IDC '08 Panels
Bridging the Gap
Thursday, June 12, 2008
9:00-10:30amScreen Cultures
Friday, June 13, 2008
9:00-10:30am
Panel —Research, Design, Development: Bridging the Gap
Thursday, June 12, 2008 from 9:00-10:30am
Edith Ackermann, MIT
Kathleen Alfano, Fisher Price
Erik Strommen, Playful Efforts
Scott Traylor, 360KID
Michael Levine, Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop
What happens as scientists, 'creatives', developers, and sales people team up to bring a vision to the market, and from the market, or store, into children's homes and lives? Well, too often, concepts get lost along the way and toys end up in the trash bin! This panel tackles honest questions from perplexed researchers [usually trained in academia] who would like to reach a broader audience, and effect real change in the world, but who are faced with the dictates of industry [usually market-oriented] and the spur of the moment insights of designers [usually trained in liberal arts]. Panelists will identify bottlenecks, unveil paradoxes, and propose winning strategies for both sides to move beyond business as usual. Experienced researchers and practitioners across the divide, panelists tell their tale in the form of short personal cases.
Edith Ackermann - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Toys To Fall For or Live With? Children's Attachments to Artifacts tackles some of the paradoxes
generated by "instant" consumer satisfaction approaches, including cognitive studies, and advocates
a developmental approach to studying how a child's relation with artifacts evolves over time (I grow
with my toys, and my toys grow with me).
Edith K. Ackermann is an Honorary Professor of Psychology at the University of Aix- Marseille 1, France, and a Visiting Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Architecture. She teaches graduate students, conducts research, and consults for companies, institutions, and organizations interested in the intersections between learning, teaching, design, and digital technologies. Previously, Ackermann was an Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at the MIT Media laboratory, in Cambridge, MA; a Senior Research Scientist at MERL Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratory, Cambridge, MA; and a Scientific Collaborator at the Centre International d'Epistémologie Génétique, under the direction of Jean Piaget, in Geneva. She received a Doctor of Developmental Psychology [Com Laude] (1981); two Master's degrees in Developmental Psychology and Clinical Psychology (1970); and a Bachelor of Experimental Psychology degree (1969), all from the University of Geneva, Switzerland.
Kathleen Alfano - Fisher Price
What Works, What Doesn't, and/or How to Make It Work?
Industry collaborates with developmental experts to gain a deeper understanding and broader perspective of how
particular toys, or products, can meet desired developmental goals. Experts' evaluations are valued and recommendations
taken seriously. However the collaboration doesn't always result in a magical toy that is brought to market and sells millions.
This talk describes some successful and some not-too-successful collaborations and suggest best practices for successful ones.
Kathleen Alfano joined Fisher-Price, Inc., of East Aurora, New York, as an educator and researcher for the Child Research Department in 1979. Since then she has developed, what is now called, the Play Laboratory into the toy industry's most respected (and emulated) center for research on childhood development and play. Ms. Alfano holds several degrees in elementary education: a bachelor's degree from Rosary Hill College, a master's degree from Stare University College at Buffalo and a doctorate degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo, as well as a master's degree in business administration from Niagara University. Among professional affiliations are: the International Toy Researchers Association, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, National Association for the Education of Young Children, Association for Childhood Education International, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, International Reading Association and others.
In her role as senior director of the Child Research Department, Ms. Alfano provides child development expertise and formative evaluation for Fisher-Price toys, products and interactive media, including the content of learning toys, books, CD ROMs, videos and DVDs. In addition to directing the Fisher-Price Play Laboratory, Ms. Alfano has provided consultative services with regard to child development for organizations such as the Toy Industry Association and the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Erik Strommen - Playful Efforts
Testing Interfaces that Do Not Exist tackles the problem of tight timelines, and not being able to do research on products in development.
Erik Strommen Ph.D. is President of Playful Efforts, an interactive media research and design consulting company.
A Developmental Psychologist by training, he spent seven years as Research Director in Interactive Technologies at Children's Television Workshop designing
and studying interactive learning products for children of various ages on almost
every interactive platform available. In 1996, he joined Microsoft to serve as lead designer for Interactive Barney, the first animated interactive plush character for children,
and for subsequent interactive character interfaces as well.
