9. Toys that interact
with touch screen apps are increasingly sophisticated and on the rise.
I was thinking about this relative to my own younger cousins
and nephews. Visiting them over the Christmas holidays I got a glimpse at the
vast number of toys they were expecting their parents to buy so they could continue
their game play. An example of this is Skylanders where the publisher
Activision continually brings out new toy figures which must be purchased to
unlock more interactivity with the game. As the toys have a distinct role in
the game there is very little imaginative play with them outside of the app or
game. My cousin who is in primary school has at least 40 of these toys which
sit in a box next to the TV until they have their turn to be played with. These
toys are expensive as with most of the interactive toys that interact with
touch screens. I shudder to think how
much is being spent on this one game alone. I guess all generations have gone
through collectables: Pokémon cards, tazos, tamagotchis to name a couple in my
time. However these new collectables are more sophisticated and with that comes
a larger price tag.
Can the library offer access to these types of interactive
media? I know some libraries offer DVDs and games for hire and other even have
a toy section, however a game like Skylanders would probably be outside the
budget of most libraries. Libraries could probably offer the loan of ebook apps
that comes with one or two small toys to be used with it but probably not offer
a large range of toys associated with one app. I think the teacher librarian
needs to be a little more involved in investigating children’s trends, when
students are talking about a new online game at school I like to go home and
play it myself to find out what they like about it. It may help to identify
whether an app is a flash in pan or one that will be around for a couple of
years and worth the investment.
Friedlander, A. (November 26, 2013) Ten Trends in Interactive Media for Children from Dust or Magic,
Retrieved from
http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2013/ten-trends-in-interactive-media-for-children-from-dust-or-magic/
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