Handheld Game Consoles - a touchy subject...

Our daughter's birthday is coming up soon, and she is finally in the age bracket to nag for a Nintendo DS (and she certainly has been). But is it really the way to go for a hand held game? Is cartridge technology a thing of the past? If I am going to spend about $200 plus on a hand held game console, do I want to then buy $30-$40 game cartridges on top of that? Then there is storage. You need a case to put them in, you cannot share your game with a sibling etc. The cases may be trendy, but that's yet another thing to buy. Even the Doctor Who TARDIS case almost converted me, but.....

Whilst investigating this on the Internet, I came across a short article addressing this very dilemma. Although the article is now 12 months old and admittedly from an Apple promoting site, it still makes a good case. Cohen (2010) discusses the very reasons why the iPod Touch seems like a more ideal hand held game investment in a busy household with children. It also resonates with the argument my husband's old university friend (who works in IT) gave us a year ago when we were weighing up the pros and cons. A huge selling point was that an iPod touch was much cheaper to run. You can't beat downloadable technology. Cartridges just seem so 1990s. "It's all going to be about touch technology and downloads with these things" my husband's mate preached to us at the kitchen table. He doesn't work for Apple.

Also, it is interesting to note, that Sony is now on the bandwagon, with the new version of their handheld game device. It will be interesting to see what the future of the Nintendo DS will be once this comes onto the shelves and how accessible the games will be to download and afford.

So, now what? Given that I have to pry my children off the iPhone, the iPod Touch is certainly very appealing. They can play all their favourite apps, play and download music etc and I can make phone calls without an argument or debate over a time share arrangement.

iPhone Apps & Learning according to The Simpsons!

The Simpsons send up on technology based learning in the classroom!

Mobile Media (& most digital new media) and learning is actually not as crazy as it may seem here. Given this piece of Simpsons satire, mobile and new media in learning is quite a talking point in education circles. Kids learning via iPhone and similar smart phone apps is actually quite good idea and lots of fun. It's actually not a new idea either, but simply an old idea in a new and accessible context. Having been an advocate of Montessori early childhood education, as well as play based learning in our household, many educational apps on the iPhone use the same sort of principles. Learning through self correcting tasks and activities and through play. Of course it does also throw up several new questions as well, in regard to learning and teaching today...

I have several 'apps' for the kids to play on my iPhone. They have been great boredom busters, particularly when sitting in the car with my youngest at school pick up time.

Fun iPhone apps/games in our house include Maths Magic, where my 4 year old son has extended upon his learning of addition and subtraction at his Montessori Kindy. He's getting into multiplication and division now. My 6 year old loves it for the maths and reading apps and they both love Angry Birds and Cut the Rope, which are both great games of strategy. And well, Richard Hammond's Car Spotter app is a bit of a laugh, but my son is a huge fan of that man! Half the cars we don't recognise, but we will, whenever we visit the UK...There is still some strategy in it.

More on this later, as the iPhone has become a central tool in our household...

Update the 29th December: For some further reading, I came across this article. It discusses several more educational apps of interest. Montessorium (a brand name, but a company that uses the Montessori philosophy in technology and was developed by Montessori educators) also has produced two apps of great interest!