In recent years, augmented reality (AR) toys have gained increasing prominence at the International Toy Fair held in New York. Many of the industry’s biggest players have launched AR lines: Mattel’s Apptivity products build upon the strength of existing brands such as Batman and Hot Wheels; Hasbro’s Lazer Tag works with a compatible app to insert digital targets into the user’s environment; and the toys in Disney’s DreamPlay line, launching in the U.S. this fall, will enable kids to play along on musical instruments with digital versions of popular Disney characters.

image: Mattelapptivity.com

But what is augmented reality? Broadly speaking, the term augmented reality describes technology capable of producing digital content to enhance a user’s physical experience. In contrast to virtual reality, which draws users into a virtual world, augmented reality brings digital content out into the physical world. Using technology such as image recognition with a camera, GPS, and the built-in accelerometers in many devices, the digital content generated is rendered in real time, dynamically changing in response to the user’s actions. In one iteration, then, AR creates a layer of digital content that can be overlaid across the user’s field of vision, for example, the Barbie Digital Makeover Mirror, which lets kids try on makeup virtually. Conversely, augmented reality can generate virtual spaces with which a user interacts, such as the Sesame Street playset prototype (created in collaboration with Qualcomm a couple of years ago) or Apptivity Hot Wheels cars, which drive across dynamically rendered roads on an iPad screen, prompting the user to physically navigate their car through a virtual environment.

Augmented reality represents huge possibilities for the toy industry. These toys permit toymakers to design relatively inexpensive products that utilize mobile devices and smartphones—more expensive technologies—that many users already have, and they extend the market for tech toys to ever younger audiences. Fisher-Price’s Laugh and Learn Apptivity line, for example, features products such as iPhone and iPad cases, and the Laugh and Learn Apptivity Monkey and Puppy, two interactive plush toys that come to life with an iPhone clicked into their stomach, all designed for children ages 6 through 36 months. Like traditional playsets, augmented reality toys also facilitate repeated purchases, as in the case with Wowee’s AR game Zombie Burbz, or Apptivity’s Batman, in which additional levels are unlocked with the purchase of additional figures.

Is the kind of play that AR toys facilitate active or reactive? How do AR toys encourage free and directed play, and how do they aid or promote play differently than their traditional counterparts? Does “unlocking” different experiences feel like puzzle-solving or like instilling an insatiable appetite for novelty, of seeing what the toy can do next or what else it does to win the user’s attention? In what ways does AR supplement, guide, encroach upon, or otherwise engage a child’s imagination? Overlaying digital content on a real environment can prove instructional, entertaining, or seem magical, but is there a converse concern that the insertion of screen-based content between a user and the world around them unnecessarily filters or focalizes the user’s perspective?

Apps that overlay information on the user’s spatial environment can make history and geography come alive. Products like Ravensburger jigsaw puzzles and Popar 3D picture books bring characters and settings to life, as well. In fact, the notion of bringing things to life, of liveliness and animism, are among the most commonly used means of describing what augmented reality does. All of which raises the question of what it means to bring toys to life, and how play is different when a particular technology is seen as achieving that goal. Were toys dead before? If they were alive, what made them so? (It strikes me that battery-operated toys might be regarded similarly). How do children’s play experiences change with the expectation that something is making their toys come alive?

As we know, new technology is frequently polarizing, particularly when it comes to how it is introduced to and adopted by children. Rather than placing AR on any specific point along this continuum of promises and perils (indeed, its varied applications could be plotted across such a spectrum), I am interested to watch as this nascent category of playthings continues to develop and how these critical questions play out.

Especially while these toys are still novelties and companies are clamoring to get them onto the market, I would love to hear from readers who have observed children with AR toys, in either informal or research and development settings, from educators who have or hope to incorporate AR into their pedagogical practices, and developers as they consider the behaviors of young users in the design of new applications.

Watch for a future post on AR and its potential for education.
Meredith A. Bak is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA. Her research interests include media archaeology and the intersection of “old” and “new” media, particularly in relation to children’s media and material culture. Her current project focuses on how pre-cinematic visual media like early pop-up books and optical illusion toys helped cultivate children as media spectators near the turn of the twentieth century. A second project on augmented reality toys in development. Before completing her PhD, Meredith worked in museum education at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York, and as a teaching artist in public schools for the Urban Arts Partnership, instructing in the areas of animation, video production, and game design.

Twitter: @meredith_bak

This week, we are thrilled to introduce you to Nic Badila, the winner of the Middle School Open Platform category.