Since 2000, he has been a private consultant advising toy companies on ways to use principles of play and learning development in the design of interactive toys. He has published
research and theoretical papers on a wide range of interfaces for children, from speech recognition to electronic drawing pads. Visit www.playfulefforts.com.
Scott Traylor - 360KID
Rethinking Product Research When Time Is On Your Side, but Funds Are Not!
This is the story of how a technology without a specific audience or guiding research was influenced by
exploiting the uniqueness of the technology coupled with child research that influenced prototype development. My company has been working on a unique character recognition technology for
preschoolers for many years now. It's a pet project that has not gone to market but keeps getting improved upon.
Scott Traylor, is the CEO, Founder and Chief KID of 360KID, a kid-focused entertainment and technology company dedicated to creating engaging technology products for kids. 360KID provides turnkey development services to the broadcast, cable, publishing, and toy industries. Scott started his business over 16 years ago. His company has emerged as a recognized leader in the development of fun and engaging technology products. 360KID clients include Sesame Workshop, LeapFrog, Pokémon, Discovery, Hasbro, Girl Scouts, Scholastic and many others. 360KID has won or been nominated for over 34 different learning and entertainment awards including three Emmy nominations. Scott is continually reading, analyzing, and synthesizing research covering all aspects of child engagement including new technologies, social networking, informal learning, gaming, and different consumer-based delivery systems. He's fascinated by electronic learning aids and technology instruction that is non-PC based. Scott has also been a computer science teacher for 12 years at Harvard University's Extension School. Scott believes nothing is impossible and so he pushes to make big dreams a reality, especially when it benefits children of any age. Visit http://www.360KID.com.
Respondent, Michael Levine - Joan Ganz Cooney Center for Children's Media and Research
Dr. Levine oversees the Joan Ganz Cooney Center for Children's Media and Research efforts to catalyze and support research, innovation and investment in educational media technologies for young children. Prior to joining the Center, Dr. Levine served as Vice President of New Media and Executive Director of Education for Asia Society, managing the global nonprofit rganization's interactive media and educational initiatives to promote knowledge and understanding of Asia and other world regions, languages and cultures. Previously, Dr. Levine oversaw Carnegie Corporation of New York's groundbreaking work in early childhood development, educational media and primary grades reform, and was a senior advisor to the New York City Schools Chancellor, where he directed dropout prevention, afterschool and early childhood initiatives. Dr. Levine has been a frequent adviser to the U.S. Department of Education and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, writes for public affairs journals, and appears frequently in the media. He was named by Working Mother magazine as one of America's most influential leaders in shaping family and children's policy and serves on numerous nonprofit boards, including We Are Family Foundation, Ready To Learn, Talaris Institute and Teach For America. Levine is also currently a senior associate at the Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy at Yale University. He received his Ph.D. in Social Policy from Brandeis University's Florence Heller School and his B.S. from Cornell University.
Panel —Screen Cultures
Friday, June 13, 2008 from 9:00-10:30am
James Paul Gee, Arizona State University
Dan Anderson, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Bill Shribman, WGBH
Lisa Guernsey, Education and Technology Writer
Consider the "screen" as children see and interact with it today. Is it serving primarily as a window onto "pretend" or untouchable worlds? Does it serve mostly as an animated version of another artifact of children's lives—the book? Or is it becoming an interactive and conversational outlet, a mashup of phone and camera? In either case, under what conditions does the screen become a trigger—or trampoline—for play and creative thought? How and when do children find the most delight in interacting with a screen? And when does the screen get in the way? These are the questions that scamper through the heads of those who observe children using screen media today— whether medium is a television program, a video game, a handheld device or some screen yet to be invented. While research on children's interaction with the television screen and the videogame screen have both been around for quite some time, very little of the research in these two fields ever crosses over to the other side. In this panel, we'll put the two together, with implications for those who develop new screens and windows onto new virtual worlds. By bringing together renowned scholars in television research and videogame research with an innovative producer who has worked in both media, the panel affords the rare opportunity to make connections between the worlds of videogame and television design, and to think what these two established fields have to tell those who conduct interaction design for children. In this way, we can best consider how children think about and interact with the screens in their lives.
