We have a 5 yr. old girl & an 8 yr. old boy. They've grown up with a lot of technology around the house. Some notes on how they've engaged. We're an Apple/Tivo house; iOS/OSX/*nix only.
Our Son
- lives on lego.com. he shops there, and endlessly looks at pictures of lego kits/sets
- watches stop motion lego (generally star wars) videos regularly on youtube
- builds his own stop motion stuff w/ iStopMotion, external USB webcam, and a macbook air. he can set everything up on his own, and capture all the shots. requires no adult assistance.
- peruses ebay.com for vintage/hard-to-find legos
- sells custom legos and hard-to-find stuff on ebay.com
- doesn't understand what NOT being connected means. his brain truly doesn't get it. a network connection is assumed wherever he is.
- doesn't understand why he needs multiple usernames and passwords for the operating system and across various websites/services.
- has asked both my wife and myself whether or not iPads/iPhones support Flash. I don't know where he got the notion of Flash, but he knows it, and is keenly aware that iOS doesn't support it. I suspect his awareness comes from trying to use online games he's used on an OSX device, on an iOS device
- can easily search (google obviously) and understands how to juggle keywords to get the results he wants.
Our Daughter
- her device interaction is iOS/touch-screen only. she can't really drive a laptop yet. she can do anything I can do on the device.
- exclusively uses an app called kidtube on the iPad. it's verticalized videos that are kid appropriate from youtube.
- plays games on the iPhone