Nic, 14, designed Stemville, one of the most ambitious games we’ve seen. Stemville, a STEM-themed virtual world, invites students to pick a character and participate in games and activities to improve STEM skills. Even more impressively, Nic can program in over 8 languages and has his hands in every STEM-pot imaginable — from robotics, to development, and more.

Nic’s first passion is robotics. With help from the Hundred Black Men of Atlanta initiative, he became an avid robot builder and programmer. Nic says he literally sees the sky as his limit, piloting robots through land, sea, and now into space. He participates in the Zero Robotics competitions and believes that robots and the education associated with their development can be a powerful motivator for kids.

“I like the robots, but it is even cooler to think about the physics that my passion has forced me to learn. Robots aren’t just about space travel. It is about combining good building tips with aerodynamics. I love to build them, but it is so exciting to program and run each one and see what I can learn from each experience.”

Nic with his robotics team, The Steampunk Afros

Just as Nic loves to learn, he wants to use his passion and skills to inspire other students. First introduced to robotics by a friend, Nic hopes to keep “paying-it-forward” by teaching more and more kids robotics. For him, they helped combine his STEM interests with creative production and he hopes he can keep showing students the impact that robots can have in the world.

Four years ago, after he entered his first robotics competition with a friend, he and his mom decided to start their own robotics team, which he began captaining only three years ago – when he was just 11 years old! Their success started a network in their community, as they propelled their wins into coaching two other teams in their area. Nic, who is homeschooled, also started a robotics program within his homeschooling group to help the rest of the students stengthen their problem-solving skills. “We teach them the basics of building and programming and then they have to further develop their algorithmic skills and programming techniques. Robots are cool because once you get the building down, there is so much extra complexity to explore!”

Robotics also helped Nic propel his passion for STEM into game design. For one of his robotics competitions, the students were tasked to create something innovative that older adults could use to make their life easier. Using Greenfoot and a Kinekt, his team made an exercise video game that adults could use to prevent arthritis.

An image from Stemvilla, Nic’s winning game.

“Working on the Kinekt and with my mentor really inspired me. I realized that you can make anything you want if you can program well and that’s what made me want to be a game designer.”

Given the potential at his fingertips, Nic studied up and his mom taught him how to use scirra to begin designing his own games. He found that the algorithmic skills gained from his robotics came in handy. “I already was pretty good at coming up with algorithms and knew different kinds of programming from robotics. Then, whenever I had problems, i would go back to the other languages I know and would see how I would fix problems with those and bring them back into the game.”

It is these same do-it-yourself and go-getter attitudes that have helped Nic juggle so many activities. He never gets frustrated, rather, he uses one passions to inform the others. Most of all, Nic wants to help his community. He loves that STEM thinking has opened up so many ways he can give back: whether by designing games with a purpose or by mentoring other students in the skills that he has developed.

In fact, Nic has already begun propelling his STEM Challenge win into community development. With the laptop he wins, Nic plans to further develop his virtual world. “I plan to add new stories and more mini games within the virtual world. I want to get a full server online so different kids from all over can keeping learning from it and having fun while doing so.” He also began developing a curriculum to teach game development and programming to local students who otherwise wouldn’t be exposed to the STEM pipeline.

Nic with one of his prize-winning robots.

Not only is Nic a master at building robots, designing games, and at mentoring other students, he is also an artist, selling his wares at local crafts fairs. In fact, he drew all of the art for his winning entry! He also enjoys playing soccer for Stockbridge United, volunteering at the Atlanta Zoo and camping with his family.

Given his full roster, one might wonder how he accomplishes so much. Nic explains that he loves his homeschooling schedule’s flexibility, “Even though I just finished middle school, I still get to pick a few of my classes, so I can take computer science and STEM classes. I can structure my whole day and as long as I get the work done, I’m allowed to get whatever else done. I tend to like to do schoolwork and homework in the middle of the day so I can code until I fall asleep.”

Nic knows that a STEM career is in his future, but describes it as an afterthought. When asked where he hopes to be when he grows up, Nic replied, “Well I would like to open a place to teach kids different computer languages, game development and robotics.” After a pause, he adds “I guess i see myself working with a big robotics agency and going to college for some type of tech-related career with computers and robots…oh and I’ll definitely still play soccer!”

Nic wouldn’t be so successful or so community-oriented if he didn’t have such a strong community supporting him. He acknowledges throughout our talk how helpful his mentors, robotics team, and his patient Mom Pita are with his multiple interests. Their help has helped Nic mature into a thoughtful future leader motivated to make a difference through technology…and with excellent time management skills. We applaud Nic on his win and wish him luck on future iterations of STEMville. Hopefully, some of his students might someday win their own game design competitions!

