A place called childhood

Abstract

Today, children can interact with characters in ancient fables or new original poetry. With computer tools they can wander through ani- mated reference materials that explain the sci- entific principles behind a zipper or a nuclear reactor. With computer games they can go out in space, back in time, or across the world and learn facts about science, history, and geogra- phy. Children can also be authors of their own multimedia experiences. They can create slide shows that feature the growth of a plant, music videos that animate the parts of the body, or interactive simulations that take them back to the time of the Civil War. The games children play, the stories they read and create, and even the people they meet, all have changed thanks to new multimedia computer environments. As parents and adults, we used to take for granted that we understood what a young child meant when he or she said, “Read me a book,’’ or “Let’s play a game,’’ or “Look what I made.’’ Now, these simple excla- mations can mean anything from “Let’s read a Living Book’’ [e.g., Grandma and Me or Arthur’s Teacher Trouble] to “Let’s play a game of Carmen Sandiego Jr. Detective’’ to “Look what I’ve made with HyperStudio [a commer- cial multimedia authoring tool for children].’’ Even when children say, “Nice to meet you,’’ they could be introducing themselves on the World Wide Web or in an email message.