80% of kids under 5 use the Internet

Good news for content developers targeting sites at preschool-aged users:

http://joanganzcooneycenter.org/Reports-28.html

http://mashable.com/2011/03/14/children-internet-stats/

Ride the Wave!

Wired article that talks about a forthcoming wave of new apps for kids:

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/01/2011-the-second-wave-of-childrens-mobile-apps-is-coming/

NYT Review of: Journey to the Stars

Catch a Booming, Blazing Star

Digital games: Playing for learning and health

Shared via AddThis

Context

Pearls before Breakfast -

By Gene Weingarten

Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 8, 2007; Page W10

A friend shared this article with me today and I found it all the more appropriate having just come from a VSA conference session where, among other things, the concept of "value" (as in how much people value their museum and musical performance experiences) was discussed. The notion of context did creep up, though in the form of motivation (i.e., voluntary or desired attendance/participation in programming vs. being made to participate for reasons other than intrinsic interest) more so than location/venue.

I didn't assume the outcome of the experiment in the Post article would be much different than it turned out to be, but appreciate the author's effort to keep us wondering as he weaves his way through a story that is as much about the musician and the lives and times of a random sampling of DC commuters and subway station employees as it is about the psychological underpinnings of the experiment .

I googled and found a few examples of some of the recordings of the songs that violin virtuoso, Bell, played and enjoyed familiarizing myself with them and sampling their beauty as I read through the article. I don't know a ton about music, I don't even know if I'd consider myself a fan of music (I haven't used my ipod in nearly 2 years!). I feel guilty when I think how much my parents invested in years of piano lessons that left me able to memorize pieces of varying length and complexity but never truly able to read or play music competently. I'd much rather imagine myself to be one of the few who recognized his genius or the mere beauty of the music he was creating but I suspect I would have been in the majority on that day in January two years ago - one of the thousand-plus who quickly passed by, avoiding eye contact with Bell, and feeling frustration over being made to feel guilty for not being willing to fish out my wallet. I don't think I know enough about music to have been truly able to appreciate the quality of the performance being given in that unlikely environment - and, given the inabilty to fully appreciate what I was hearing, I wouldn't even realize what I was tuning out.

In the session I just attended we pondered the notion that people value something more when it isn't free (e.g., examples of being able to get rid of more concert tickets when they are sold at $10 off face value than when they are given away totally free of charge). It didn't seem right to me, because I'm always looking for (and enjoying) free entertainment - but I understood it a little better after reading this article in the post. Accoustics aside, the music he was performing for sold out concert halls full of people paying upwards of $100 for a seat was no different than the music he was freely sharing with commuters at L'Enfant plaza on that particular morning - but the former example creates a more appropriate context for valuing the experience.

The story provides a vivid example of why context and motivation matter. It reminded me of the saying: "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink." Certainly there must also be at least an ounce of truth to that statement when we think about "free choice learning." Often the choice to engage in informal learning experiences is not the choice of everyone in attendance (i.e., the children that get drug along by overzealous parents, the students that get loaded onto a bus and thrown into the experience with little more than a brief introduction to help provide context for their experience - if that). Even if faced with the most beautiful or wonderful works of art, music, or the most fabulous exhibits, do visitors actually manage to find meaning and value if they aren't in the right mindset, or don't have the right level of understanding, to look for it?

Photos from the walking tour at the Visitor Studies Association Conference

St. Louis Missouri - July 21-25th

Had a great time giving a workshop on museum website evaluation yesterday with Monnette. This morning I went on a walking tour around downtown St. Louis and snapped a few photos along the way with my phone (a G1 that has become my favorite research tool in recent weeks - after learning that I could also do pretty decent digital recordings as well).

Photo Highlights at: http://picasaweb.google.com/jennifer.borse/SaintLouis#

Pen-Enabled Technology Conference - Call for papers

Good conference - I attended back in 2006 and found it to be engaging and enlightening. Unfortunately I haven't had much opportunity to do research on pen enabled technology since then, but its definitely worth checking out if that's something that's an area of interest.

"Submissions (papers, posters, and vidoes) to WIPTE 2009 are being accepted until June 15th, 2009. Information is available on the WIPTE web site at www.wipte.org WIPTE 2009 will be held at Virginia Tech on October 12th and 13th 2009. Accepted papers will appear in a Monograph to be published by Purdue University Press"

to kindle or not to kindle

On a recent flight home from Philadelphia I saw a Kindle for the first time in real life. It was sleek and futuristic looking - and oh so tempting...

The thought of being able to replace rooms full of crammed bookshelves with one device the size of a small notebook was alluring...the notion of being able to have any book that I desired, almost instantly, was mesmerizing.

