Wi-Fi and multitouch will only be invented once.
• That any person’s idea of childhood is defined by his or her culture, values and theories of learning. Not all of us share the same vision, and there are no “right” or “wrong” answers.
• An infant born in 2020, 2040 or 2060 will start out with the same biology as if that child were born today. Jean Piaget’s stage theory will still apply, and Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs will still apply. Wikipedia is a great resource on these guys.
COMMENTS:
The great way to understand time is to watch your kids grow up. Ten years ago I wrote A Day in the Life of a Child in 2020 (CSR, Jan/Feb 2000, online at http://childrenstech.com/2020). My two daughters were 3 and 7 (pictured with their Compaq Presario, playing Catz by PF Magic) and I was eager to test the latest software products on their developing brains. Today, they’re 13 and 17 and have burned through six cell phones (each!).
My, how things have changed. Ten years ago, cell phones made phone calls and to get online, you used a wire and AOL. There was no IMing, Wii or DS, Club Penguin, Webkinz, Facebook, Twitter, iPhones, iPods or Netbooks and Alta Vista was way bigger than Google. Gordon Moore (aka “Moore’s Law”) was true to his word—Microprocessor-based technology has continued to multiply in power and drop in price. What does this mean for my daughters’ children?
Technology changes, but a child’s development doesn’t. The answer, of course, is to study both, testing the technology, and continually assessing if it is “good” for our kids, based on how we define “good.”
It’s a safe bet that the next ten years will be marked by significant evolution on the software and human/computer interaction front, now that we’ve made it to connected tablets with ten hours of battery life. We have the tools. Now it’s time to figure them out, and start the sometimes uncomfortable process of assimilating it into our home or school culture of choice.
After you setup your child’s account, you can create a schedule, and then see a log of what your child has done, while using the Mixels service. It is possible to link up members to chat online with friends, play games, and read about current events. The service is free for a 14 day trial, after that the cost is $5.99 per month, or $55 per year. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
“Up With A Fish” is a fast-paced stacking game, not unlike “Scoops” (both are made by Nimblebit), where you lean your iPhone or iPad left or right to collect falling objects, which are balanced on the Cat in the Hat’s head. Catching fish bowls increases your life. Dodging trouble-making kids will also increase your score. You can pause the game at any time by tapping the screen. 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.
Lean the iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone left or right, to steer a single balloon through a maze of tree branches or clouds that gradually get harder. The higher you go, the more points you score,and high scores can be posted on a leader board. The free version has less content. The $.99 version contains more mazes and balloon options. 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.
Like it’s 2007 predecessor, you find yourself immersed in a planetary hopping theme, where the conventional rules of physics don’t always apply. You steer Mario through each maze-like level; flying, jumping or working upside down. New power-ups include a drill that Mario uses to tunnel through the planet’s surface all the way to the other side of the planet. Your goal is to collect as many Power Stars as possible, rescue Princess Peach and defeat Bowser. Other content includes the ability to transform yourself into either Cloud Mario or Rock Mario, which enables Mario to create temporary cloud platforms, or to smash through obstacles. With the Spin Drill, he can tunnel from one side of a planet to another. 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.
