Welcome to Dust or Magic Asilomar!

This will be the only in person Dust or Magic event this year, and the agenda is likely to change. The agenda is designed for demos, talks and informal testing.

 

Friday June 3, 2022

4:00 Check in; Marlin Hall. Informal greetings.

5:00 The Magic of BLUEY, Joe Brumm (by Zoom)
It’s no accident that BLUEY has taken the world by storm. The show scripts are informed by theory, in this case Sara Smilansky.  Previously, Brumm worked as an animator in London and Kenya, where he trained local crews for the BBC/Disney show TINGA-TINGA TALES. Brumm resides with his family in Brisbane, Australia where he founded Studio Joho. Brumm will address us remotely via Zoom. A discussion of Sara Smilanski’s four types of play will follow. Join us by Zoom.

6:00 PM Dinner and Pacific Beach for sunset

8:00 Trends Panel — A Post-Pandemic State of Children’s Interactive Media, Moderated by David Kleeman, with Warren Buckleitner,  Chris Byrne (by Zoom), Jesse Schell (by Zoom) Robin Raskin, Mark Schlichting, Scott Traylor and Keli Winters. Join us by zoom.

• Monetization update: Subscription models vs. free vs. something else
• Lessons from the Bologna Crossmedia Judging (examples will be shows throughout weekend).
• Linear media (Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, YouTube and others)
• Video games (PS5, Nintendo Switch, Steam and other consoles)
• Toys (LEGO apps)
• Schools and libraries (the state of digital curriculum)
• What is the “metaverse” and why should you care?
• New hardware and software

10:00 Lights out…

Saturday June 4

7:30-8:15 Breakfast Buffet (dining hall)

Child development theory is a constant force, like gravity. A pilot must know how gravity works. If you make products for children, it is essential to understand these forces of child development, so they can help you rather than hurt you.

9:00 Constructivism
Part 1/3 of Child Development 101 for the designers of children’s media. Topics include…

• A socio-cultural framework
• Mark Lepper and intrinsic motivation
• Jean Piaget (equilibration, stage theory)
• Maria Montessori
• Sara Smilansky’s types of play in Bluey; and what they mean for parent/child interactions and product design

10:00 Cathy Tran: PlayTest with Kids

Cathy Tran has worked as a UX researcher, content strategist, designer and writer for apps, physical toys, television and playgrounds. Her collaborations have centered around crafting educational and engaging experiences for kids while meaningfully involving and empowering parents and teachers. She’s currently working on projects at Google to define the features of high-quality kids media and to guide designers in creating better products for kids. In partnership with the Cooney Center and Sesame Workshop, she and her colleagues recently launched playtestwithkids.org. The free online toolkit is designed to enable teams to create magical products by conducting meaningful research with kids. The methods, techniques, and examples have been shared by dozens of companies and vetted by child development researchers. The idea is to inspire teams to include children’s voices in their product design process.

11:00 Behaviorism
Part 2/3 of Child Development 101 for the designers of children’s media. Topics include…

• Ivan Pavlov’s stimulus/response
• Good types of rewards to build engagement
• Unintentional punishment
• Praise vs. encouragement
• BF Skinner and conditioning
• Addiction
• Lessons from the casino
• Rewards and flow state

12:00 Lunch

1:30 The Methods and Magic of Fred Rogers with Margy Whitmer, David Kleeman, Warren Buckleitner, Chip Donohue, Roberta Shomburg, Rocio Almanza Guillen, and Dana Winters (some members of the panel will be presenting via Zoom) (4:30 pm EST). Join us by Zoom.

• What’s new from the Fred Rogers Institute in Latrobe
• One little buckeroo, aka Fred’s superpower
• Lifelong Learning
• The magic of slow
• Becoming an advocate for the next generation

3:00 Co-Play and Technology, with Jim Marggraff, CoFounder, CEO and Chairman, Kinoo, Mark Schlichting and Barbara Chase

4:00 Inside the Mind of Scott Traylor (Stuff he’s been thinking about)

4:30 Demos —

• Ogi Todic, Speech Recognition SDKs
• Calm technology, with Roberta Scherf and Chris Bye; PrioHealth

5:30 Kid Panel  Talk to some real experts to see what they’re playing and thinking about. All children welcome.

6:00-8:00 Dinner & Beach and photo in the tree

8:00 A Fireside Chat with Robin Raskin and John Ittelson. What hath the Pandemic Wrought? (It’s not all bad).  A free form deep dive on Zoom, virtual learning, interactive media, streaming services; and whatever else Robin wants to discuss on where Moore’s Law will take us next. Join us by Zoom.

Sunday June 5

7:30-8:15 am Breakfast (dining hall)

9:00 Jennifer Wells, Designing for Children’s Rights Guide History

In January 2018, UNICEF Finland hosted an event to discuss how to better support the rights of children around the world as new products are developed. Over 70 designers, psychologists, neuroscientists, health care specialists, educators, and children’s rights experts came together and developed and published the first version of this guide.

Since then, a core group has continued to meet, to keep the guide evolving. Our goal is to refine new standards for both design and business to direct the development towards products and services that have ethics, and children’s best interests, at their core. Version 2 of the guide is nearly ready and is being shared for comment.

10:00 Cognitive Science and Humanism Part 3/3 of Child Development for the designers of children’s media. Topics include…

• Bruner and cognitive science
• Multiple Intelligence theory
• Representational thinking, symbols and language
• Maslow and the media
• Humanism

11:00 A Fireside Review with David Kleeman

12:00 Lunch and farewells, until next year.

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Making magic isn’t really so hard if you can apply basic psychology. Read the Interactive Designer’s Cookbook on Medium for some examples.