If someone has trouble with their attention span, the first thing you do is get them away from the distraction machine.

“When it comes time for research and writing papers your “books only” kid will be well behind — working to master basics and never really able to catch up to the savvy kids I see in schools today, who continue to expand”

But your argument doesn’t make sense here. If it’s so easy a four year old can pick it up, are you saying a fourteen year old can’t? So a kid gets to fourteen and they know how to navigate the wub-wub-wub. What good is that if they’ve never read a book straight through?

(I like the “continue to expand”, too – that’s exactly what they’ll do if they spend their days in front of a monitor)

Question is, what is gained from plugging the child into the web? Besides a few hours of quiet, that is?

(a) Kids can do more than one activity, just like adults. I spent tons of time on my computer as a kid, but I also spent tons of time reading.

(b) Reading is not inherently more educational than playing on the computer. I learned way more mucking around in the Duke Nukem 3d level editor or scripting up an FKiSS doll than I ever did reading a CYOA or Goosebumps book. Of course I read harder books where I learned a lot, and did more brainless things on my computer where I learned very little, but the point is that the educational value of books vs. computers isn’t tiered as strictly as you think.

Given the habit of kids’ educational games to assume that kids are stupid, Zoodles probably doesn’t count for much in this arena, especially for an eight-year-old. But if that’s the case for an individual kid, s/he will just get bored enough to figure out how to break out of the sandbox and find more interesting things to do. IMO this is not strictly a bad thing. Yes, they will probably stumble across Rotten.com eventually, but they’ll also stumble upon games made for adults (e.g., strategy games often have level editors and also require logic and planning skills to play) and other learning opportunities disguised as playing with the forbidden grownup toys (always a draw!). And they’ve already gotten a taste of how rewarding it is to make the computer do what you want to do (instead of what your parents want it to do!), which eventually lead me down the path of becoming a computer programmer. Maybe you’d be disappointed that your kid became a programmer rather than a writer, but I don’t think the average parent would be.

(c) Basic computer skills are already pretty much required for most people who want to be productive and successful in modern society. This requirement is only going to become more widespread and more advanced in the future as computers take on more importance, and more complex tasks, in the realms of business, personal productivity, and social interaction. Getting the kids familiar with the computer early on is not necessarily a terrible idea.

The other “review”? If used properly kids really benefit from using the computer. In our house it’s used as part of a reward program for my mildly autistic child. Every day she brings home a good report she gets one hour of computer time, and most of it is spent on educational games. That leaves us plenty of time for reading books. Then again, you may have missed the book section on Zoodles.

They love to get online and most can navigate pretty well before they are 4. I know I have 8 grand kids and they all used PCs from young ages. Its not just entertaining, most sites build skills: reading, recognition, dexterity, typing and a comfort with technology as a basic skill set rather than just a tool.

Books? Of course we read! But they don’t read every minute of every waking hour! Young kids have short attention spans, vivid minds and they multitask by 4. They are intense, and want to explore everything — for short times — None of mine could sit still for more than one age appropriate kids book (20 minutes max).

In the mean time when they get to school, they will be competing against 21st century kids… comfortable with technology, computing and the Internet. When it comes time for research and writing papers your “books only” kid will be well behind — working to master basics and never really able to catch up to the savvy kids I see in schools today, who continue to expand.

I am amazed at the prowess these kids develop. Those that grasp the basics early don’t think about the skills or technology behind what they intend to accomplish any more than you or I or your “book only” kids would would think about turning a page in a book, or jotting a note. Problem is, those kids can also turn pages and jot notes along with a lot more.

Some might argue, as I do, that TV robs kids of imagination. So, exposure should be closely monitored and timed for TV and any other technology — but in this day and age — you can’t bury your head in a blanket and hope its all going away.

Its not! So, make the best of it with products like this that can protect them from dangerous places. Would you would use car safety seats or training wheels? Or, would you keep them at home riding tricycles?

One small clarification. Our Firefox Add-on does *not* require Adobe AIR. You should be able to get up and running on Firefox quickly and easily just using Firefox’s standard add-on install process.

If anyone has any problems, suggestions, or comments for us, please feel free to email feedback@zoodles.com. We love hearing from you.

Regards,
Rich Humphrey
CTO & Co-Founder
http://www.Zoodles.com