Study Explores What Kids Want, Expect from the Internet and Computers
RSSBy Lauren Barack
What would you like your computer or the Internet to do that it can't do right now? That was a question posed to 200 kids aged 12 and under from around the globe for the study, "Children's Future Requests For Computers & The Internet." "What I found most interesting is how seamlessly kids think about the interaction between the online world and the physical world," says Steve Mushkin, founder and president of the research consulting firm Latitude, which conducted the study and asked respondents to also draw their answers. "It tells us the divide between the digital and physical device is disappearing." For instance, a nine-year-old boy from Perth, Australia, wanted to use his computer to teleport to another location. He was one of the nearly 4 in 10 kids who imagined "immersive experiences of physical spaces," such as real or simulated travel or devices that assisted physical activities, like playing sports. Nine percent of kids explicitly wanted to see 3D effects, including an 11-year-old girl from Copenhagen, Denmark who imagined "the computer becomes 3-dimensional and, instead of a keyboard, it's controlled by voice." Mushkin believes we need to hear from today's youth because, for starters, they'll be our future inventors. But we also can glean from their ideas ways to better reach them, particularly in an educational setting. Children who see technology as a tool that moves with them between the physical and the virtual will expect any digital learning device, program, and media to flow easily within these worlds as well. And those in education need to pay attention, says Mushkin. "This obviously can help technology companies, educational organizations, schools, and teachers who are working and designing for kids to push things a little further," he says. "So today, you want to have experiences be as real and immersive as possible. It doesn't have to be literally what the kids requested." "Today you don't have technology that literally lets you feel something through a screen," says Mushkin. "But you can still have first-person experiences." This article originally appeared in the newsletter Extra Helping. Go here to subscribe.
photos by: Select submissions from Latitude's study, "Children's Future Requests for Computers and the Internet"
Kids also expressed a desire to interact with technology more intuitively. A seven-year-old girl in Barcelona, for example, wanted to touch the screen and feel and move objects, and a 12-year-old girl in Mumbai, India, hoped for an interface that allows users to search images by drawing their requests. Of those kids who specified an interface, only half suggested the traditional keyboard/mouse configuration, while 20 percent requested verbal/auditory controls, and another 15 percent wanted touch screen interfaces.
Researchers suggested educators turn to existing tools that offer a learning experience where the physical world and technology mesh. For example, using sites like Nickelodeon's The Big Help and Recycle Bank, which give real-world rewards for "eco-friendly actions." Or using the programming language Scratch from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to help students "flex their mastery of advanced skills" and build their own games. These play to the way children see technology—as interactive, experiential tools—that flows easily within all facets of their lives.
