Toy Spy Robots: A Practical Way to Teach Programming

Seymour Papert taught us years ago the most effective way to teach computer programming to children was to make it fun, and MIT’s Logo programming language remains popular (and free). Since then, other languages designed to teach programming concepts have been developed, including Scratch, Game Maker, and Alice. (I wrote an article on educational programming languages for TechEdge that is online here.)

From a commercial standpoint, especially with languages like Logo, the urge to combine programming with real world robotics has been highly successful, most notably with the Lego Mindstorms line of products. Now, a new company has developed a toy spy robot that will encourage the creation and posting of programs by its fans.

The Spy Video TRAKR from Wild Planet Entertainment will blend online and offline fun for budding robotics enthusiasts. Offline, the target market of eight-year-old and older boys can guide the remote controlled vehicle into other rooms and use its wireless camera for surveillance. Taking a tip from Webkinz, which ties an online product with toys in the real world, the Spy Video TRAKR will offer strong inducements to play on their site. Here’s a quote from a recent news article:

Wild Planet says the Trakr goes a step further than other Web-tied toys. It sends children online to create application and then brings them back to the toy, instead of just leaving them playing related games online.

The marketing pitch for this seems brilliant. The toy will function as a spy robot right out of the box, but for the kid who wants more, plenty of customization is offered, whether it’s an app downloaded from the site or one he makes on his own. Here’s part of the press release:

Though the Spy Video TRAKR can be used without ever being hooked up to a computer, tech-minded kids will be quick to connect their toy and start the customization process. Beginners can access an online application modulator that will allow them to modify existing apps as they familiarize themselves with writing code. All the tools they need to write their own unique programs will be available online, for free.

The toy will be available in October, in time for Christmas, and should retail for about $120. I wish the best for Wild Planet, and I hope their new product is highly successful. Also, hopefully, it will encourage many new future programmers to pursue careers in the STEM fields.

References:
Zimmerman, A. (February 10, 2010). I spy a market for kids. The Wall Street Journal, D1.

Five Video Games for ESL and Language Development

Kathy Sargent, outgoing editor for TechEdge, (who is a great editor and has done a remarkable job over the years as Director of Communications for TCEA) recently accepted my article on “Virtual ESL” for the next issue. This post expands on the article with games suitable for ESL and the ongoing development of English skills. Certain video games are particularly well-suited to language acquisition and development, a point I made here a couple years ago. There is a heavy dollop of personal opinion in the assertions below, and I welcome dissenting views. Some of these suggestions are relatively expensive, some are free, and all but one are available online.

1. Second Life
   Second Life has a long history of educational adaptation, and the idea of using the environment for ESL purposes was adopted early. Like many efforts with no external motivations however, some formal ESL initiatives have fizzled over time. One still going strong is the Second Life English Community. Founder Kip Boahn had a nice article profiling his work in Forbes a while back. Players from almost 100 different countries regularly gather for such online ESL activities as phonetic treasure hunts through SLEC.

   The global reach, open nature, and ease of use offered by SL, (not to mention the fact it’s free), have helped academics around the world key in to the platform for language training. Since avatars can type or talk over a simple computer connection, engaging native speakers in an interesting 3D environment that is not overly taxing to most hardware results in an ideal environment for language learning.
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2. World of Warcraft.
   Of the millions of players frequenting the popular MMORPG, you might be surprised to learn there are some engaged in educational activities amidst all that medieval fantasy action. The most famous group devoted to exploring pedagogy in WoW is the guild Cognitive Dissonance, run by Lucas Gillespie and Peggy Sheehy. Lucas’ blog EduRealms follows his educational efforts in the game.

   It is very easy to start up groups and guilds in WoW, and while Asian gold farmers have annoyed North American players in the past, Dr. Edd Schneider over at SUNY-Potsdam gained considerable attention in 2007 for suggesting WoW was a promising platform for ESL in Asia, provided stateside supervised guidance was included.
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3. My Word Coach
   Although available for the Wii, the DS version of My Word Coach offers players an easier time writing, with its included stylus and touch screen. Plus, the “DS factor” makes it more portable and affordable for classroom or after-school use. It’s not promoted as an ESL product, but the vocabulary training couched in a gaming environment works just as well for non-native speakers.
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4. Webkinz
   The popular children’s game tied to collectible plush dolls offers a restricted communications feature. “Kinz chat” uses basic sentence elements for players to communicate. While Webkinz probably is not suitable to older ESL students, for the younger crowd it offers a fun and relatively painless way to introduce English. It’s also offered in 12 other languages, so gamers can play in their native tongue as well as the Queen’s.
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5. Whyville
   Whyville is the free online world designed for children learning, and it has an impressive pedigree with corporate and government sponsorship stretching back several years. Although its strengths lie in STEM games and activities, one of the key features of Whyville appealing to teachers is the sanitized chat feature where cursing is automatically edited out.

