Technology and Kids

Technology has come a long way. What was once in hallowed research facilities is today easily accessed on everyday devices we use. There's technology in our appliances, transport, homes, entertainment, medical devices and even the toys kids use. When personal computers came into homes, digital games were designed for kids. With franchising growing into a big industry, characters from movies were used to design games. Apart from merchandising, this was another way to popularize their characters. One of the most successful science games is based on the characters from the movie How To Train Your Dragon. 

Logan ditched school today by viviandnguyen

As the price of technology dropped and the interest in technology grew among parents and kids, it entered the domain of toys. One of the recent additions of technology has been weaving in the VR component into a roller coaster ride. The world's first roller coaster ride was introduced in Malaysia's Legoland. It's interesting to note that a 'reality mode' is offered where one can ride the roller coaster without the headset, but the kids love the headset where as they physically go up and down a roller coaster they visually see other virtual worlds which are in sync with every twist and turn. They meet characters completely removed from reality like a pharaoh, a wizard and even a pirate, but then that is the whole point of VR.

Adding elements

Roller coasters were built to entertain kids in the outdoors. Today other elements like VR are added to make a roller coaster even more entertaining. It's the same in toys. There are the Hexbugs which are toy bugs with electronics to move. Kids used to collect real bugs and slowly they moved to plastic ones. Now they still collect bugs, but it has sophisticated electronics to introduce a variety of movement. 

Kids who had pets moved to digital pets in the 90s. Many of these players stayed with the pets and today some of the older games are all set to make a comeback. Better technology has improved graphics delivery. 

Board games like Scrabble too have a digital avatar thanks to technology. One of them is called Scrabble Flash. Other than this, there is a wide variety of word games available for word game addicts. 

Even math has been clubbed with the digital element to make it more interesting and entertaining for kids. Teachers have gamified many of the math concepts to make it more interesting for kids. Rewards, competitions and a self-driven pace are some of the elements common to all gamification. In fact many math teachers are learning gamifying to create their own content for their students. 

Where it's headed

Technology is always morphing, and its for the users to learn and harness it for their own benefit. In this scenario, one must never forget that the content is more important that the technology delivering it.