This action-arcade racing game is set within a reality TV show, in a made-for-TV city. As you race, you try to collide with other vehicles to send them off the track, in order to trigger events that change the race. The game features a variety of game modes in 2-player split screen, along with online racing for up to eight players. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Out this month from Mattel, a choir of singing plush toys that are designed to sing in harmony. In the default mode, they make a whole-tone; selected at random. When two or more toys are squeezed simultaneously, the two tones can form a chord that more-than-likely forms a chord with it’s neighbor. By squeezing the $13 toys in rhythm, you can make silly songs. The toys run on 2 AAA batteries, and can sing a variety of songs, including “Where Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone,” “Skip to My Loo,” and “When the Saints Go Marching In.” 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 Princess and the Frog comes to your iPad with this 23 page/screen adaptation that mixes highlights of the movie with two games, two songs, three coloring activities, the ability to record your own narration and a new feature for the read-along series, three jigsaw puzzles. Features include the ability to have the story read automatically, or to let the child flip through the book, one screen at a time. A pair of mouse ears at the screen bottom lead to a tray of options that include a microphone for recording your own narration, the coloring activities, and a scrolling set of pages, that makes it easy to jump directly to any page. There are two games: Facilier’s Fortune and Firefly Chase. Both games are active, and have three challenge levels. 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 original game was a number-based grid puzzle where players filled in squares to reveal the hidden picture. In Picross 3D you must reveal a 3D image that is hidden inside a larger rectangular block composed of smaller squares, using the stylus to remove the blocks. You use a variety of numerical clues placed upon the rows and columns of the larger form. The clues indicate the number and possible grouping of blocks within that row or column. When there are no clues present, you must use logic and the clues on surrounding areas to determine where blocks should be removed or left in place. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
If you’ve played any of the other Oceanhouse Media Dr. Seuss titles, you’ll find no surprises with One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, a $3.99 app from Oceanhouse Media. The story can be presented in three modes: Read to Me (each page is presented, one at a time), Read it Myself (touch the words or pictures to see them labeled) and Auto Play (which presents the story, slide show style). To turn the page, you swipe the screen, which either presents a new page, or zooms in to highlight one of the features. 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 electronic edition of Dr. Seuss’ classic graduation story features three modes: Read to Me (the narration starts automatically when a page is swiped), Read it Myself (touch pictures or the text to hear it read or described) and Auto Play (the story is presented, slide-show-style). Each page is turned with the swipe of a finger, and illustrated with swooping animation, using a Ken Burns effect, to highlight specific scenes. 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.
Inspired by the Mandala patterns of the Buddhist monks, this app makes it possible to convert your finger drawings into snowflake-like symmetrical art, set to zen-like music. There are two drawing modes, normal and blend. The palette contains 35 colors and three types of brushes. Content includes ten songs. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Magic Piano leverages the power of the iPad’s multi-touch screen to give a child their own 3 1/2 octave long piano keyboard. There are five modes of play. In the default mode (solo) you can configure the keyboard in a spiral, circle or traditional horizontal format. While the keys are small, the multi-touch screen makes it possible to play chords — just like a real piano. The Songbook lets you choose one of 20 classic songs, and play along, in a paint-by-number fashion. Selections start easy, with Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, and get as hard as the Nutcracker March and Flight of the Bumblebee. A settings control panel lets you control such things as auto-sustain, pitch mapping and toggle on a “no-fail” mode for the song book. According to the credits, this app was inspired by Lang Lang. 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.
We tested the Wii version of this third-person action shooter, designed for one player. You can choose to play as either Iron Man, or War Machine, as you shoot bad guys and try to save the world from destruction. You can either run around, or fly using your jet packs, using a rather complicated menu system to track such things as damage. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Family Game Show for the Wii lets you become a contestant in the world of Family Gameshow. There are three shows – Control Freak, Brain Strain, and Puzzle Addict – each hosted by a different character, and more than 3,000 questions in total. The games can be played alone or with up to four players, and each game has three difficulties and ten levels. There is also a Kids vs. Adult Mode so the entire family can play. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
In this game, challenges are presented as side scrolling adventures. In order to advance, you have to exactly match each beat, presented in 10 locations such as a tropical beach, a town, a frozen city or a deep forest. Each level has a different tropical-sounding song, as well as a variety of items to collect. There are both story modes and free modes, and there’s a two player download version, for a social experience. As with other Disney titles, there’s a D gamer link on the main menu, making it possible to share scores with other players. 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.
