iPhone v PSP - boys and their high-tech toys
Forget about marbles and footy cards, Adam Turner says it's fascinating to watch kids swapping gaming consoles in the playground.
I've spent the morning looking after my five year-old son. Let's call him Alpha - the code name his mother and I use when we don't want him to know we're talking about him. Alpha has a little sister Beta - we considered giving her the call sign Omega, but that would be tempting fate.
Anyway, Alpha loves to watch over other kids' shoulders as they play computer games. This morning he was sitting in the doctor's waiting room, watching his new-found friend Abdul play Wipeout Pure on the PlayStation Portable. It's your standard racing car game with turbo boosts and jumps, the kind of thing that any game-literate kid could pick up in a few minutes.
Not wanting Alpha to feel left out, I pulled out my iPhone and fired up Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D for him - another racing car game. Alpha and Abdul happily played side-by-side for a few minutes, although each was quickly drawn in by the other's game. Before I knew it, they'd done a playground-style sandwich swap and were happily playing each other's games.
Abdul took to the iPhone instantly as there were no button combinations to learn, you just tilt the phone to steer. He was also two years older than my Alpha, which meant he probably had considerably more gaming experience under his belt.
Meanwhile five year-old Alpha took a few minutes to get the hang of the PSP as he came to terms with the buttons; left, right and accelerate. Even when he was off and racing, he spent a lot of time tilting the PSP through force of habit.
Alpha's a fast learner - he can already pick up any DVD remote control and easily find his way around. He also knows his way around a Mac and Windows desktop. When it comes to a new games console, it takes a few minutes to adapt to the interface because he's done the bulk of his console gaming on the iPhone and the Nintendo Wii - neither of which require you to do anything but throw your arms around.
A quick exit poll revealed that both boys preferred the PSP, in Alpha's case "because it has buttons" - which is interesting as the iPhone's lack of buttons is what makes it easier for him to play. Perhaps he likes the challenge. Perhaps he considers the PSP to be a "real" games machine, unlike something which is primarily Dad's phone.
I'm sure if Santa brought Alpha a PSP or Nintendo DS he'd take to it quickly and soon be thrashing his old man at all manner of games, just as I did with my father on the Commodore 64. Alpha certainly has more patience than I did at his age, something his mother and I have worked hard to instill in him. I still sometimes wonder if playing interface-less games will leave him technologically underprepared, or if it will actually put him one step ahead of the other kids.
Technology changes so quickly that I don't think I've got anything to worry about. The important thing isn't to teach him how to use any particular device or interface, the important thing is to teach him how to learn. Equipped with a quick mind, questioning nature and the patience to master new skills, Alpha is going to thrive at school next year.
Academics are fond of the term "lifelong learning" - an ambiguous phrase which Wikipedia defines as recognising that "learning is not confined to childhood or the classroom, but takes place throughout life and in a range of situations". Alpha and his friends are set to discover that the fast pace of technological change means we're all lifelong learners as we explore the world's big playground.
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