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Technology: Do Kids Need More or Less?

Moderator: Alan Gershenfeld
Sara DeWitt Rachel Schiff MBA '05 Wendy Bronfin: April 28, 2011; Running Time: 0:49:10

About the Lecture

About the Lecture

The ultimate questions for this Sandbox 2011 panel, posed by moderator Alan Gershenfeld, are “Where is technology not working? When is technology not the answer?” That’s a bold agenda for a panel of children’s media creators and a roomful of other producers in the industry, from Sesame Workshop, WGBH, 360 Kid, and elsewhere. From the panel’s energetic presentations emerges an unapologetic enthusiasm for more technology engagement and richer media experiences for kids – generally in the form of “transmedia,” connecting stories and personalities across platforms. The “less” side of the panel’s title comes back only briefly in a few questions at the end.

The mantra at PBS Kids, says Sara DeWitt, is that “every technology is a new opportunity for learning.” Given the popular television characters in the PBS stable, that mantra translates to building online games, mobile games, and apps around well-known figures like Martha (the eponymous Speaking dog) and the Kratt Brothers. The U.S. Department of Education has funded transmedia research at PBS, so studies are underway on the impact of games such as “Prankster Planet,” using assets from "The Electric Company" television series. PBS wants to find out how easily kids move between media platforms, and whether transmedia really contributes to learning.

With a breathless sports video, Rachel Schiff introduces Microsoft’s Kinect, which harnesses body motion as the game controller. Why is more of this technology good for kids? Kinect gets couch potatoes up and moving; it can bring people together, since the system recognizes you as soon as you walk in the room; and it can spur children to undertake sports and other activities in the real world – transmedia of a different sort.

At the other end of the activity spectrum,
Wendy Bronfin shows off digital picture books created for the Barnes & Noble Nook Color. In response to parents’ concerns about “empty calorie screen time,” the Nook invites e-reading, along with using Android apps and the ability to view videos on the Web.

Gershenfeld’s new company serves students eager to design their own games. One of the highlights here is a video showcasing the twelve 5th – 8th grade winners of the White House-sponsored National STEM Videogame Challenge.

About the “less” side of the debate: Gershenfeld wonders when engagement becomes addiction, and whether technology can help discourage its own over-use. The burden is mostly on parents, to share media experiences with their children – and to make sure the kids get outside sometimes.

Lecture Details

Location: Bartos Theater

“I’ve heard that more kids know how to use a browser than how to ride a bike. And I felt like this is a real opportunity or challenge to say, how can we use some of this technology to inspire other, real-world behavior?”

Sara DeWitt

About the Speakers

Moderator: Alan Gershenfeld

Founder and President, E-Line Media

Alan Gershenfeld is Founder and President of E-Line Media, a publisher of digital entertainment that engages, educates and empowers. Prior to E-Line, he was CEO of netomat, a leader in mobile-web community solutions. Netomat originated as a network-based art project, and was selected as a Technology Pioneer at the 2007 World Economic Forum at Davos. Before netomat, Gershenfeld was member of the executive team that rebuilt game publisher Activision from bankruptcy into an industry leader. As Senior Vice President of Activision Studios, he oversaw titles such as Civilization: Call to Power, Asteroids, Muppet Treasure Island, Spycraft, Pitfall, Zork and Tony Hawk Skateboarding. Before Activision, Gershenfeld worked as a filmmaker and writer with credits on numerous feature films and documentaries. Gershenfeld currently serves on the Board of FilmAid International and on the Advisory Boards of Creative Capital, Global Kids, We Are Family Foundation, Startl and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center (Sesame Workshop). He is also former Chairman of Games for Change.

Sara DeWitt

Vice President, PBS KIDS Interactive

Sara DeWitt oversees day-to-day development of PBS’ Internet sites for kids and families, including the Webby-award winning pbskids.org.

DeWitt has led aggressive strategies to build connected and immersive experiences on PBS’ children’s Web sites. This includes the preschool (pbskids.org) and early elementary (pbskidsgo.org) sites, which serve nearly 85 million video streams monthly, and offer more than 500 activities. She has been instrumental in launching PBS KIDS Island (pbskids.org/read), a literacy-based Web site for families and teachers. She also assists in the development of content on new platforms, including PBS KIDS iPhone apps (pbskids.org/mobile) and PBS KIDS Interactive White Board games (pbskids.org/whiteboard).

Before coming to PBS KIDS, DeWitt worked as a preschool teacher and a management researcher. She studied media habits of children in rural United States for the Stanford University Spencer Project for Youth and Families, and co-authored with Dr. Shirley Brice Heath a study for the Poynter Institute on youth and newspapers. She holds both a BA and an MA in English from Stanford University, and a certificate from Stanford’s Children, Society, and Public Policy program.

Rachel Schiff MBA '05

Senior Program Manager, Microsoft

Rachel Schiff is a Senior Program Manager in Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business (NERD), working on Transmedia experiences. She led outreach for Kodu, a visual programming language creating games on the Xbox and PC. Kodu is designed to be accessible for children as young as 8 and enjoyable for people of all ages. Schiff has worked at Microsoft’s New England R&D campus (NERD) for 3 years. She holds an MBA from MIT Sloan and prior to Microsoft worked as a product manager at The MathWorks.

Wendy Bronfin

Director, Product Management at Barnes & Noble

Wendy Bronfin is the director of the kids’ digital products group at Barnes & Noble.com, where she lead the development and launch of NOOK kids, the first digital reading platform especially designed for children. She and her team have produced hundreds of digital children’s picture books including beloved classics like Go, Dog, Go and The Little Engine That Could, as well as new favorites including Olivia, Fancy Nancy, and Llama Llama Red Pajama.

Prior to joining BN.com, Bronfin was VP of Product Development at Educate Inc., where she developed educational programs for the Hooked on Phonics brand including Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read, Discover Reading, Hooked on Spanish and others. She created a home video series called Hooked on Baby and spearheaded the redesign of the PBS television series Reading Rainbow.

She has also worked across a spectrum of media, beginning with entertainment titles for Nintendo and PlayStation consoles. She then designed and developed Web sites for pre-teens, including Scholastic’s Baby-sitters Club and National Geographic. Bronfin also served as Director of New Business Development and a Senior Producer at Children’s Television Workshop where she produced award-winning CD ROMs and interactive toys.

Moderator

Alan Gershenfeld

Gershenfeld's E-Line profile

Speakers

About the Host

About the Host

The Education Arcade

The Education Arcade explores games that promote learning through authentic and engaging play. TEA's research and development projects focus both on the learning that naturally occurs in popular commercial games, and on the design of games that more vigorously address the educational needs of players.