This post was originally published in the Huffington Post as part of TED Weekends as part of the “Gaming for Life” series inspired by Jane McGonigal’s 2012 TEDTalk.

Jane McGonigal charged me up for more than the 7.5 minutes of life extension she promised. Yes, practicing her four “resiliencies” through gameplay may help make us happier and more productive, but, like her, my interests are in accelerating social change. So if her concussion inspired a game with the power to heal depression — let’s use these insights to make our schools “super better” through game-based learning (GBL).

The timing might be right. The recent disappointing test results in states on Common Core-aligned exams have many educators and policymakers in a panic. Opponents of the Common Core, such as Diane Ravitch, are having a field day. President Obama is now focusing on the promise of edtech innovations like games to respond to concerns that schools won’t be able to meet new standards (see ConnectEd plan.)

The markets and kids themselves are responding. Right now, 97 percent of all youth say that they play video games. And there’s a surge in experimentation with GBL in education as a medium for engaging students in math, literacy, and STEM skills. Recent examples include new products like DreamBox and DragonBox. Initiatives to get kids to join the “maker movement” via game design competitions like the National STEM Video Game Challenge are hot!

But what do we know about the impact of GBL? Will effective practices scale? Is GBL a transformative way to deepen instruction and build new habits for life-long learning? Or will it go the way of many past reforms, with many practitioners taking “old wine” and placing it in “new bottles”?

The future of GBL is at a pivot point. Here’s my take:

The scientific research base is growing. The National Research Council’s important report on games and simulations for science learning (Honey & Hilton, 2011) found that simulations were a very effective tool in promoting academic knowledge and inquiry skills. The authors concluded that simulations and games have great potential to improve science learning in the classroom because they can “individualize learning to match the pace, interests, and capabilities of each student.” These findings echoed those from other researchers such as Mimi Ito that demonstrate games’ cultural appeal, and practical application to learning across settings.

A recent meta-analysis conducted by SRI International of over 60,000 games-related studies done between 2000 and 2012 found only 77 that undertook some experimental effort to formally test the effects on student academic outcomes. The report stresses the need for future studies to go beyond “simple questions about whether games are good or bad for learning” and argues that the efficacy of digital games for learning depends on design and implementation. We need to also–as Jane McGonigal argues–greatly expand our focus on key non-cognitive skills such as tenacity (mental resilience) and empathy (social resilience) which may mean more in helping children succeed now than ever before.

Educators seem ambivalent about GBL. Their uncertainty may have several roots including a still-emerging evidence base, tight budgets, and daunting accountability pressures. In a recent Cooney Center survey on teaching with games, we found that a large majority of educators report that games help students learn at a different rate and improve team skills. But the emphasis on assessments and standardized testing may be a considerable barrier. Games are not yet seen as vital to the educational bottom line. Cost is seen as a barrier to using digital games in the classroom and many educators report limited access to technology resources. We need to modernize our physical and human infrastructures to allow GBL to have a real shot.

The marketplace is digesting the GBL opportunity. Despite the success of some GBL products and services (such as Filament Games, MangaHigh and E-Line Media, the K-12 institutional marketplace is a notoriously tough nut to crack. Recall the edutainment fiasco of the 1990’s, (see “What in the World Happened to Carmen Sandiego,?“) The failure of educational software was not due to a lack of market demand for great products. (Products like Oregon Trail were immensely successful — 40 years later it has sold more than 65 million copies). Rather, market forces, such as the consolidation of publishers, and marketing and distribution strategies misfired and miscalculated consumer demand

As a recent report “Games for a Digital Age,” found barriers to GBL in education include:

–The dominance of a few big players and the prospect of future consolidation
–A long buying cycle, byzantine decision-making process, and narrow sales window
–Frequently changing government policies and cyclical district resource constraints that impact the availability of funding
–The demand for curriculum and standards alignment and research-based proof of effectiveness; and
–The requirement for locally delivered professional development.

To help overcome these barriers, the Cooney Center has convened the Games and Learning Publishing Council (GLPC). The GLPC is a multi-sector group with three main goals: to promote innovations that are ready for scaling within the GBL field, to develop and disseminate analytical tools, briefs and reports to help “raise the sector,” and to engage policymakers, developers and investors to deploy digital games to advance deep knowledge, and 21st century skills. This fall, the Council will roll-out surveys of educators uses of GBL, a series of videos focused on breakthrough professional development models, and the site gamesandlearning.org, that will assembles authoritative, highly accessible information for investors and developers.

