Goodbye Swiper

Parents of preschoolers familiar with Dora the Explorer, will be all too familiar with Swiper the sneaky fox and the villain in the tv series. For better or worse Swiper, Map, Boots and Dora’s other friends haven’t kept up with the ever growing Dora. As Dora grows up this October into a new tween version she leaves behind her old friends. Dora promises us however that she’s found four new friends to continue on with her new adventures as a 10 year old.

The new Dora will be available as a doll from Mattel complete with USB connectivity. The inclusion of computer connectivity into the doll will be interesting to see how well Mattel will be able to engage tweens with an interactive doll experience.

The transition has caused quite a reaction across the Internet as some parent’s feared Nickledeon was turning Dora into a commercial whore, pushing new products on their children. What floors me is when experts speak to issues outside of their expertise. Take marketing professor Jean-Pierre Dube’s analysis of the Dora transition.

A lot of people think of Dora as something for their small kids. And part of the reason people like Dora is because it teaches their kids to be inquisitive and curious in an educational way

If professor Dube had consulted with any child development expert he would have understood that television isn’t a teaching aid, let alone suggest Dora to be a proselytizer on the merits of inquisitiveness. In fact excessive television is linked to ADD in children as well as slowing down some aspects of their development.

So as your children grow, their toys and television experiences will grow with them. Just be thankful that Dora is a much easier experience to share with your children than certain unnamed purple dinosaurs of the past.

We’ll miss you Swiper.

All Your Child are Belong To Us

The Japanese are at it again with the world’s first robotic teacher. The Japanese government has a mandate to have a robot in every home by 2015. So, this is the first example of many to come. Saya, the robotic teacher is capable of various facial expressions, performing roll call, and setting out tasks. But I wonder how well she responds to spit balls?

Saya the Robotic Teacher

Update
Readers have asked about this post’s title “All Your Child Are Belong To Us”, it is a reference to a Japanese game and Internet phenomenon.

Sesame Street Episode You’ll Never See on TV

Comedian Ricky Gervais and Elmo have a candid interview, covering subjects that your toddler will never see on Sesame Street.

A Blackberry for your child

LeapFrog has caught onto the fact that children love emulating their parents. The company is bringing BlackBerry technology to children. With LeapFrog’s new Text & Learn toy children pretend that they too are busy professionals in dire need of responding to important emails at all hours of the day. I’m not sure that I’ll be rushing to teach my child how to text and interrupt dinner with urgent emails. But, I do appreciate that children love copying their parents, so if you have a Blackberry or similar technology at home then this may be the toy for your child. Unfortunately, you’ll have to wait a little bit longer as the toy is not in stores yet.

glowPhone—a mobile phone for children

I just discovered Firefly Mobile, they provide mobile phones and service for children, as I mentioned previously how children love the iPhone I think Firefly is on to something by selling phones to younger children. Firefly’s glowPhone is particularly interesting as it is targeted to children as young as 5 years old. The phone includes speed dial buttons for Mom, Dad and emergency, as well as the ability to restrict incoming and outgoing calls to only those numbers in the address book. While I’m not entirely clear why a child in kindergarden needs a mobile phone, I do understand that this is a glimpse into the future.

While I remain firmly unconvinced that my preschooler needs a mobile phone, I am however convinced that it is a matter of time before everyone—yes, even my daughter—will carry a personal digital device with them at all times. The device will in many ways resemble a mobile phone, but yet it will be so much more that we’ll have another name for it. For children the device will in addition to allowing phone calls will have mobile internet enabled games, a social video camera for sharing movies with friends, and capabilities not yet invented. Firefly is at the forefront of this sea of change, and trust me that the change is imminent because the digital natives—those born and comfortable with computers and technology, are starting to have children of their own. So, the next generation of parents will be actively seeking out digital experiences for their children.