Joyce Valenza’s Neverending Search

This time of year I call upon the experts at Children’s Technology Review to share their top picks for high-tech holiday giving. Warren Buckleitner, editor of CTR, described several sure-fire titles and shared major trends.

Buckleitner noted this year’s major trends. “Television is becoming more active, it is becoming a monitor. We are seeing more interactive DVDs, and TV toys–toys that plug into your television’s RCA jack.”

Buckleitner believes that PC software may have “bottomed out. ”The number of tiles has certainly decreased. We saw maybe 100 good titles this year. Total. On the video game side, we saw maybe 300 or 400.”

Also, the next generation of video game consules is looming. “With high definition television, we will see the shift toward living room as the computing family area,” says Buckleitner. “And there’s a brand new horse in the pasture. Macdonald’s recently announced that kids can go into any Macdonald’s Restaurant and get online with their Nintendo DS.”

Buckleitner mentioned the growing popularity of multiplayer games and wireless technology. He happily pointed to the fact that “we’re seeing games that encourage children to collaborate with each other rather than fight each other.” As an educator Buckleitner believes in this collaborative play is important in developing the critical skills students “will use in any business setting down the road.”

Peripherals, movie editing and digital photography are within reach of many more people.

And now, CTR’s best picks:

corefx Three Level “Somebody finally listened to the masses and made a reasonably priced graphics program for the rest of us,” says CTR’s review. The creativity software allows users to draw, paint, animate, and edit photos. The drawing palate offers 12 types of art tools, in any color or tip size. Parents and teachers may simplify the menus for younger users. Buckleitner notes, “Every feature on our creativity wish list was covered.” And he adds, “advanced users will find features even Photoshop doesn’t even have.”

Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town, was well liked by CTR’s girl testers because of the lead female character. The exploration game lets you run and develop your own farm. Players find tools, trade, ride ponies, raise crops, meet a husband, and start families. The trading economy requires thinking skills. Other Harvest Moon titles, Save the Homeland and Another Wonderful Life, also farm simulations, were highly rated by CTR.

Karaoke Revolution Volume 3 This third volume of the popular singing game scores players on the pitch of their voice. This time around there’s a duet mode, requiring a second microphone. The game includes 35 new songs, including I Got You Babe, Oops!…I Did it Again, and Twist and Shout. Buckleitner warns, “It won’t make a bad singer sound good. Nothing will.”

Kirby: Canvas Curse teaches logic and problem solving as players move through a series of innovative mazes. Tap Kirby with the stylus and he blasts through walls; tap enemies to stun them; tap rocks to break them up. Players are rewarded with mini-games–a mine-cart race, pinball-type game, and a drawing game.

LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game
This exploration adventure features LEGO Star Wars characters, and is based on Revenge of the Sith. Buckleitner said his testers “went nuts about it.” He appreciates its unique “drop-in, drop-out, cooperative problem-solving style. Because each player has different abilities, working together is critical. “It’s like you and a friend exploring a dark cave, but only your friend has the flashlight. Discussion is mandatory.”

Mario Superstar Baseball Buckleitner calls this one “a powerful baseball simulation that makes it easy for any member of the family, young or old, to bat and pitch through nine innings of competitive baseball.” It contains assorted four player minigames and fun parodies of great moments in baseball. Players create teams choosing favorite Mario characters and compete against other teams to recruit players by completing in-game challenges. Other Nintendo other sports titles include Mario Golf, Mario Tennis and Mario Kart: Double Dash.

Nancy Drew: Secret of the Old Clock Set in 1930 in a small farm town, Buckleitner calls this who-done-it adventure “one of the best in the series” and points to its “rich, detailed plot” with dozens of logic puzzles and challenges. The graphics and sounds give this game a Myst-like quality. The game is sprinkled with Nancy Drew trivia and the rich content includes 153 different events and a variety of thoughtful games. Warning—these activities require patient sleuthing and maybe some advice.

Nintendogs CTR promises “even cat lovers will like this easy to use virtual pet game, featuring realistic animated dogs who respond to touch (petting with the stylus) and voice commands.” There are different Nintendogs cartridges which feature up to 15 different dog breeds. “Like real dogs, the virtual ones want to socialize (and have puppies!),” says the CTR review.

Scooby-Doo: Unmasked Buckleitner compares this game to stepping inside the Scooby-Doo cartoon. Players collect enough Scooby Snacks, keep monsters at bay, and attempt to free Fred’s cousin. The CTR calls this “a good starter game for younger children.”

