Engineering Play: A Cultural History of Children's Software

by Mizuko Ito

Overview

How the influential industry that produced such popular games as Oregon Trail and KidPix emerged from experimental efforts to use computers as tools in child-centered learning.

Today, computers are part of kids' everyday lives, used both for play and for learning. We envy children's natural affinity for computers, the ease with which they click in and out of digital worlds. Thirty years ago, however, the computer belonged almost exclusively to business, the military, and academia. In Engineering Play, Mizuko Ito describes the transformation of the computer from a tool associated with adults and work to one linked to children, learning, and play. Ito gives an account of a pivotal period in the 1980s and 1990s, which saw the rise of a new category of consumer software designed specifically for elementary school-aged children. “Edutainment” software sought to blend various educational philosophies with interactive gaming and entertainment, and included such titles as Number Munchers, Oregon Trail, KidPix, and Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?.

The children's software boom (and the bust that followed), says Ito, can be seen as a microcosm of the negotiations surrounding new technology, children, and education. The story she tells is both a testimonial to the transformative power of innovation and a cautionary tale about its limitations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262291552
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	02/10/2012
Series:	The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	248
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Mizuko Ito is a cultural anthropologist who studies new media use, particularly among young people, in Japan and the United States, and a Professor in Residence at the University of California Humanities Research Institute.

What People are Saying About This

James Paul Gee

Mimi Ito's Engineering Play explicates the crucial—and until now little discussed—historical, institutional, and cultural contexts for the now pervasive controversies over video games and learning in and out of school. The book is essential reading and a major contribution.

James Gee

"Mimi Ito's Engineering Play explicates the crucial -- -and until now little discussed -- -historical, institutional, and cultural contexts for the now pervasive controversies over video games and learning in and out of school. The book is essential reading and a major contribution."--James Paul Gee, Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies, Arizona State University

Constance Steinkuehler

Engineering Play offers a much-needed historical view on the emerging field and industry of games for learning. In it, Ito achieves a rare balance between rich ethnographic detail of the microdynamics of learning through gameplay, and penetrative insight into the macrodynamics of the various (and contesting) social discourses and institutions at play around technology and childhood. It is a much needed and very timely contribution to the field. Highly recommended reading for anyone who is serious about interactive technologies.

Endorsement

Mimi Ito's Engineering Play explicates the crucial—and until now little discussed—historical, institutional, and cultural contexts for the now pervasive controversies over video games and learning in and out of school. The book is essential reading and a major contribution.

—James Paul Gee, Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies, Arizona State University

From the Publisher

Engineering Play offers a much-needed historical view on the emerging field and industry of games for learning. In it, Ito achieves a rare balance between rich ethnographic detail of the microdynamics of learning through gameplay, and penetrative insight into the macrodynamics of the various (and contesting) social discourses and institutions at play around technology and childhood. It is a much needed and very timely contribution to the field. Highly recommended reading for anyone who is serious about interactive technologies.

—Constance Steinkuehler, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Mimi Ito's Engineering Play explicates the crucial—and until now little discussed—historical, institutional, and cultural contexts for the now pervasive controversies over video games and learning in and out of school. The book is essential reading and a major contribution.

—James Paul Gee, Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies, Arizona State University