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Why Toys Shouldn't Work "Like Magic": Children's Technology and the Values of Construction and Control
    DIGITEL 2007: First IEEE workshop on Digital Game and Intelligent Toy Enhanced Learning 2007
    abstract:
    The design and engineering of children's artifacts–like
    engineering in general–exhibits a recurring
    philosophical tension between what might be called an
    emphasis on "ease of use" on the one hand, and an
    emphasis on "user empowerment" on the other. This
    paper argues for a style of technological toy design that
    emphasizes construction, mastery, and personal
    expressiveness for children, and that consequently runs
    counter to the (arguably ascendant) tradition of toys
    that work "like magic". We describe a series of working
    prototypes from our laboratories–examples that
    illustrate new technologies in the service of children's
    construction–and we use these examples to ground a
    wider-ranging discussion of toy design and potential
    future work.