Designing Digital Experiences for Positive Youth Development From Playpen to Playground Marina Umaschi Bers OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS PART I The Digital Landscapes for Youth OVERVIEW This first part of the book looks at the question of what children and adolescents are currently doing with new technologies and how this is having an impact on their development. It is made up of three chapters that take on a developmental span of children's relationship with technol­ ogy: early childhood, the elementary years, and high school. Leveraging the concept of landscape, or a space purposefully designed with a goal, each chapter has a central metaphor to illuminate the role of new tech­ nologies for promoting the core developmental milestones of each age group. The goal of these metaphors is to help the reader understand the digital world as a developmental space. The hope is to show possible ways for adults to become design partners in its creation. Each chapter is interspersed with vignettes describing children's personal experiences with technology. Some come from my own research projects over the last 16 years. Others come from observing young people's interactions with popular technologies. A summary at the end highlights key ideas visited in this first part of the book. CHAPTER 1 Digital- Playgrounds vs. Virtual Playpens in Early Childhood Think about a two year old. She is ready to explore the world. She is fear­ less. She is curious. Everything she finds, she touches, she opens, she closes, she, sorts, she hides, she moves, she pushes. She plays. Everyone she encounters, she tries to communicate, she pretends, she asks, she tells, she shows, she gestures. She interacts. Although each child is unique and is influenced by different factors in her environment, research shows that children develop through a generally predictable sequence of steps and milestones. These may not happen in the same way or at the same time for all children, but generally speaking, most two and three year olds enjoy using their senses, their emerging language, and their motor skills to explore the world around them. They can solve simple problems by trial and error. They engage in pretend play by using sticks as swords and pup­ pets as babies. They have a blossoming vocabulary and .the ability to understand instructions and situations. They like to play alongside other children, but they do not yet have the capabilities to problem solve in social situations and manage their emotions. This is the age of the "terrible two's," a time in which a child learns how to say no to assert her own sense of self but doesn't yet have the flexibility to take into consideration other people's perspectives or to be aware of her own tiredness. The American developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst Erik Erikson would describe a two- to three-year-old child as engaging in the developmental task of mastering the physical environment while main­ taining self-esteem. Erikson, who was born in Germany in 1902, pio­ neered the study of the process of identity formation in healthy personalities. Instead of looking at pathologies, he focused on the growth and crises of identity during the different stages of the life cycle. He pos­ tulated that every human being goes through eight stages to reach his or (22) The digital landscapes for youth her full development, from birth to death. Each of these stages of psycho­ social development is marked by a conflict. When there is a successful conflict resolution, there will be a favorable outcome or virtue. The con­ flict in the preschool years is centered on developing a sense of autonomy while avoiding shame and doubt. When a child can successfully explore this tension, the resulting positive outcome or virtue is willpower, or volition, the process by which an individual decides on and commits to a particular course of action. For example, a child who learns how to dig a big hole in the backyard on a primary spot next to the flower bed that gave so much work to Mom is very proud of her autonomy to do it by herself. She was1 able to choose a highly visible and much appreciated place in the yard, to find the right tools and use them effectively, and to carry a project from initial idea to finished product. However, when Mom shows her anger for ruining the flower bed, instead of her praise for the task accomplished, shame and doubt about her own abilities take over this child. She becomes vulnera­ ble. This is an example of the tension that Erikson describes as autonomy vs. shame and doubt. As children grow and enter into kindergarten, this tension intensifies, and'Erikson's theory talks about initiative vs. guilt, with the resulting virtue as purpose and a sense of accomplishment for intentionally doing an act. For the purpose of this book, I have decided to bring these two stages together and talk about early childhood as a time that extends from preschool into kindergarten. This is a time when play­ ing is an important aspect of healthy child development. As we will see later on, one of the many positive things that technology can do is to sup­ port, facilitate, and augment play. As Erikson (2000) writes, "Play is to the child what thinking, planning, and blueprinting are to the adult" (p. 195). Playgrounds are one of the most popular spaces where young children play. Playgrounds are specifically designed to support the exploration of the physical environment and the development of motor skills, as well as social interactions. They are also probably one of the few spaces where children of this age can be autonomous. They can go on the slide. They can climb up a structure. Next, they can move to the sandbox and build a castle with another child, and when they get bored] they can run around and ask Dad to push them on the swing. Playgrounds offer a space with controlled autonomy. Parents can sit on the benches and carefully observe what is going on while engaging in conversation with other adults. They don't worry about children running out of sight, as most urban play­ grounds are surrounded by a fence. Playgrounds are generally safe, but, as with any space that encourages physical activity and social exchanges, there are some risks involved. A child can fall off the slide, can bump her DIGITAL PLAYGROUNDS VS.. VIRTUAL PLAYPENS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD (23) head on the structure, and can get into a fight in the sandbox. All of these events can drive her to shame and doubt about her own skills. However, if risks did not exist, the child wouldn't develop in a healthy and positive way and wouldn't be ready to move to the next developmental stage. Now, think of a playpen. These pieces of furniture, big or small, made out of rubber and mesh, wood or plastic, serve to corral children into a safe confined space. Playpens and play yards are in sharp contrast with playgrounds. They are risk-free, as long as they are used within their con­ straints and children do not try to climb out of them. However, there is no room for autonomous exploration. Children .can playwith the.limited toys that Mom or Dad has decided to put inside the playpen. There is no room for imaginative play. Of course, a playpen that is used for half an hour so Mom can prepare dinner is not harming the .child in any way. We are focusing here on the playpen as a metaphorthat conveysJack of freedom to experiment, lack of autonomy for exploration, lack of creative opportunities, and lack of risks. And I am opposing this meta­ phor to the one of the playground, where we can find all of these funda­ mental activities for growing up. The playground promotes, while the playpen hinders, a sense of mastery, creativity, self-confidence, and open exploration. As a reader who is interested in the role of technology in "children's lives, you might be asking yourself why we are talking about playgrounds and playpens. I am responding with a bold claim. From a developmental perspective, most of today's technologies for young children are playpens and not playgrounds. The most obvious thought is that computer games, like playpens, deprive children of physical activity. But the metaphor goes further than that. Most computer games are marketed as educational because young children can develop pre-academic dispositions and learn* about shapes, colors, letters, sounds, and numbers. However, from a devel­ opmental perspective, those are not the most important mile stones "for children in this age.range. This is a time for free exploration, for testing boundaries, for socializing, for taking risks in a safe way, for engaging inr pretend play, for solving problems, for engaging in creative acts that can display children's autonomy. If we consider the developmental tasks of a two year* old, there.is no need to buy software marketed as educational for this age range. This soft­ ware usually limits the types of interactions that children can have with it. Most software provides tasks-with right and wrong answers and thus don't encourage problem solving and logical thinking or exploration and creativity. ,- From a developmental perspective, this kind of interaction in a techno­ logical space is more similar to what happens in a confined playpen than (24) The digital landscapes for youth A „ • to what happens on an open playground. Although the graphics and the cartoon characters of many edutainment, software products are appeal­ ing, in terms of developmental value, the child can benefit as much by using open-ended, grown-up software.