In the process of investigating the many mini-games out there, a couple of nifty titles rose to the top. The advantages to using online mini-games for ESL include the fact that teacher supervision is not as heavily needed as it is for the above examples. On the other hand, mini-games typically focus on a much narrower skill set, and kids may tire of them quickly.

A couple of my favorites in the mini-game category included Word Frog, which is a neat way to drill antonyms and such, ala Number Crunchers. I also enjoyed Grammar Ninja,which drills identifying parts of speech in a playful way.

Virtual Worlds for Children Survive and Thrive

Research is percolating around virtual worlds designed specifically with children in mind. While Club Penguin and Webkinz grab the lion’s share of press, this article notes a total of 158 virtual worlds or online playgrounds for kids worldwide.

The subscription volume is amazing. Habbo: 90 million subscribers. Neopets: 45 million. Club Penguin and Star Doll: 15 million each.

Some interesting quotes from industry officials are also included in the article.

For Mr Seiler [editor of Virtual World News] this popularity is based on three factors: friends, freedom and fun.

“One reason virtual worlds are extremely compelling is that they offer a way to get out of the house and reconnect with friends after their curfew hours,” said Mr Seiler.

The virtual worlds also give kids great freedom to express themselves.

“For kids, though, when they don’t have as many options in real life to decide what their house looks like, what type of clothes to wear, or where they go, virtual worlds must seem like a whole new land of opportunity,” he said.

Finally, he said, these virtual worlds are enjoyable places to be.

“Successful virtual worlds encourage creativity, imagination, and fun,” he said. “That’s pretty appealing to any kid.”

References:

BBC News (2008, May 9). Boom times for virtual playgrounds. [Online.] Retrieved May 20, 2008 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7390218.stm

ExerGaming Kicks into High Gear with New Study & Product

There was discussion this week on the Serious Games listserv about ME2, a virtual world from Irwin Toy aimed at kids that links to a real world pedometer (tagline: You are the power!). The more exercise, running and walking the kids do in RL, the more points they earn to use in the game. Scott Traylor over at 360KID wrote up the details here.

In other news, a pilot study has come out of New Zealand showing that exergaming titles are just as good as casual exercise. No surprise there, but it’s nice to see the empirical data bear out common sense and provide argument ammo against doubters.

The 12 week initial pilot study by Dr. Ralph Maddison over at Auckland U. worked with 21 children age 10-14, and measured energy expenditure via oxygen masks. The follow up looked at 20 new subjects, upgrading half of their PlayStations with the EyeToy. This time body mass indices were measured and advanced pedometers were used over 12 weeks.

Children in the eye toy group performed significantly more physical activity, despite spending less time overall playing video games.

“We need to look at different ways, because of the increase of obesity in New Zealand, to increase activity in children,” Dr Maddison said.

Dr Maddison’s team is now seeking a further 330 children, aged between 10 and 14, for an expanded six-month study funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand.

Playing is playing, and exercise is exercise even in front of a video screen. I do think the idea of linking a pedometer to a virtual world is a good idea, one springing naturally from the Webkinz linkage of RL objects to the VW. Seems this could herald a bevy of new ideas linking the virtual with RL objects and activities.

References:
Borley, C. (2008, February 22). Video games good as exercise: Study. New Zealand Herald. [Online.] Retrieved February 23, 2008 from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?
c_id=204&objectid=10493847

Webkinz & Club Penguin: Evil? Or Good Financial Teachers?

Recently the debate over the benefit or detriment of MMOGs aimed specifically at children has heated up again. Specifically, these debates center around Club Penguin and Webkinz. The current debate was kickstarted in a New York Times article last week entitled, “Pay Up, Kid, or Your Igloo Melts,” by Mireya Navarro.

Navarro notes that several opportunities in the games require additional purchases, much to many parents’ chagrin. One thing that has alarmists concerned is the fantastic growth the two largest sites, CP and Webkinz, have seen recently. CP has almost 5 million unique monthly visitors, while Webkinz has around 6 million.