As you move around the map of a town, you can visit ten locations where you “talk” (read dialog boxes) to shop keepers or other characters. At various points, some of the words are highlighted, and by touching them you can look them up in a dictionary and add them to your word list, earning you points. The more words you collect, the more points you earn, and the faster you level up. In other places, you can earn more points by completing word multiple-choice style games. Content contains 45 new words per level, for a total of 450 vocabulary words, that cover math, science, and social studies. The game was funded by a Star Schools grant from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Innovation and Improvement. It was created by Pacific Resources for Reading (PREL). Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
The Club Penguin gang (complete with Puffles) comes to life, in this one-player problem solving adventure for the Nintendo DS or DSi. In the game, you become one of the agents of the Elite Penguin Force, as you attempt to finish a secret mission. After you log into your game from the main menu, you can choose to either start (or continue) your adventure, or play one of four mini 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.
This year’s edition of the long-running Backyard Sports baseball simulations continues the tradition of being fun and easy to play. When you’re pitching, you get to choose the type of pitch, as well as the hardness of the throw. When batting, you slide the stylus on the screen in order to try to hit the ball, which takes some getting used to. In the DS version, which we reviewed, there were eight fields options, plus a story mode, a homerun derby, a season mode, and the ability to have a quick game. Created by HB Studios and Powerhead Games for Atari. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Join the world’s largest soccer tournament from the comfort of your home, as you battle your way through 199 teams from around the world. The World Cup is the largest sporting event and this is the only official and exclusively licensed video game for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. You can take your home nation team from qualification through a virtual re-creation of the World Cup Final. And, for the first time, you can play out the World Cup in a full online tournament mode against fans from other countries. You will compete under the same conditions that your team will face in South Africa, from the group stage through the knockout rounds, to the chance to win the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This is a fun question, and one that I’ll be exploring in depth in my presentation tomorrow night at the Strong Museum of Play. I’m also going to be introducing ten apps that I think support Montessori ideals.
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By the time she was 43 years old, Maria Montessori was an educational rock star.
In the fall of 1913, two of her admirers — Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell, invited her to come to the United States to give an address at Carnegie Hall, and 1000 people had to be turned away at the door. See http://bit.ly/92w6w2. John Dewey himself provided her introduction.
So what if it were 2010 instead of 1913, and Montessori was asked to talk about technology? Would she condemn it, as being overly commercialized and abstract? Or would she embrace it, recommending the purchase of iPads in all of her schools?
I think she’d see the issue in the same way she saw the role of the teacher, using the same criteria she used to choose and design materials.
Apps would be merely a new kind of material for her. Some apps are supportive of a young child… others are less so.
I think she’d be extremely excited about multi-touch on the larger iPad screen; and she’d love the concept of how you can use the Internet to deliver content to a child, at any time. After all, she was a scientist/MD, who embraced new technology. She’d like way the Wii gets children moving around, and be curious about additional applications for the accelerometer.
She’d be the first to give a young child a digital camera to capture representations of his or her world, and would be on the front edge of exploring how to tap the power of the touch screen to help children acquire language and logic abilities.
I think she’d be very excited by apps that self-level, and that give children instant feedback on their finger swipes.
She also wanted her students to be active participants in the future, and it is clear that she understood that her students would grow up in a world different than the present time, having lived in the time of Marconi and having personally witnessing the effects of many medical breakthroughs.
But she’d view the issue as the scientist she was. This new stuff should be studied, and implemented carefully — in a way that is customized to each individual child.
MONTESSORI’S CONCERNS
I’m quite certain that Montessori would have a lot to say about the downsides of technology; most principally the abstract nature of most glass screens. She’d be highly critical of the amount of didactic media (one way, non-interactive) or time that a young, modern child spends with in structured settings like classrooms with rows of seats, or in front of a screen with nothing but abstract symbols, and she’d be very quick to remind today’s parents and teachers that young children learn best when actively engaged in some way. The more real, the more meaningful, the better chance the learning sticks.
She’d condemn programs like Baby Einstein, comparing them to the worst possible teacher who does nothing but try to talk and stimulate, and leaves nothing for the child to do or play with. She’d say it removes the creative spirit from a young learner.
