News From Living In Digital Times, Vol. 1 Issue 3
Our Kids at Play speakers and exhibitors have been mighty busy. And not just readying themselves for CES–there’s a lifetime of events before we even get to Vegas.
Recently I attended The Dust or Magic Institute (pictured here). Warren Buckleitner, the founder, is the closest thing I know to a Piaget of the digital world. No one better understands the ages and stages of kids’ digital development.
Making good software for children is, as Thomas Edison would say, 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. While they don’t look like they’re sweating much in the photo, these folks take their vision of play and embody it in software code (and plastic).
The sweat comes from testing their ideas out on real kids in the real world and then combining that feedback with the known world of kids’ psycho/social/cognitive development.
Warren will take the center stage at our Jan. 9th CES Conference and deliver what I call Dust or Magic on Speed–an abbreviated version of what works and what doesn’t in the world of kids’ technology.
Want a pre-show appetizer? Here you can see Warren delivering a talk on how technology is changing childhood. (Thanks to Richard Carey for filming.)
A Few of the Dust or Magic Highlights
Dr. Debra Leiberman’s talk on using interactive games to improve health. Debra’s just received a large federal grant to explore the relationship between gaming and health. Hope Lab, one of our presenters at Kids@Play, is working with Leiberman. The company’s Re-Mission game has won accolades because of its positive impact on young cancer patients.
Call him the “Frog Prince”: Jim Gray of LeapFrog turned the bulky old LeapFrog Reader into a handsome Tag Reader System based on a smart digital pen. Now you can read LeapFrog books by pointing and tapping your pen. No need to haul around the Reader.
Lane Merrifield, creator of Club Penguin, walked the group through the new features of Club Penguin via a long distance video conference. (Club Penguin, you’ll remember, was acquired by Disney just about a year ago). Signs of Disney’s whimsical animation were evident, but Lane’s vision of how life in penguin land should progress is still there.
What struck me was that the new Club Penguin activities were focused more on traditional learning activities and less on the social networking that put Club Penguin in the limelight. The new reading and writing games in Club Penguin are designed to be enjoyed in a solo environment–less waddling, more learning?
In the “who knew?” category: The iPhone turns out to be a great platform for kids, with dozens of games that help moms and dads keep the kids occupied, entertained, and, yes, even learning. Mary Beth Janes from Apple Education and Daren Carstens gave the Dust or Magic crowd some iTunes dollars to explore this new world. Too bad mom can’t talk on the iPhone WHILE the child is playing.
The group was treated to a demonstration of the subscription-based PBS Kids Play (joining us at CES). The new site contains a complete individualized learning experience for 3-6 year-olds, complete with a parental reporting and progress system.
Lego Universe’s online community demonstrated how to translate the spirit of Lego building to the virtual world. Fisher Price took the everyday drawing tools available to digital kids and put them together in the Digital Arts and Crafts Studio, introducing digital art to preschoolers.
For not shying away or sugar-coating education, the award goes to Sarah Daniels, Vice President at DreamBox Learning. DreamBox takes the elementary math curriculum to a new level of personalization so that an individualized math curriculum can be tailored for each individual.
Two of the most beautiful demonstrations I’ve seen in quite awhile included FableVision–an animation program designed to make it easy and fun to tell stories–and ClickToy - The Meadow, a breathtakingly beautiful digital experience of a walk through a meadow for non-readers.
Of Kudos and Kids
In other news about the Kids At Play sponsors and exhibitors:
Kudos to Scott Traylor, 360Kid. Scott is one of our conference speakers, a toy historian, and creator of kids’ magic. He’s just received the Member of the Year Award from the Association of Educational Publishers. To read some of Scott’s thoughts on 21st century learning in the classroom and videogames, see his blog or watch his session at Dust or Magic.
CES Visions Magazine ran a story profiling our Tech Zones: Kids@Play and Silvers Summit. It’s not online just yet, but keep checking. To see the latest press on the Summit keep checking our website news.
The Princeton Review and Ubisoft announced My SAT Coach, a skill-building game for Nintendo DS that’s received considerable press attention.
Read about KidThing, (www.kidthing.com) in Killer StartUps, where it received some very lovely compliments for its beautifully conceived and executed multimedia publishing world.
iHearSay had a novel idea. Instead of allowing kids free reign on their decibel levels, why not have a control on a headset that puts a limit on how loud you can listen. The company was selected as an Innovations 2009 Design and Engineering Award Honoree in the headphone product category because of its simple design and ease of use.
Now maybe now I won’t have to listen to the musical tastes of the kid sitting next to me on the subway?
Quick Links
Keep the news coming. Next up? We’ll take a look at Anastasia Goodstein’s YPulse Mashup. Millennials are rising.
Robin Raskin, Founder
Living In Digital Times, LLC
Posted: November 16th, 2008 under creativity and play, education, videogames.
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