iPhone Aper

I had coffee tonight with Carla Engelbrecht Fisher and we got to talking about, what else, children’s technology.  We started talking about the iTouch and the iPhone.  I mentioned I’d been noticing more and more kids playing games and using applications on their parents’ phones.

Carla told me, one of her friends saw her three-year old daughter touching the television screen to try and change the channel.

The digital natives strike again.  This three-year old girl thought it natural that to change a channel, you swoosh the screen.  She learned from previous experiences (on a slightly smaller iPhone screen) that to change the screen, you touch.

Carla said she can’t wait for these kids to grow up and start making technology.

I said I can’t wait for those people making technology now, to start listening and watching what these kids are doing today.

An Educational Technologist – Part II

Watch out naysayers, Carla Engelbrecht Fisher does not give into the fear that “digital media is going to harm or delay children’s development.”

Citing research from NPD and Kaiser, children’s digital media is a popular and pervasive part of their lives.  Similar to my thoughts in the SuperSize Me post, digital media consumption simply requires a balanced media diet.

“A little TV here, a little gaming here, a little outdoor time there, a little water-table time here, sandbox time, block play, dancing, singing, napping, eating, food play, etc. Too much of any one thing can obviously lead to problems,” Carla said.

Unfortunately, though we wouldn’t point fingers, lots of critics blame children’s video games for anything from social and psychological problems, to academic and physical health problems.

The research studies, Carla says, “are all over the place.  Some combine games with television, some barely differentiate between types of violence. The most aggravating (to me) of the  studies assume that television or games are causing a ‘displacement effect’ where time spent with media replaces other, more developmentally worthwhile activities. The problem being, those studies assume that anything is better than television or games…”

To properly refute the fears and criticism, Carla believes researchers need to do more to make the case.  From learning how children are consuming these technologies and understanding the quality of the interactions, to building the best products for them and inspiring further research, without evidence no one can say digital media is bad.

However, the onus is not just on the research community.  Controlling media intake is everyone’s responsibility, said Carla.  “Save for the youngest of children, I’m a huge proponent of media literacy. Most adults could use a serious lesson in it, never mind their children.”

This concludes my interview with Carla, but don’t worry, we’re having coffee later in the month.  I will be sure to pick her brain some more.  If you are interested in Carla’s work, she is speaking at the Game Developers Conference in California on Wednesday March 25.  Her session is entitled, Little Hands, Foul Moods, and Runny Noses 2.0: The Research You Should Know When Making Games for Kids

Ever Heard of an Educational Technologist? Keeping Reading…

Today I had an online chat with Educational Technologist Carla Engelbrecht Fisher (of course online, this is a blog about digital technology… we couldn’t just meet in person!).  I was also fortunate enough to see Carla speak at the Sandbox Summit last September.

A true multi-tasker, Carla works as a children’s technology developer and game designer, in addition to educational researcher and author.  She is a doctoral candidate at the Columbia University Teachers College.

Just starting out in the business, Carla worked at Highlights.com and PBSKids.org.  I asked her to explain how the children’s media landscape has changed throughout her career thus far.

When she first started working, the digital conversations were about experimentation – “Should we try out this Internet-thing?”   Today, digital media is a central part of the development process… yet at the same time still a bit experimental and playful.  “That playfulness and experimenting of what to do with digital media is exactly what I love about it,” Carla said.

And I’m not talking about playful in a Wii Sports kind of way.  Learning how kids interact with certain interfaces, or whether they care about social gaming… “no one knows exactly what the right formula is,” said Carla, “but it’s a lot of fun to play with and see what works and what doesn’t.”

I put Carla on the spot and asked her to think about some of the best digital technologies out there for kids.  To help young children develop gross and fine motor skills, Carla spoke about motion-based gaming.  LeapFrog Zippity, Nick Jr. Wii games, and VTech are all products featuring motion-based play.

When it came to who wasn’t performing on the digital front, rather than pointing fingers, we discussed the more academic issues associated with children and digital technology.  “There is a fear,” says Carla, “that digital media is going to harm or delay development.”

Stay tuned for Carla’s explanation of why children’s digital media is A-OK … let’s just say I was onto something in an earlier post.