A year ago David Pogue, the NY Times technology columnist, wrote about the new Nintendo Wii. It was a complete sellout before the holidays. Most people were talking about flying nunchuks smacking into their TVs, but a prescient Pogue nailed it. “What surprises me most,” he said, “is how few people are commenting on the Wii’s potential for providing exercise to

America’s sedentary kids.”As it turns out the Wii is for kids of all ages. We just bought one for my dad who’s in his late 70s. Now, instead of sitting at his PC playing FreeCell, he’ll be swinging his arms and legs, sharpening his reflexes, and giving his brain a workout. Kids everywhere (and their parents) are working up a collective sweat playing with their new game machines. They’re gaining coordination and balance from playing games that involve their whole body, not just a mouse and keyboard.

Who’da thunk it? We’re quickly moving from the era of sentient computing to kinesthetic computing. And that can’t be bad news. This holiday season (so far only in Japan) you’re going to see the Wii Fit–a sort of scale-shaped balance board that you can use as an input device for the Wii to do everything from skiing, to boxing, to yoga. It’ll cost somewhere between $75 and $99. In EA’s new PlayGround kids can play a rousing game of virtual dodge ball. Even a simple truck racing game like Excite Truck becomes a gyrating, torso-twisting exercise. Tony Hawk is no longer about moving a game controller with one hand, it’s about moving your physical self in a virtual space. Physical therapists are turning to the Nintendo Wii to help the injured and infirm on the road to health. Hope Labs recently launched Ruckus Nation, an online competition that challenges people to design innovative products that will increase physical activity among kids ages 11 to 14.

We adults get a little confused by the notion of moving our body parts and having them take effect in cyberspace. Our kids–as best as I can tell–don’t get very confused. To them, I suspect it’s a lot like playing Barbie or any other make-believe game. Your real world actions dominate the imaginative play.

In my lifetime I’ve changed interfaces quite a bit. First I went from pen and paper to typing on a keyboard and then to pointing and clicking with a mouse. Next? The typing keyboard is going to wind up in the dinosaur pile. We’ll begin to speak, gesture, use visuals, and iconic language to speak to our computers.

What do we know about what this will do to change the nature of high-tech play? Well, it’s certainly less sedentary, less abstract, and perhaps more compelling than using a mouse. Will kids learn more as they put their entire bodies into it? Will parents feel better about screen time when the kids are using more than their eyeballs and fingers? Here’s hoping.