Kids find adventure at interactive sites
The Internet is a constantly evolving medium and, in the past year, it has become more interactive. Children can now play educational adventures on the Internet where their responses put them in control of the interactive journey. In addition, "interactive theater," a new form of art and entertainment, is just emerging on the Net. We appear to be heading into an interactive revolution.
Two Internet companies, Educational Web Adventures and Zoesis Studios, are helping to lead the way.
Educational Web Adventures excels in producing Web projects for museums and others interested in engaging children in unique interactive learning situations. Clients include such well-known institutions as The Children's Museum in Indianapolis, the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago and the Colonial Williamsburg (Va.) Foundation.
One of its specialties is the "educational Web adventure" — an interactive journey played on the Internet.
Check out Educational Web Adventures site (www.eduweb.com) for links to more than 10 educational Web adventures.
Here are the newest:
In this fabulous Web adventure, developed for the Brookfield Zoo to complement its new Ituri rain forest exhibit, children "fly" to Africa to discover the secrets of "The Ways of the Knowing Trail."
Complete with sound affects and full animation, you enter a richly depicted rainforest in Africa. Accompanied by an online "Forest Fact Book" and four helpful kids from the rainforest, you make decisions that affect your outcome.
Children learn a tremendous amount from this adventure because the only way to finish it is to participate in the educational opportunities presented.
By putting children in control of their journey, their learning becomes hands-on and self-directed.
To accomplish this CD-quality animation and interaction, Zoesis must download a small, free program onto your hard drive. Don't be deterred by its permission window. CD-ROMs need your acquiescence to download onto your hard drive.
Unfortunately, this special experience is currently available only for Windows 95/98 users with at least a 200 MHz PC.
Here's a look at Zoesis' adventure, "The Living Letters" (TheLivingLetters.com). In the world presented by Zoesis, letters of the alphabet appear to be alive. Each letter is an animated character that has its own well-developed personality. The two letters recently residing in Letter Land were Otto and Iris.
Otto the "Round Mound of Sound" is the letter "O" with eyes on top. He loves to sing opera. Because his whole body is squishable, it is amazing to discover how many emotions this letter can express. Iris is the letter "I," sleek and passionate. She loves fashion and art.
Both characters host their own games and play tag with the player. Letters respond to the movements of the player, — making the player an active participant in this artificial world. The letters may giggle if tickled or become sad if ignored.
New letters will be born in this world on a regular basis.
Jinny Gudmundsen is editor of Choosing Children's Software magazine (www.ChooseChildrenSoftware.com). E-mail her at jinny@ChooseChildren
Jinny Gudmundsen is editor of Choosing Children’s Software Magazine. E-mail her at
jinny@ ChooseChildrenSoftware.com
.
Letters of the alphabet come alive as animated characters with their own personalities at http://TheLivingLetters.com, from Zoesis Studios.
Children explore the African rain forest in the interactive Internet adventure, “The Ways of the Knowing Trail,” available at www.brookfieldzoo.org.