The Internet and Technology Examiner was sponsored to attend The 2010 Sandbox Summit at MIT, thanks to 360 Public Relations.
The show's motto, "iPlay, You Play, Wii Play" says it all. Claire Green and Wendy Smolen, Co-Founders of Sandbox Summit explain it as; "....the ways and means of play have changed. Today, children play across platforms. They move seamlessly from physical playrooms to virtual ones....."
The venue, MIT was a perfect pick for this. Where else would you want to discuss technology and how it relates to and shapes our children, but one of the #1 technology institutions in the world ?
There were several discussions and workshops through out day one. One discussion that stood out to us, was the panel discussion of "Real toys for an increasingly virtual world.", which involved Scot Osterweil the Creative Director of the MIT Education Arcade, Prof. Marina Bers, PhD., Barry Kudrowitz, Instructor of Toy Product Design MIT and Stacey Matthias, Owner of the Insight Research Group.
The discussion was on toys past and present. A "Toy" was defined (by the panel) as; "anything that helps a child learn, think, fight or be amused." An additional comment was added, citing that a toy is not a toy if it is short lived. It was also mentioned that we are not yet at the true technical era for children. This is not conjecture. If you look at the top 50 Best selling toys on Amazon, you will notice only 1 toy in the top 50 (a leap frog product) is of a technical nature. Simplicity is what kids want, and it is proven by having Zany Bands through out the top 100.
Another highlight of the summit was meeting Amy DiSantis, Marketing Manager for vtech Electronics. Why was that exciting ? Well we were introduced to two soon to be released products; the V.Reader Animated E-Book system and the MobiGo Touch Learning System. Both will be reviewed here in the up coming weeks. In the mean time, learn about them at www.vtechkids.com.
We also met Keri Stelmack, Program Coordinator at Parents Choice, which does a lot of reviews on children's media.
One other executive met was from a well known animation firm who enlightened us about some upcoming apps and releases. Hold your breath, these will be too cool for school.
All in all, the Sandbox Summit was not only enlightening, but from an old school geeks perspective, just downright "wicked cool."
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