But then, during a somewhat prolonged taxi and takeoff process (ah, the joys of rush hour on a rainy day at the airport), one of its glaring flaws struck me: even though it doesn't use power to display text, it does require power to turn pages, so unless you are a really slow reader - it would almost definitely qualify as an electronic device that must be turned off during takeoff and landing. Those are the times I most crave something to read...before return flights I'm often scrambling through newsstands to find new reading material (since I finished reading the complimentary airline magazines on my departing flight). All the easily-downloadable content in the world can't save you from the boredom of sitting on a runway for 30 minutes if you can't turn on your kindle.

Undoubtedly, its a true conservationists' dream: no trees killed to bring everyone and endless supply of reading content!...but where reading is concerned, some of my favorite ways to recycle are tearing articles to share with friends or passing along a book for someone else to read (often along with scribbled notes, rhetorical questions, and other wacky Jenisms in the margins).

And as far as I can tell, you can't rent content, i.e., there don't seem to be any discounts for buying and deleting as soon as you're done. If you buy a real-life book you can at least share it, re-sell it or donate it when you are done.

And apparently, there's no color - great for books and the New York Times; not so great for comic books and fashion or decorating magazines.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly for me, books and magazines can take a lot of abuse - being rolled up and stuffed into purses and suitcases, having entire bottles of wine or water spilled on them...being tossed, dropped or bumped. As tough as a kindle might be, I don't know that it could stand up to my chronic clutziness.

None-the-less, I caught myself thinking that it might be a nice new toy to have.

Article: Is Technology Producing A Decline In Critical Thinking And Analysis?

ScienceDaily (2009-01-29) -- As technology has played a bigger role in our lives, our skills in critical thinking and analysis have declined, while our visual skills have improved, according to psychological research.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090128092341.htm#

Some of the interesting assertions made in the article:

"Reading for pleasure, which has declined among young people in recent decades, enhances thinking and engages the imagination in a way that visual media such as video games and television do not, Greenfield said."

Also

"No one medium is good for everything," Greenfield said. "If we want to develop a variety of skills, we need a balanced media diet. Each medium has costs and benefits in terms of what skills each develops."

Her research found that:
"multi-tasking 'prevents people from getting a deeper understanding of information.'"

Cite:
University of California - Los Angeles (2009, January 29). Is Technology Producing A Decline In Critical Thinking And Analysis?. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 25, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2009/01/090128092341.htm#

new games-in-ed resources

So much to post - so little time. Here are a few game-related gems that I came across while cleaning out my email inbox (i.e., things forwarded to me by friends/colleagues).

Benefits of Video Games in eCampus today: http://www.ecampustoday.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?print&i=54917

Major study shatters stereotypes about teens and video games - a collection of information from the MacArthur foundation: http://www.macfound.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=lkLXJ8MQKrH&b=4192109&content_id={CF9B933A-8261-4FE5-B9AD-AD751CDEEFC6}&notoc=1

Good day for Civics Games...

This just came out as part of the newest Teaching and Learning
magazine published by IU:

http://www.indiana.edu/~tandlpub/story.php?story_id=85


And a more formal announcement re: Sandra Day O'Connor's Supreme Court Game, starting to roll out this September:


http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/around-the-web/?i=54067;_hbguid=dac4cf1d-bb4d-4bc2-978c-682aa2c1ddc1

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSN0438944120080605

www.ourcourts.org/

Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds

I virtually participated in a few sessions of the conference held by the Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds this past week. From my vantage point (about 20 feet away...and more than 500 miles away) it looked to be well attended by a wide range of professionals interested in virtual worlds. I suspect that they'll post video clips on the site at some point (as they seem to have done that for past events).

http://www.ndu.edu/irmc/fedconsortium.html

News you can play

http://www.playthenewsgame.com/

Just checked this game out - seems interesting and looking forward to seeing the results of my first "game" played on the site. I played a game that looked at lowering the legal drinking age to 18 - it illustrated a brief history of this issue, particularly how it has intersected with debates about the legal age to serve in the military/go into combat. I played as the state of Missouri (selected by the computer) and was able to indicate what I thought should happen, as well as predict what I thought would happen.

New evidence suggesting that young children benefit from technology use

Tech encourages students' social skills by Meris Stansbury (Wednesday, April 23, 2008).

This article highlights results of two a studies done with young computer users (preschool/early grades) and finds that there are indeed benefits to its use.

More evidence to support the value of games in Education

eSchool News had a few more articles in its most recent issue:

Gaming helps students hone 21st-century skills by Laura Devaney (Thursday, April 24)

and

Students want more use of Gaming Technology by Meris Stansbury (Tuesday, April 8)

Games on kids "must have" list for school...

