Building “Virtual Worlds” for the Preschool Set with Tribal Nova

Virtual Worlds News: Building “Virtual Worlds” for the Preschool Set with Tribal Nova

I spoke this morning to Tribal Nova Co-CEO Pierre Le Lann about, among other things, the work they did on PBS Kids Play, a subscription-based ($10/month) immersive online learning environment for kids aged 3-6 that he calls a virtual world.

When Kids Play launched, I didn’t cover it because I wasn’t sure what it was exactly. After taking a tour, it’s definitely neat: it’s a primarily audio-driven environment (so kids don’t need to read) that tracks users’ advancement and activity across a variety of games so that users always have recommended games at their finger tips. I’m not sure if it’s a virtual world: Although it’s online in a world-like environment with customizable rooms and an interactive environment, there’s no multi-user interaction. It seems like a traditional online game. However, Le Lann argues, and I’m interested, that environments like Kids Play may fill a gap at the young end of the scale for virtual worlds users.

How Videogames Blind Us With Science

Games Without Frontiers: How Videogames Blind Us With Science

That’s when it hit her: The kids were practicing science.
They were using the scientific method. They’d think of a hypothesis — This boss is really susceptible to fire spells — and then collect evidence to see if the hypothesis was correct. If it wasn’t, they’d improve it until it accounted for the observed data.
This led Steinkuehler to a fascinating and provocative conclusion: Videogames are becoming the new hotbed of scientific thinking for kids today.

Like, duh!