A recent article describing how today’s children, having been immersed so deeply with an environment filled with incredible advancements in technology, brings to mind memories of my own childhood experiences of play. Surrounded by influences of environment, education, and parental guidance, paired with a child’s individual personality and interests, I am reminded of the sort of spirited pursuits of adventure of yesteryear. There was this inventive curiosity and carefree exploration that seemed to percolate through childhood. Think about how almost anything could be turned into a toy. Think about the look of complete wonder on a child’s face when they see a colorful object, a stuffed animal, heck, even a pencil.
Learning the English alphabet with today's technologies
There’s been research probing the role of technology among today’s children and young adults. What does it mean to have grown up during a time where there was always a cell phone and the Internet? Moreover, how has the inclusion and use these technologies and games, as well, inform the practices, actions, thought processes, and assumptions that both children and adults make?
At some point, it stopped. Suddenly, there was all this so-called grown-up concern of things called feasibility, practicality, marketability, and profitability. How do we address all those things, but still come up with innovative products, tools, and services that achieve these market and profit-driven goals while simultaneously embracing a sense of marvel and open possibility.
I’m reminded of lab experiments conducted during physics classes that involved working with slinkies and using plastic toys and coins (purchased at one of those 99 cent stores) as props for constructing projects. In graduate school, non-digital game prototypes developed in game design classes stretched my imagination how to use seemingly rudimentary and ordinary items to create and simulate a play experience. Perhaps as our society continues its rapid and constant transformation and evolution, making use of these sorts of imaginative and creative processes that we seem to situate only in childhood, could play a larger role in how we think about technology – its function and role – in our lives.
This PBS Frontline program examines the role of digital media and technology on our present-day society. As someone who engages, designs, builds, and uses these things, it’s interesting and informative to think more critically about what all these technological advances mean for our society, our relationships, and our own being.
This documentary was broadcasted last night, but if you missed it, you can still watch the program (divided into chapters) on the program’s website.
Trailer:
Here are some online health games that I’ve played, experimented, and used in part of a school research project. Try for yourself!
Humana Games
Playnormous
Nutrition Explorations
Nourish Interactive
With more to come at this year’s Games for Health conference
Indeed, the first few days of a new year bring about the sentiments of nostalgia, the creation of to-do lists, and the general musings of a seemingly endless possibilities of what could be. I, myself, admit to being guilty of this and will thereby follow with some of these thoughts.
Not too long ago, exhaustion, frazzled hair, and sleep deprivation were my partners in crime as I researched, scribbled, designed, prototyped, and groaned and growled my way to completing my master’s thesis while tinkering away on the computer at my full-time job. Now, somewhat more coherent and awake, I’m hit with this antsy, fidgety urge to embark on another journey or project. Since my undergraduate days at NYU, I’ve always seemed a bit strangely wired to want to learn new things. This has involved a dabble in film-making (a documentary course taken at the School of Visual Arts), which has resulted an incomplete documentary on food, but still offered useful skills I applied while working on a project interviewing SMEs (subject matter experts) on an educational website.
This seemingly strange desire to learn (and yes, for the most part, I actually liked school!), I think about the subjects that I seek out to learn, how I learn, and in what capacity I can actually learn what I want to learn. There’s been growth in investigating and even employing neuroscience research into understanding how humans learn and thereby, designing ways to maximize learning experiences.
A recent NY Times article points to this quest towards understanding how the adult brain can learn. One of the professors interviewed the article mentioned that, “a richer form of learning may require that you ‘bump up against people and ideas’ that are different.” This seems to suggest that perhaps a way to engage in a deeper level of learning is to have the knowledge and information you presently have been challenged; as if, this confrontation will charge up the neural networks and get you to perhaps think more critically and openly to what you already and what you may not know.
I kind of like that concept. It reminds me of political talk shows where you have individuals of extremely different viewpoints come together to discuss a particularly controversial topic. Usually, though, it becomes less about learning from the opposition’s viewpoint and more of a screaming match.
Anyhow, I’m on a quest to learn something new and embark on a new challenge this year. I think I’ve had enough time to recover from being a part-time graduate student and full-time web producer. There was an interesting course on information design from SVA, but I’m thinking that maybe it’s time to try something that I have no familiarity with. Like taking jewelry-making classes, or trying my hand in trapeze. As in anything, you can learn something from whatever you do or encounter. I might find out that I’m extremely terrible at both of these things, but hey, at least I try…and I might end up with some interesting tales that I can reminisce about next year!
Some interesting items to share:
Looking forward to learning about the most recent design, development, and implementation forays in serious games at the upcoming Games Before Entertainment Week conference this May. I’m excited to see what kinds of new ideas have been developed and worked in the fields of serious and mobile games (or both together).
Seeing the next move in design and computer technology with tablets, including: iSlate, and how it relates with the goals and ambitions of the One Laptop per Child project