Will games fulfill their promise in education, or join a litany of other solutions that peter out as “reforms du jour?” From my perch the growing research, practice and market interest demonstrates that GBL may be a surprisingly potent, low cost, scalable strategy. And, perhaps most importantly, our youth may benefit for a lifetime from the simple act of playing more!

Seong-Hyun Ryoo is a swimmer, artist, budding filmmaker and a very talented game designer. An 8th grader from Georgia, he seems mature and responsible for someone his age, speaking with a level of composure one would not expect from a middle schooler.

That said, the strong sense of discipline that became evident during our interview helped him clinch the Best Middle School Gamemaker game in the 2013 National STEM Video Game Challenge. Seong-Hyun believes that games can be used to convey emotions and for complex storytelling; he aimed and succeeded in doing just that.

Seong-Hyun has always loved to create things. From a young age, he was drawing or designing new tools. Every time he would watch a movie, listen to music, or play a game, ideas of his own would pop into his head. “I don’t want to just absorb other people’s media. While I do like watching other people’s videos[or playing their games], it doesn’t make me feel as proud or accomplished. Creating something of my own is intensely gratifying. It is rewarding to see someone play or watch something I made, and the best part is getting feedback to make my work better.”

After dreaming of creating his own media, at 11, he finally had his chance. A computer class’s final project required him to make a film, but he was disappointed that the class never substantially edited the videos they filmed. Seong-Hyun did what any creative mind would do, and taught himself the rest.

Always one to push himself to learn more, Seong-Hyun spends much of his time researching and testing new tools and effects. He learns by tinkering with computer programs and firmly believes it’s important to practice extensively with an effect or trick before sharing it with others. “I now spend most of my time testing out the tools to see how rich I can make my films. I center small movies on an effect or test out a new engine. It is so cool to discover new things.”

The same creative curiosity that helped Seong-Hyun teach himself movie-making later came in handy when he decided to create video games. Unlike many other winners, Seong-Hyun was never a very active gamer. Until about a year ago, his parents only let him play video games when they were away on vacation. But for the 11 months out of the year when he wasn’t playing, he was reading about independent designers and the art of game design.

This knowledge of the game design industry came in handy when, one summer, while away on vacation, he discovered an incredibly innovative developer’s website. He loved gaining insight into the creator’s design process while simultaneously getting to play a game. “As I saw what games could do and how diverse video games could be, I began getting so many ideas for them. I began writing them down and drawing themes and knew that I needed to create my own.”

Seong-Hyun began searching for tools and programs where he could make his own games. He looked at many tools, but found many of them too simple, too complex, or too expensive for a middle schooler. Eventually, he found Gamemaker (link) and knew it was the right platform for him. “I loved that there was room to grow and teach myself design principles while still turning out a professional-quality game. There were so many diverse games made using the tool that I knew I had to learn it.”

He applied the same “practice makes perfect” work ethic from filmmaking to his study of game design. He began by studying tutorials and playing other designers’ Gamemaker games. Serendipitously, his limited gaming experience is what allowed him blossom into a creative mastermind. “I would look at other people’s games, but I’m not good at playing games so my difficulties with their levels helped inspire me to make clever hacks and make them both better and more intuitive.”

As his game design experience grew, so did his desire to prove himself. He knew that sometimes games won science fairs and decided to find a game design competition to enter. His first search sent him directly to the STEM Challenge — and the rest is history.

After learning about the competition, Seong-Hyun spent about a month brainstorming ideas and then an additional three and a half months in development. His game, Rare Earth, was inspired by his favorite genre of games, pixel platformers. “I really wanted the player to feel accomplished after completing my game, so I gave them that sensation by never fully telling them how to solve a level. I used keys and cut scenes to encourage exploration and help players learn for themselves.”

We certainly felt accomplished after completing Rare Earth and can’t wait for his next game….and neither can Seong-Hyun, but he wants to continue learning from other designers, just as he always has. “I’m looking at places where I can submit games to get more feedback. I want to enter the online development community because I believe that other players and designers can help me strengthen my own skillset.”

Eventually, Seong-Hyun hopes to be a movie director or an indie developer. He wants to keep getting the gratifying feeling of inspiring someone else. “I know that if I work in a smaller company I can have the creative control and freedom to keep learning and creating in whatever way I see fit.”

We love how passionate Seong-Hyun is about practicing his skillset– and if you want to take a page from his book and download GameMaker, you can do so here!