James Paul Gee - Arizona State University
What's a Screen Mean in a Video Game?
Video games are not "screen based" activities in the sense in which television and movie watching are. In fact, for reasons I will discuss,
players are actually, in a sense, both inside and outside the screen. This allows for the development of what I have called "projective identities",
as well as a variety of other effects that cause video games to be interactive and to engage learning in different ways than do television, movies, or
books, for that matter. In addition, these differences mean, as well, that narrative works differently in video games than it does in television, movies,
and books. However, not all video games work in the way I will describe and, thus, there is not, as far as I am concerned, a general theory of video games,
let alone screens.
James Paul Gee is the Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies at Arizona State University. He is a member of the National Academy of Education. His book Sociolinguistics and Literacies was one of the founding documents in the formation of the "New Literacy Studies", an interdisciplinary field devoted to studying language, learning, and literacy in an integrated way in the full range of their cognitive, social, and cultural contexts. His book An Introduction to Discourse Analysis brings together his work on a methodology for studying communication in its cultural settings, an approach that has been widely influential over the last two decades. His most recent books What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy and Situated Language and Learning both deal with video games, language, and learning. Gee recently published Good Video Games and Good Learning: Collected Essays. Prof. Gee has published widely in journals in linguistics, psychology, the social sciences, and education.
Dan Anderson - University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Dan Anderson's research focuses on children and television, particularly the cognitive and educational aspects. Anderson is widely published, and his work concerns attention,
comprehension, viewing behavior, and the long term impact of television on development. His current research includes toddler understanding of television, and the effects of
adult background television on infant and toddler behavior. Anderson was involved in the creation of children's television series including Allegra's Window, Gullah Gullah
Island, Bear in the Big Blue House, Blue's Clues, and Dora the Explorer. He has also acted as an advisor to Captain Kangaroo, The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, Sesame Street,
Fimbles, Go, Diego, Go!, It's a Big Big World and Super Why!. His research is supported by grants from the National Science Foundation.
Bill Shribman - WGBH
Thinking Inside the Box: Tales from the trenches.
Bill Shribman explores some of the key considerations in creating educational content in a lean-back/lean-forward world. TV and computer involve very different
kinds of interaction, so how can producers best play to the strengths of each medium? Bill discusses how his team tries to find the right balance
between Sticky and Meaningful in making kids' content for the Interweb.
Bill Shribman is the Executive Producer of WGBH's Interactive Kids Group and oversees all WGBH kids' projects, including those in development, for Web and new platforms. Previously he spent 10 years working in video post production companies in both London and Seattle. At WGBH he has produced the internationally recognized sites for Curious George, ZOOM, PEEP and the Big Wide World, Time Warp Trio, and Between the Lions. He is also a content producer and games designer for the Fetch, Martha Speaks, Arthur, and Postcards from Buster sites. Traffic to these sites amounts to more than 10 million visitors every month. He devised and produced the Fin, Fur and Feather Bureau of Investigation at FFFBI.com and is also the creator of WGBH's broadband animated series, The GREENS. His writing for the Between the Lions television series was EMMY-nominated in 2006. He is currently the P.I. and lead producer on a U.S. Department of Education Steppingstones of Technology grant, devising games to help kids with ADHD.
Under Bill Shribman, the WGBH Interactive Kids group has received numerous accolades, including New Media INVISION Awards (Gold and Silver), three Webby nominations, MIMC Gold, Parents Choice Gold, the Flagstaff Arizona Worldfest Silver, the Eddie Award, NAPPA Gold, Japan Prize Silver, MITX Best of Show, and the first Prix Jeunesse awarded to a Web site.
Respondent, Lisa Guernsey - Education and Technology Writer
Screen Cultures: Cross-Pollination between Videogame and Television Research.
Lisa Guernsey is an education, science and technology writer who has contributed to The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Consumer Reports, and other publications. Her most recent book is Into the Minds of Babes: How Screen Time Affects Children From Birth to Age 5. She also maintains a blog called Media Minds and writes a quarterly newsletter about new research findings on media and children. Both can be found at www.lisaguernsey.com. She resides in Alexandria, Va., with her husband, their two preschool-age daughters, two cats and a dog.