Yoshi Topsy-Turvy This “tilting platformer” game has children tilt their GBA from side to side to solve puzzles and collect items like coins, apples, and hearts in order to free Yoshi’s island from the storybook in which is imprisoned. CTR notes, “the tilt feature sparks new life into the beaten dead horse of 2D platforming.”

Leapster Learning Game System Now there are two Leapster systems Leapster Basic and the newer, more compact Leapster L-Max (Learning to the Max), which works with your television with a cable and RCA plugs. My young tester loved the Thomas & Friends and the I-Spy cartridges; CTR recommends Math Missions. Other titles include: Dora the Explorer Wildlife Rescue and Spiderman.

Fisher-Price’s Read with Me DVD! presents classic children’s literature and enhances it with educational games and reading skill support. The control system interacts with your DVD player and monitor. My testers thoroughly enjoyed the stories, though they struggled a little with the game controls.

Food-Force is a free downloadable simulation designed to promote the activities of the UN’s World Food Program (WFP). Buckleitner says “it is fun enough to play at home and educational enough for the science and social studies classroom.” Players assume the role of a rookie aid worker on the fictitious island where they face six simulated missions. The enemy is time as players rush to help a starving population.

EyeToy: Play 2 Designed Sony’s motion-sensing PS2 EyeToy camera, this disk contains 12 party games for 1-4 players. You can enter a homerun derby, play table tennis, or prepare a meal as a master chef. CTR calls it “a wonderful game for a group of players.

Of course, Sims fans will want the new University Expansion Pack. Send your Sims to college where they can build dorms, sororities and fraternities, choose majors, play pranks, and more. CTR testers liked the new hairstyle options and band equipment. Buckleitner also recommended Sims2 for Console. “The console versions are designed to work with the strengths of each platform. In the XBox, PS2 and GameCube versions, there is two player split screen co-op mode, which is very clever; much liked by our testers. The look and themes are nearly identical to the PC version.” Parental warning: Sims tend to involve themselves in adult activities and violence though no explicit graphics are shown. These games are rated ESRB Teen.

Remember that Children’s Technology Review makes a great gift for parents and teachers. Find subscription information at: http://www.childrenssoftware.com

Purchasing Information
corefx Three Level Win 98, Win XP, Core Learning, Ltd, www.core-learning.com Ages 5 and up, $54.95
EyeToy: Play 2 PS2, Sony Computer Entertainment, http://www.sce.com, Ages 6 and up, $45.95
Food-Force Win 98, Win XP, Mac, United Nations World Food Programme www.food-force.com Ages 8 to 13, free
Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town Game Boy Advance Natsume www.natsume.com Ages 6 and up, $29.99
Karaoke Revolution Volume 3 PS2
Kirby: Canvas Curse Nintendo DS Nintendo www.nintendo.com , Ages 6 and up, $35
Leapster Educational Games, Leapster www.leapfrog.com Ages 6-8 Leapster System $69.99, L-Max $99.99, games from $19.99 to $24.95
LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game Win XP, PlayStation 2, Xbox www.eidos.com $40 console, $30 PC & GBA, Ages 5 through adult
Mario Superstar Baseball GameCube, Nintendo www.nintendo.com Ages 6 and up, $49.99
Nancy Drew: Secret of the Old Clock Win 98, Win XP Her Interactive, www.herinteractive.com Ages 10 and up $19.99
Nintendogs Nintendo DS www.nintendo.com Ages 5 and up, $30
Read With Me DVD! Fisher-Price, Scholastic, www.fisher-price.com, Ages 3-7, $34.99, Titles $14.99
Scooby-Doo: Unmasked PS2, Xbox, GameCube, GBA and DS, THQ www.thq.com Ages 5 and up.$29.99
Sims: University Expansion Pack, Windows, Electronic Arts www.ea.com Ages 13 and up $34.99
Yoshi Topsy-Turvy Game Boy Advance Nintendo www.nintendo.com Ages 5 and up, $29.99

Nearly every week I face a video crisis at school, either a film gets lost or two teachers are ready to duke it out over the best VHS tape or DVD about colonial history or photosynthesis. Though I’d happily order additional copies, or borrow titles from other schools, that kind of wait is not practical in a true video emergency.

Digital delivery is now a practical solution for these video emergencies. A variety of vendors now make it easy for teachers to more elegantly bring engaging instructional video into our classrooms. Several teachers can show a film simultaneously. No more booking or tracking down the media cart, no DVD or VHS players to share or shelve or store. With a computer, a projector, and a set of speakers, the classroom teacher can access a wide variety of videos directly from the Web, or from a dedicated server.