She’d be horrified at the amount of time children spend with low quality, didactic teaching (and media), especially where there is some sort of marketing angle going on; worrying loudly about the morals of a society that would attempt to manipulate a child for financial gain. Montessori often invoked themes of spirituality in her writing, as you can see, and I think probably invoke the highest of powers on this issue.
Don’t take my word for it. Have a look at Maria Montessori’s orginal text and make your own conclusions. It’s a great educational exercise.
Finally, there’s no doubt that Maria Montessori would be amazed at the number of the schools that bear her last name. Here are four of the five famous Montessori Graduates who have helped form today’s technology landscape. (The fifth is Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales).
1. Larry Page; son of Carl Victor Page (MSU computer science professor) attended Okemos Montessori School (now called Montessori Radmoor) from ‘75 to ‘79. He also attended Interlochen Academy and the University of Michigan; taking a class from Elliot Soloway
2. Will Wright had a “brief, intense” elementary Montessori experience in Atlanta GA, until sixth grade. (See Maria Montessori: The 138-Year-Old Inspiration Behind Spore, Kotaku http://bit.ly/8uiER)
3. Sergey Brin attend Paint Branch Montessori School in Adelphi, Maryland. He later tried unsuccessfully to get into M.I.T. In 1995, Sergey got into a two-day argument with a visiting younger U of M student, Larry Page. He talks about his Montessori education, here.
4. Jeffrey Bezos took his crib apart with a screwdriver. After his Montessori early education, he attended River Oaks Elementary in Houston from the 4th to 6th grades. By his mother’s account, the young Bezos got so engrossed in the details of activities at his Montessori school that teachers had to pick him up in his chair to move him to new tasks. http://bit.ly/afmDHb
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Welcome to our June Issue!
What a month! We’ve just come out of four significant children’s interactive media meetings: INplay, Sandbox Summit, Games for Change, and Dust or Magic AppCamp. Each was buzzing with excitement about the future of children’s interactive media; in fact, it’s safe to say that in the past 20 years I’ve been covering this space, I’ve never seen so much quality conversation.
A highlight for me was the “Panel of Legends” at our own event (AppCamp), where the creators of some of the best interactive products ever made— like The Living Books and Oregon Trail— informally shared their stories, as people just starting their careers as digital publishers. You can watch it on YouTube, here: http://bit.ly/bqTZeo. Another highlight was Daren Carsten’s “How I Made an App” http://bit.ly/drA5mD, which will give you an inside look at how a small publisher makes an App.
My travels also took me to the first ever Asian Festival of Children’s Content in Singapore, where I was able to fill rooms — not with my witty presentation — but by people wanting to get a look at my iPad. Even the airport screeners gave it an extra inspection. I also learned a bit about the dark side of long distance roaming plans, http://nyti.ms/bulIWf.
This month’s CTR is full of good news, including our first five star iPad app (Magic Piano) and a set of timely links that will help children better understand how oil is found and processed.
Book Review: Mind in the Making
Ellen Galinsky’s “Mind in the Making” is like Mexican food: It has the same old ingredients served up in a new way. But don’t take that as a negative review. Mexican food tastes pretty good. The primary ingredients are active learning and intrinsic motivation, expertly applied to the early childhood field by somebody who knows the field inside and out (Galinsky worked for years at NAEYC). It is framed around seven essential life skills, each supported by ideas, examples and current research:
1. Focus and self control
2. Perspective taking
3. Communicating
4. Making connections
5. Critical thinking
6. Taking on challenges
7. Self-directed, engaged learning
For many educators, the book is a healthy reminder about how a child’s early experiences can influence their later years. Because the book is written in first-person blog-speak, it’s easy to digest. At just $13 as a paperback, Mind in the Making is a good reminder that paper books will never go out of style.
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I subscribed to childrenstech’s channel on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/user/childrenstech?feature=autoshare