While there is some free content, attractive add-ons require additional payments. Anyone can register in CP for free, but to keep virtual items in the game, a monthly pay account is needed. People purchasing plush toy Webkinz in the real world get free access to the virtual Webkinz world for a year. Buying more plush toys leads to more benefits online.

Navarro notes that the idea of selling to tots in the digital realm is raising concerns:

Consumer Reports WebWatch started a study this summer to evaluate the commercial content of online games for 3- to 7-year-olds.

“Every interface is becoming an opportunity to sell children something, either brand awareness or real things,” said Liz Perle, the editor in chief of Common Sense Media. “That’s the end game.”

Other profit concerns exist, Navarro says, including the fact Disney bought out CP for $350 million, with an option to double that amount if growth targets are met. We’re used to hearing folks fuss about profits generated by “Big Oil” and “Big Pharma.” Now, perhaps we’ll hear talk about “Big Gaming.”

On the other end of the spectrum, some parents actually like these virtual worlds for tweens and kiddos. Brian B., a fellow technology director from Texas, and blogger, notes that his daughters have been captivated by Webkinz. After some scaffolding, his 4 year old twins took to the game like the proverbial duck to water:

At first, they were satisfied with watching mommy and daddy play the games, buy things, and arrange furniture, etc., but eventually they wanted to take control of their own private virtual living space themselves. My wife came up with the idea of putting a heart sticker on the left button of a little USB travel mouse I carry in my bag so they could remember which button to push (laptop tracks pads are difficult for 4-year-old fingers apparently), then a little instruction on drag-and-drop and they were off. They only thing that my wife or I do now is to log them in (while they can type their own names, the extra long/unique user names for the site give them a little trouble).

Brian is a little worried about the financial aspect, namely that it may use up a lot of his money like so many other things for your children have a tendency to do. But, he also likes what he sees in Webkinz:

Many of the games are educational – one of my personal favorites is one where you take random letters and try to put them together to spell words. Depending on how you put them together you get more points – don’t get enough points and you don’t advance another level. Another game teaches spatial placement by setting up pathways to get the “pets” on one side of the screen to their “homes” on the other. You have to click on each piece of the pathway to make them flip until the pathway is complete – and the possibilities are endless (no two game boards are the same) … BTW – My wife and I find several of the games as good methods of winding down at the end of the day…now who’s WebKinz are they again?

So, the jury is out as to whether these for-profit virtual worlds aimed at kids are evil capitalist “first hits” to the addictive world of Internet playgrounds … or fun sites where kids can learn a thing or two about money management and home décor. It will be interesting to see what Consumer Reports’ WebWatch report says, and hopefully we’ll see some academic research as well.

References:
Navarro, M. (2007, October 28). Pay up, kid, or your igloo melts. Newyorktimes.com. [Online]. Available: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/fashion/28virtual.html

A Billion Bucks on Virtual Worlds

Here’s a nice factoid for those interested in videogame statistics: in the last year, corporations invested over $1 billion on virtual worlds. VWs, as they’re sometimes called, are three dimensional environments shared by multiple people online. Lifelike avatars traverse the virtual realms, interacting, talking, texting, and exploring together.

Second Life is the most famous of all VWs, and garners the lion’s share of the press. However, there are many more. I’ve covered the rise of tween worlds, and therein lies one of the clues as to the high dollar amounts spent on VWs of late. Most of that billion bucks came from Disney’s $700 million purchase of Club Penguin (although half of that total is a commitment by Disney to CP’s founders if they meet certain sales goals … so the billion dollar figure really depends on how you are counting). Intel purchased Havok for $110 million. A total of 33 other companies have invested another $200 million in a variety of other ventures. VirtualWorldsManagement.com (“the leading provider of trade events and media for the emerging virtual worlds industry”) publicized the stats in a recent report.

References
Hefflinger, M. (2007, October 3). Report: $1 billion invested in virtual worlds over past year. DigitalMediaWire.com. [Online]. Available: http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2007/10/03/
report-1-billion-invested-in-virtual-worlds-over-past-year

VirtualWorldsManagement.com. (2007). $1 billion invested in 35 virtual worlds companies from October 2006 to October 2007. [Online]. Available: http://www.virtualworldsmanagement.com/2007/index.html

Researching the Webkinz Phenomenon

As far as peer-reviewed academic research on the Webkinz phenomenon, I haven’t seen anything yet. However, several parents, magazine authors, and concerned bloggers have done personal research on this issue and have reported about it online.

