November 30, 2016 The Skanner Page 9
News
Get Ready to Build! Hands-on Toys That Teach are Hot
New toys work to teach children through tactile play, not screen time
Some of the drive for tech in toys
comes from parents who believe that
the younger their kids are exposed to
technology, the more prepared they
will be for a lucrative career someday.
But Sobel-Lojeski said Albert Ein-
stein came up with breakthroughs
without ever touching a computer, let
alone tech toys at a young age.
“We can easily be tricked into think-
ing that all this stuff is going to make
our kids more intelligent or better
scientists and that’s just not true,” she
said.
NEW YORK — Toys that teach aren’t
a new thing, but a growing number are
calling for kids to build with blocks, cir-
cuits or everyday items before reach-
ing for a tablet screen.
Play is how kids learn about the
world around them, whether it’s a tod-
dler throwing a ball or teens playing
video games. It’s about seeing how
things work and what happens when
they do something. And over the years,
toys have gotten more high tech to keep
screen-obsessed children engaged with
such play.
But there’s growing worry among
parents and educators that toys are
moving too far in that direction. Educa-
tional toys that have a math and science
bent — marketed under the umbrella
of STEM — are now trying to get back
to the basics: less screen time, more
hands-on activities.
“When kids use their hands, your
outcomes are much higher,” said Pra-
mod Sharma, CEO of one such toy com-
pany, Osmo. “It’s very different than if
they’re just staring at a screen watch-
ing TV.”
This photo provided by Anki shows the Cozmo Memory Match game. Whether you’re looking for something
educational or a toy that’s just for fun, there are a lot of choices for the holidays. New toys include little
robot friends full of personality and magnetic blocks that snap together to teach the basics of computer
programming.
segments that each tells the caterpillar
to do something different, such as “turn
left” or “play sound.”
“I’m not sure that kids are asking for
it, or that their parents just want their
‘The way the world comes to us is actually
through tactile activities, so tactile toys where
we build stuff are incredible helpful’
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GOOD, BUT POPULAR?
Sobel-Lojeski said toys are most ed-
ucational when kids can learn how
things work by building. But Juli Len-
nett, a toy industry analyst at NPD, said
such toys are rarely on kids’ wish lists.
On the other hand, tech toys that
have subtle educational value, but ar-
en’t specifically marketed as such, can
be strong sellers. Lennett cites Fish-
er-Price’s Think & Learn Code-a-Pillar,
which introduces basic coding con-
cepts by letting preschoolers assemble
TECH HAS ITS LIMITS
Achinger’s 3-year-old son will be get-
ting an iPad this year. She said she isn’t
against screen time, but believes par-
ents need to keep an eye on what their
kids are watching and playing. She said
her older son has been playing creative
games such as “Minecraft” for a few
years.
“We try to keep it educational,” Ach-
inger said. “I really think those kinds of
games get their imaginations going as
they create their own worlds.”
The American Academy of Pediat-
rics recently revised its guidelines to
shift the emphasis away from banning
screen time and toward balancing
high-quality content with non-screen
activities.
That doesn’t mean every toy with a
screen is educational. Barbie has her
own smart home in the form of the
voice-activated and Wi-Fi-connected
Hello Dreamhouse. And new versions
ews •
ev
LEARN BY BUILDING
Educators agree that whether you’re
talking about a toddler playing with
blocks, or a teen building a computer
from scratch, the act of putting some-
thing together helps educational con-
cepts sink in.
“The way the world comes to us is
actually through tactile activities, so
tactile toys where we build stuff are
incredible helpful,” said Karen So-
bel-Lojeski, who studies the effects of
technology on children’s brain devel-
opment at Stony Brook University on
Long Island, New York.
Bloxels attempts to bridge the physi-
cal and the digital. Kids build their own
video games by putting plastic blocks
in a special tray, instead of writing out
code. Using a phone or tablet’s camera,
an app transforms the shapes created
with the blocks into digital characters
and scenery.
Makey Makey, a startup founded by a
pair of MIT students, asks kids to come
up with their own electronic creations
by combining software, circuits and ev-
eryday items like bananas and dough-
nuts.
kids to go to Harvard, but it’s definitely
one of the top-selling toys this holiday,”
Lennett said.
Tracy Achinger, a former automotive
engineer in Shelby Township, Michi-
gan, said her 8-year-old son got inter-
ested in coding after starting computer
programing classes this year. So for
Christmas, she’s buying him an Ozo-
bot, a golf ball-sized robot that kids can
program by drawing different colored
lines or using a kid-friendly, block-
based programing language.
nt •
With Osmo, kids learn everything
from spelling to coding not by touch-
ing a screen, but by snapping together
magnetic blocks. A screen is still part
of it; an image is beamed onto an iPad
through its camera. But the idea is to
have kids learn first with their hands,
then see their creation move to the
screen.
me
“
PHOTO BY ANKI VIA AP
By BREE FOWLER
AP Technology Writer
of Elmo, Furby and the Cabbage Patch
Kids have apps, which Lennett said are
often more about branding than learn-
ing.
Sobel-Lojeski said slapping an app on
a previously low-tech toy can backfire.
Instead of letting the child imagine how
a particular toy would talk or behave,
the app fills in those holes.
“It cuts the child off from play that
is much more important for develop-
ment,” she said.
RESIST THE SCREEN
Companies that make computers for
kids also see the value in a construction
element.
Kano shows kids how to build their
own computers in a kid-friendly story-
book format.
Kano co-founder Alex Klein said he
had to resist suggestions to just put
Kano into app form and skip the com-
puter construction all together. He said
the act of building a computer was key
because it “created a huge sense of en-
ergy and momentum for what followed
on screen.”
But Klein said screens aren’t going
away anytime soon.
“You can’t compete with screens with
kids,” he said. “So, for us it’s not about
trying to push against what this next
generation thinks is good or likes. It’s
about providing a new angle on it that’s
more creative.”
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