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THE SANDBOX SUMMIT® STORY
What We Know:
The benefits of play are well documented. Not only is play fun, it's how kids learn. Play teaches kids the skills they need to read, share, create, and become happy, caring adults. However, as more and more kids' toys become embedded with chips, buttons, and controllers, the way kids play is changing. Furthermore, what we once thought of as tools—our oh-so-smart electronics—have morphed into toys, creating an entirely new “playground” for fun. It is in the interest of businesses, educators, and consumers to make sure that how kids are playing today, and the toys that they're using, provide them with the kind of open-ended experiences that stimulate creativity and foster critical thinking—skills we know they’ll need in the 21st century.
Technology is rewiring everything we know about playing, sharing, reading, and even writing. It's time to rethink which skills are important for kids in the 21st century, and how play can help teach them.
The Aha! moment:
Claire and Wendy have been playing for a long time. In February 2007, after a long day of playing with hundreds of products at the New York Toy Fair, they were discussing their favorite finds and realized that nearly every toy they had seen had some tie to technology. The days of jump ropes and jacks were being replaced by electronic Skip-its and GameBoys. At that moment they knew toys had crossed the digital Rubicon.
Technology is rewiring everything we know about playing, sharing, reading, and even writing. It's time to rethink which skills are important for kids in the 21st century, and how play can help teach them. With a nod to Jean Piaget, Maria Montessori, and Fred Rogers, they recognized that some of the most productive play happens in the sandbox. This is where kids learn to share, create, and imagine. This is where critical thinking and collaboration co-exist. This is where the skills that play teaches are born and bred. And so they created Sandbox Summit® to spark the kind of interactions that promote play for all the right reasons.
What we do:
Sandbox Summit® is a series of conferences designed to address how technology affects the ways kids play, learn, and connect. As technology is woven into every aspect of our children’s lives, Sandbox Summit raises the bar on questions surrounding the use and development of their new toys and tools.
Through high-energy panels, innovative demonstrations, original research, and thought-provoking discussions with industry and media leaders, analysts, journalists, analysts, educators, and parents, each Summit strategically intermingles disciplines and viewpoints. By creating a dynamic forum for conversation around play and technology, Sandbox Summit strives to ensure that the next generation of players becomes active innovators rather than passive users of technology.
The role of research:
Research is needed to ensure that the ways we use technology in children's toys and media are as wise as they are wide. Sandbox Summit® supports and solicits academic studies and ideas that address the changing environment of play. Our aim is to present original research at each of our major conferences. At the inaugural Sandbox Summit® at CES 2008, The Joan Ganz Cooney Center unveiled their groundbreaking work entitled D is for Digital. Please see our Events page for original research presented at subsequent Sandbox Summit® conferences.
Advisory Board:
Learn more about the people who support the Sandbox Summit®.
TEAM PLAYERS
Claire is the president of Parents’ Choice Foundation, the nation’s oldest nonprofit guide to quality children’s media and toys. Since taking the helm in 1999, Claire has been determined to preserve and promote the organization’s reputation as a leading authority in and advocate for quality children’s media and toys. One of the ways she does that is by getting down on the floor herself and playing with her minions of mini testers. Claire serves on the selection committee for the National Toy Hall of Fame® at the Strong National Museum of Play® and was a member of the 2011 Nomination Committee for the TOTY Awards. Prior to heading Parents’ Choice Foundation, Claire wrangled the national press corps for Presidential visits, the international press for the 1996 Olympics Broadcasting Unit, produced award-winning film and video projects, served as Deputy Campaign Manager for a U.S. Senate race, and directed large-scale public events. Claire lives in a cabin in the middle of the woods in Maryland with her husband and dog Sammy. READ MORE >
Wendy has been an astute player in the children’s toy and media industry for nearly 20 years. She tests, evaluates, and rates products, and often blogs about the best of them. Because her office is wall-to-wall toys, she refers to her business appointments as “playdates.” Wendy has held senior editorial positions at Nick Jr. Family Magazine, Parents, and Toy Wishes. At all three publications, she established synergistic relationships with the magazines’ online counterparts. She has appeared on numerous television shows, and has been interviewed by national publications discussing both parenting and play. She was a member of the 2011 Nomination Committee for the TOTY Awards. Wendy earned a B.S. at Cornell University. She and her husband, Paul, live in Westport, CT. They have three children whom she credits with keeping her up to speed in social media, since they text more often than they call. READ MORE >
Scot is Creative Director of the MIT Education Arcade, a research director in the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program, and a founding member of the Learning Games Network. He is a designer of award-winning educational games, working in both academic and commercial environments, and his work has focused on what is authentically playful in challenging academic subjects. He is the creator of the acclaimed Zoombinis series of math and logic games, and leads a number of projects in the Education Arcade, including Vanished, the MIT/Smithsonian game (environmental science), Labyrinth (math), Kids Survey Network (data and statistics), Caduceus (medical science), iCue (history and civics) and the Hewlett Foundation’s Open Language Learning Initiative (ESL). It was while designing Zoombinis, that he kept recovering his earliest memories of childhood play, and began to recognize all the ways those play experiences continue to be a significant component of his work. Scot is married to Marcia Hulley, an award-winning TV producer at WGBH. They are the parents of sons Willie and Peter. READ MORE >
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