The way Webkinz works is, youngsters buy a plush animal toy that has a code. Going online to the Webkinz site, youngsters enter the code and a virtual version of the toy comes to “life” on the site. Cleverdude relays the following factoids:

* When you activate the pet online, you get $2000 virtual dollars (KinzCash) to buy your pet food, toys, and other items. These items can be rather pricey. A fancy bed can run you about $1750 in KinzCash! Also, you can’t buy KinzCash with real cash (or it conveniently leaves that out of the FAQs if you can).

* You can earn more cash by playing games online, getting a job, or taking surveys. However, per Webkinz FAQ, these games are not gambling because “Webkinz members can not lose KinzCash playing any of our games. There are no wagers involved at all.”

* The pets need food or go hungry, and if they go hungry for too long, they get sick and need medicine, which all costs KinzCash. However, the pets never die, they just stay sick.

So, are the toys, and especially the site, good for educating your children? Cleverdude says yes, provided parents stay involved in the online process with their children. Many financial lessons, and teachable moments with time management and appropriate netiquette become feasible on the site.

Luigi Lugmayr over at I4UNews notes that Amazon carries Webkinz, and it can be a place to get the fast selling items when they sell out at the brick and mortars near you. The second and third top selling toy rankings at Amazon were taken by Webkinz when Luigi looked into the matter back in April.

Carleen Hawn, a freelancer writing over at Business 2.0, wondered what makes Webkinz and Club Penguin so popular with kids? Both Canadian startups have been enormously successful in North America, and CP was bought out by Disney this week. Some of Carleen’s key findings:

Bennett Morris, 7, and his brother Lawson, 5, used to live for Club Penguin but are now enthusiastic Webkinz players. The boys, who live outside Boston, like the variety of the Webkinz animals and the “houses” they live in. “I like the private rooms. I like to get furniture and decorate King Kong’s house,” Bennett says. King Kong is his Webkinz gorilla. He also has Coco (a monkey) and Gumdrop (a chihuahua). “I like Webkinz better because there are more games,” Lawson pipes in. “My favorite is Wheel of Wow, but you can only play it one time a day.”

This is an important feature: Webkinz puts strict limits on how much time kids can spend on any activity–a “leave ‘em wanting more” strategy that is one of the secrets of the site’s success. Webkinz’s traffic ballooned from 1.1 million unique visitors in November to 1.9 million in December. Moreover, kids spent an average of two hours and eight minutes per visit on Webkinz between April 2006 and January 2007. (YouTube, by contrast, averaged 32 minutes per visit during the same period, while Club Penguin averaged 54.)

Finally, Denise Pappalardo over at Network World wrote an article entitled, Fuzzy logic: How Webkinz is getting young kids hooked on the Web. Overuse is rampant, Pappalardo reports, amongst both youngsters and parents:

One grandmother says when she and her grandson stumbled on Webkinz last summer “it changed her life.”

Now she’s totally addicted. “I have 10 Webkinz and five different accounts,” says Sharyn Morin, a vet technician. She says she visits all five of her accounts daily and her grandson’s three after he goes to bed to be sure he “did his daily activities,” with all of his Webkinz.

Daily activities include exercising their animals, feeding them and keeping them happy by spending time with them. Kids see happy, health and hunger meters for their plush that lets them know if they’re taking good care of their pals.

All told, the research has so far been experiential and non-scientific. Perhaps something more experimental will come down the pike, maybe after a professor’s child somewhere gets the Webkinz bug, and the scholar/parent decides to research the issue.

Big Corporations Aim at Kid-Friendly MMOs

Forget MySpace. That is like, so 2006. Today’s tweens want to socialize in virtual worlds that are specially tailored for them. Such is the appeal of sites like Club Penguin and Webkinz.

Now comes word from Graham Charlton at e-Consultancy.com over in Britain that Nickelodeon is looking to tap into the trend with a $100 million investment in virtual worlds and multiplayer games.

New offerings will include myNoggin, a subscription educational service for pre-school kids; Nick Gaming Club, a multiplayer subscription service; while the existing Neopets site will be relaunched as Neostudios, with the focus on online virtual worlds.