These services allow teachers the flexibility to show an entire film, a clip, or a selection of clips, with opportunities to stop at any point for discussion. Teachers may create playlists and easily incorporate clips into lessons. Many of these services offer rich curriculum around their video resources.  

The solutions come in two flavors. Streaming video solutions allow users to view video on demand over the Internet in a real-time stream, using such applications as Real-Media Player, QuickTime Player, and Windows Media Player. Streaming requires a fairly robust, high speed network, streaming video. During periods of heavy use, streaming may slow networks.  Schools get around the problem by downloading clips during quieter times for showing later. If desktop or server storage is a problem, some services allow downloading and burning video to CD or DVD.  The other solution is server-based, where the media collection resides locally and is accessed over an intranet, reserving limited bandwidth for other types of online activities.

Among the growing number of options for educators are these four major players:

Unitedstreaming.com (http://www.unitedstreaming.com) from Discovery Education, can either be streamed via the Internet or through locally hosted video servers, to ensure automatic updates of locally hosted content during off-peak hours. Users search the database by keywords, subject area, grade level, and state curriculum standards and access a database of more than 4,000 video titles and more than 40,000 video clips.  An average of 300-400 new video titles are added annually. The product also offers state curriculum standards, teachers’ guides, lesson plans, quizzes, and a gallery of clipart and images.  Videos come from such sources as Weston Woods, Discovery School, Environmental Media, Rainbow Educational Media, and others. Teachers may use playlists to bookmark video clips for later use or to share with colleagues across the school or the district. Schools have the option to add their own content, and make it searchable and available for local users only. Discovery Education recently announced a partnership with CDW-G to offer customized video servers to school districts nationwide.

Classroom Content Click!, or CCC (http://www.ndmccc.com/curriculum/index.jsp) by New Dimension Media, offers high-quality, curriculum-specific programming that has been featured on Discovery Channel,  PBS,  History Channel and other stations. Streaming teacher segments help emphasize key concepts. Teacher guides, student activities, and assessments of comprehension accompany each program. Plato Learning has correlated each program to state standards. The system is designed to work either off a server on a local or wide area network or may streamed over the Internet.  CCC can be converted to Internet streaming when a school’s bandwidth improves. Users can export images and clips from programs. CCC adds hundreds of new programs each year, combining its original programming with videos from its partners–Agency for Instructional Technology, Phoenix/BFA/Coronet, Disney Educational Productions, KCET, Los Angeles and PBS NATURE, newsreels from the Hearst Archives, Portrait of a Nation, The Toy Castle, and others. Users can customize the system by adding their own local content. New Dimension Media offers teacher training for CCC.

Launched in January, PowerMediaPlus.com (http://www.powermediaplus.com) is a result of the 2004 merger of well known educational media companies CLEARVUE & SVE.  The service offers a choice of streaming or locally-based delivery and the ability to customize delivery solutions.  It includes 2400 segmented, standards-aligned videos, 4000 audio files, as well as photographs, and print resources. Users may build their collections with locally developed content. Video may be streamed at two different sizes to accommodate bandwidth issues. The collection crosses subject areas and includes content by Weston Woods, Globe Trekker, Goldhil’s Just the Facts Series, the Standard Deviants and Rabbit Ears, in which major actors narrate children’s literature. PowerMediaPlus is especially proud of its large collections of art, music, from its own catalog and its large collection of children’s literature.
                                    
Schlessinger’s SAFARI Montage (http:// SAFARIMontage.com) offers a server-based alternative to streaming, and loads its core video collections onto servers which reside in the school library or computer area.  Servers are expandable to accommodate additional programming and school-created content.  The K-8 core content package includes 1,000 titles. A package for grades 9-12 package will also include 1,000 titles and will be available this month.  Educational programs come from such educational video publishers as Disney Educational Productions, PBS, WGBH of Boston, Scholastic, Weston Woods, BBC Worldwide, A&E Home Video, National Geographic, and Schlessinger Media, the producer of award-winning educational programming for the content areas. All Schlessinger Media programs in the service are correlated to state standards and come close-captioned, with teacher’s guides, and are created with Spanish language tracks. The package will soon include tools to aid students and teachers in the creation of multimedia. Programs are meticulously indexed and fully searchable by segment. Playlists enable educators to string together segments from multiple programs into one sequence or montage and then create bookmarks for convenient playback.

While schools will want to investigate these large subscription collections, a number of individual free Web databases offer video resources.  Check out my pathfinder at: http://mciu.org/~spjvweb/video2.html