Sand in my shoes: Take-aways from the Sandbox Summit

Last Wednesday in New York City about 250 people gathered for the latest installment of The Sandbox Summit, a series of conversations about how technology is changing the nature of kids' play. Here are a few notes on what I took away with me that day -- some virtual sand in my shoes, you might say.

Gears engaged by Google
The morning started with Andy Berndt, managing director for Google Creative Lab, who gave the keynote. I missed my early morning train from D.C. (victim of a lost cabbie), and, alas, the first part of his remarks. But I heard that it hinged on bike parts -- the power of interchangeable parts and toys that let kids build, fix, rebuild and create. Amy Kraft, a freelance educational media producer, took notes and offers a great take on her new blog, Media Macaroni. Check it out.

I did catch, however, one of the last questions that Berndt answered, which was, What are your kids watching on TV? His answer: "Not terribly much."

"Scratching" the surface of toy delight and disappointment
Mitch Resnick of M.I.T. talked about Scratch, a programming tool for kids that uses colorful, easy-to-understand graphics to help them build animations and games. It was opened about a year ago and the Web site now showcases more than 200,000 projects, Resnick said. He argued that simply talking about technology "as a uniform category" doesn't help when considering new dimensions of toys. "I ask, will this enable the children to explore?" he said. "Sadly, when I go into the toy store, the vast majority don't do that."

Michael McNally, brand relations director at LEGO Systems, said he thought parents "abdicate responsibility" for choosing good toys, listening instead to "whatever the commercials on television tell them." He described how he had once talked his daughter down from her initial excitement for a toy with sparkly packaging. "I want this! I want this!" she exclaimed. "What does it do?" McNally asked. When looked more closely and realized that she didn't really know, she put the package back on the shelf and selected a jigsaw puzzle instead.

Nancy Shulman, director of the 92nd Street Y Nursery School, provided this rule of thumb for parents: "If you can't play with it in at least three ways, leave it behind."

Survey shows gender-based and solitary play
Boys want toys that spark challenges and "winning." Girls want toys that allow them to play pretend and foster relationships. That's the (stereotypically troubling) word from Harris Interactive, which released new survey results from 1353 children over 8 years old who agreed to participate in Harris Interactive's online research panel.

When children were asked, "How do you usually play with your favorite toy?" a commanding majority said they played alone, with 84 percent of girls and 78 percent of boys choosing to answer "by myself" rather than with parents, friends, siblings, grandparents or someone else.

This mark of solitary activity left some in the audience scratching their heads, wondering whether this is a sign of isolation or simply dependent on the way children interpreted the question. Videogames still come out near or at the top in ranks of favorite toys -- and arguments can be made that videogames can be both solitary and social activities. (A Pew report last week, for example, showed that teenagers who play videogames -- which is nearly all teens -- are often playing with other people.)

Quality toys: 6 principles and 10 tips
Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, a developmental psychologist at Temple University, suggested that today's companies (tech or not) should consider these principles that come out of social science research on what children need. Toy developers, she said, should create toys that:

• Support active, not passive, learning
• Are flexible
• Invite social play
• Spark innovation and imagination
• Make it real
• Don't promise what they can't deliver (i.e., "brain growth")

Carly Shuler, a fellow at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, and Carla E. Fisher, an educational technologist, presented "10 tips for developing quality toys", and the first several tidbits advocated applying child-development principles and taking the time to read the research and do some solid tracking and observation on how children interact.

For the full 10 tips, see the PDF of their presentation and Scott Traylor's helpful analysis at 360Blog.

Show and tell: the quick pitches
A few companies evidently showed enough creative pluck to be selected to show their stuff at the end of the summit. They included: Dizzywood, Huru Himi, kidthing, NextNewNetworks, and Sabi Games. The last project to take the stage? The new SesameStreet.org, with special guest Rosita.