I felt the same way. Here's the paragraph that I found most useful:
After watching kids play with more than 100 different types of toy, the researchers concluded that simple, open-ended, non-realistic toys with multiple parts, like a random assortment of Lego, inspired the highest-quality play. While engaged with such toys, children were “more likely to be creative, engage in problem solving, interact with their peers, and use language,” the researchers wrote. Electronic toys, however, tended to limit kids’ play: “A simple wooden cash register in our study inspired children to engage in lots of conversations related to buying and selling – but a plastic cash register that produced sounds when buttons were pushed mostly inspired children to just push the buttons repeatedly.”
In that sense I think there's a strong parallel with household computing: a PC in the 80s was far closer to the wooden cash register than a tablet/phone of the 20s. (which mostly inspire adults to just scroll down repeatedly?)
Comments
I felt the same way. Here's the paragraph that I found most useful:
After watching kids play with more than 100 different types of toy, the researchers concluded that simple, open-ended, non-realistic toys with multiple parts, like a random assortment of Lego, inspired the highest-quality play. While engaged with such toys, children were “more likely to be creative, engage in problem solving, interact with their peers, and use language,” the researchers wrote. Electronic toys, however, tended to limit kids’ play: “A simple wooden cash register in our study inspired children to engage in lots of conversations related to buying and selling – but a plastic cash register that produced sounds when buttons were pushed mostly inspired children to just push the buttons repeatedly.”
In that sense I think there's a strong parallel with household computing: a PC in the 80s was far closer to the wooden cash register than a tablet/phone of the 20s. (which mostly inspire adults to just scroll down repeatedly?)