Since I don't have time to read the full report - I'm just going to pull some quotes from other summaries...it is great that students can see the potential of gaming - and even articulate specific benefits of gaming over other other modes of instruction!

From: eSchool News

Students want more use of gaming technology
Results from Project Tomorrow's annual Speak Up survey reveal a disconnect between students', adults' views on technology in schools
By Meris Stansbury, Assistant Editor, eSchool News

What students want
"Educators are largely missing out on what could be a huge opportunity to capitalize on their students’ appetite for electronic games and simulations to teach them about core curriculum topics, results from a new national survey suggest."..."online or electronic gaming is one of the technologies that students use most frequently—and that educational gaming is one of the emerging technologies that students would most like to see implemented in their schools."

The disconnect between what students want and parents/teachers want?
"...Yet, only one in 10 teachers has adopted gaming as an instructional tool."
"64 percent of students in grades K-12 say they play online or electronic-based games regularly. On average across all grade levels, students are playing electronic games about 8 to 10 hours a week. More than 50 percent of students in grades 3-12 would like to see more educational gaming in their schools—yet only 19 percent of parents and 15 percent of administrators favor that idea."

but maybe kids know best...
One teacher, using games in her classroom notes “'We are witnessing a metamorphosis of sorts. Within the first few weeks, we saw students seeking assistance from their teachers before the scheduled time for math, so they could beat their friends. … It’s driving up math scores. When our students are experiencing success on the game, it transfers to success in the classroom.'”

"Just over half of the students surveyed (51 percent) said they’re interested in educational gaming because games make it easier to understand difficult concepts. Fifty percent said gaming would make them more engaged in the subject, 46 percent said they would learn more about the subject, and 44 percent said it would be more interesting to practice problems."


And another review of the same study From: Network World

Most kids want educational video games in school, survey shows. ... So?

Submitted by Paul McNamara on Wed, 04/09/2008 - 1:15pm.

"Among the survey findings:

• More than half of students in grades 3 through 12 believe educational gaming would help them learn;
• Only 16% of teachers, 15% of administrators and 19% of parents are on board today -- although there was significantly more support for further exploration of the potential;
• And, 11% of teachers say they're already using video games in class, no matter how much you roll your eyes.

Then there was this little nugget, which may explain better than any other data point why this topic is even being discussed: Only 3% of elementary school students say they do not play video games of any kind.

Students surveyed say learning via video games would help them better understand difficult concepts, become more engaged in the subject matter and practice skills."

to be or not to be...fun

From Wired:

Trying to Design a Truly Entertaining Game Can Defeat Even a Certified Genius

I think there's something to be said about finding the right audience...Arden may not have appealed to the WoW set, but I suspect there's an audience out there that would have thought it was the best thing since sliced bread to have less emphasis on fighting. I'd add a #6 that says something along the lines of - never underestimate the power of marketing (or the price tag for good marketing).

Trends and Continuums

A few recent articles of note from the Model Intel Classroom Site:

Ed Tech Trends: http://www.modelintelclassroom.com/resources_articles/ed_tech_trends

and:

Continuum of Technology Use:
http://www.modelintelclassroom.com/resources_articles/continuum_technology_use

The later article had a great image that suggests the disconnect between students' home and school use of technology.
To some extent it is an over-exaggeration - but it most certainly the case for some students that they will be making abundant use of technology at home and only occasional access to it at school.

Do you want fries with your game?

An Online Game So Mysterious Its Famous Sponsor Is Hidden

By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD

Published: April 1, 2008

McDonald’s is the sponsor of an enigmatic Olympic-themed online game called The Lost Ring.


So I was feeling a little out of the loop when I read this. Guess I need to get back on the Unfiction mailing list. ;) In any case, sounds like a great game - and good to see that there is still large corporate interest in funding immersive gaming experiences.

What a beautiful idea!

Experimenting With Makeup: What Puts the ‘Ick’ in Lipstick?

By NATASHA SINGER

Published: March 27, 2008

At a Saturday seminar called Cosmetic Chemistry in Boston, young girls and their parents find out what after-shaves and lipsticks are really made of.


A great hook to get girls interested in science. It reminded me of a recent site visit experience - wherein a facilitator was telling me about the Internet Scavenger hunts that he had kids create for each other as a way to hone web navigation skills. One of the most advanced girls that he worked with came up with a scavenger hunt that called for participants to find, among other things, brands of lip gloss. It struck me as disappointing that lip gloss was the most exciting thing this girl could think of to have people search for on the Internet - but in retrospect, I suppose what really mattered was that she was using the Internet - and getting her peers to do so as well. It's all about meeting people where they are - and this project makes a great effort to do just that.