Charlton states that Webkinz has grown by 13 times its size from a year ago while Club Penguin has tripled in the same period. In the UK, Club Penguin is the third most popular children’s site, and the third most popular gaming site behind RuneScape and Miniclip.

The idea behind Club Penguin is very clever – it provides a safe way for children to get into social networking, as messages between users are carefully monitored by the site.

Finally, Charlton notes that Sony has been talking with Club Penguin about buying it out, for around half a billion dollars.

So, now that Nick and Sony are looking to jump into the kid MMO fray with multi-million dollar efforts, will there be additional educational efforts any time soon? The myNoggin effort sounds very interesting, and I’ll be looking forward to checking it out. I hope that additional educational efforts expand beyond preschool. Surely Scholastic or one of the other major publishers would like to get in on this.

Funding Models and Educational Uses of Virtual Worlds

First came the monthly subscription fee. The most successful MMORPG to date, World of Warcraft, follows this model. Subscribers pay around $15/month for the right to use their characters within the world. This was followed by the free to try, pay for advanced features model. This is the tack taken by Club Penguin, and seemed to work well for younger audiences. Anybody can enter the world and play, but to keep property and accumulate virtual stuff, they have to pay a modest amount, say $5/month.

Second Life took the tack of offering free access, but sells virtual real estate in their world (I know, “virtual” real estate seems like an oxymoron). Companies like IBM have bought private “islands” for online meetings and sales, and pay rent for the privilege.

Webkinz, as I’ve mentioned here, gives buyers of its toy plush animals in RL a code which unlocks free access in their virtual world. This has been an extraordinarily successful sales technique for the company.

Now, Wagner James Au over at GigaOm brings news that Mattel’s Barbie Girls virtual online world has signed up 3 million members in its first two months, a rate eclipsing that of WoW when it started out. This, despite the fact Barbie Girls World remains in beta for the moment. Au mentions several “child-centric” MMOs and points out none of them are primarily subscription-based, but rather subsist mostly on selling virtual items or advertising streams.

I indicated previously there are several differences between WoW and SL, and that Second Life is much more conducive to educational appropriation than WoW. Karl Kapp commented on that blog entry, and said expecting students to pay an additional $15/month in order to participate was probably too much to ask. Certainly, the new approaches of these highly successful virtual worlds that don’t rely as heavily on subscription revenue seems to back up his assertion.

Club Penguin and Webkinz Receive Coverage

Two AP stories over the weekend gave several inches of news type to Club Penguin and Webkinz, two online 3-D virtual worlds aimed at kids. The first was written by Anick Jesdanun, and focused more on Club Penguin. The site offers free access, with $5/month premium features. Children use penguin avatars to navigate and play games. Both Club Penguin and Webkinz restrict the chat features of avatars to prevent poor behavior and ease parental concerns.

Two researchers were brought up in the first article. Peggy Meszaros, a professor of human development at Virginia Tech, and Peter Grunwald, no affiliation given. Both suggested parental supervision, especially at younger ages, is important to maintain healthy balance and responsibility on the sites.

Jane Healy, author of Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children’s Minds – for Better and Worse, was much more critical of the sites. She claimed the sites are steering children toward consumer lifestyles.

The second story was by Matthew Barakat, and focused exclusively on Webkinz, mostly through the eyes of Barakat’s six year old son. Webkinz is a twist on the old cheap plush toy sales technique. Previous generations familiar with Cabbage Patch dolls and Beanie Babies will recognize Webkinz plush toys as a 21st Century twist on previous collectible trends. Each Webkinz product has a code allowing a year’s play on the Webkinz site. Barakat says that additional credits can be earned by playing games on the site, but it is easier to just buy another doll for $15. This has led to sell-outs of the dolls in many places.

Barakat doesn’t interview any researchers, but he says he thinks his son is learning some important lessons on the site, including money management and other responsibilities.

References

Barakat, M. (2007, July 12). Review: Webkinz site not just for kids. [Online]. Available: http://fe15.news.sp1.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070712/
ap_on_hi_te/tech_test_webkinz;_ylt=Aqqvj0kFaOh2ZdDNOmFTLw9j24cA

Jesdanun, A. (2007, July 13). Sites introduce preteens to networking. [Online]. Available: http://fe15.news.sp1.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070713/
ap_on_hi_te/social_networking_tweens;_ylt=AlcBUnLIP_3kfNb5.Ne26XFj24cA