INTERVIEW:
Question 1
What is the function of products like the CD ROM Casper?
Answer
In the Casper educational product we are trying to teach children how to read by giving
them the experience of the storybook and the richness of all the words and vocabulary in
games and activities around the full story of the movie Casper.
Question 2
What do you think are the benefits of an interactive multimedia experience for children?
Answer
All kids basically like to control and understand the world around them, so they love
playing with the computer because they can have the one-on-one direction where they make
all the decisions. So anytime you can take an educational experience and put it under a
child’s control, they’ll have a richer experience and learn so much more than
when something is fed to them in a passive way.
Question 3
What do you think will be the relation between Internet and the CD ROM in the next few
years?
Answer
We think that Internet embedding into CD ROM technology is going to explode over the next
few years. The reason that it’s so exciting is that all educational software in the
past has been one child and one computer. Finally with the Internet now, we can have
collaboration where children work together to solve problems, and even the things they
learn from the product won’t be as important as the teamwork skills they learn by
working together.
Question 4
What do you think is the future of the WWW in education?
Answer
I think the WWW is going to take education to incredible new heights. The ability for
children to do research and learn the process of doing research and making discoveries for
themselves is going to help them so much in later life. The resources of the WWW are
expanding at such a rapid pace that it really is going to allow new forms of educational
opportunities for kids.
Question 5
At what age do you think children should start using computers and the WWW?
Answer
I think that children should begin using computers at a very early age. In fact, we make a
product called Jump Start Toddlers for one and a half-year old children. I think children
at that young an age already have the ability to understand the cognitive motion of the
screen and the mouse and the keyboard to be able to have the beginning levels of
interaction. I think the earliest age for children to begin using the WWW is probably
about seven or eight years old, when they have the socialisation skills to collaborate and
to work with other kids.
Question 6
Do you think it’s possible to adopt precautions to avoid the young being exposed to
the dangers of the Internet?
Answer
I think there are some really powerful ways that the Internet can be made very safe for
children. There are a number of different filters that protect where children can go and
look and there are also new software technologies, including Java, that allow interactive
experiences to be made that really make the Internet powerful collaboration but not allow
the children to go look at places where they shouldn’t be.
Question 7
What do you think about the Clinton administration’s School 2000 Initiative that
plans all schools to be wired by the year 2000?
Answer
I think it will be a great day when every child has access to a computer and to the
Internet. One of the great things we try and do at Knowledge Venture is get the widest
reach we can. We would love to influence 50 million children around the planet with great
educational software. So when the day comes that every school is wired and every child
-regardless of economic level - has access, we will be very, very pleased.
Question 8
Is it possible to keep commercial activities away from educational environments geared
directly toward the younger?
Answer
I definitely feel it’s possible to make educational software free of commercial
activities. The educational software business is exploding so rapidly and the profit
potential is so great that just the sales of the software itself can fund the educational
environment without having to resort to commercial initiatives blended in with the
software.
Question 9
What are you doing to connect kids around the world?
Answer
We’re really trying to get kids from all over the planet to work together on our
software products and collaborate. We’re making a new knowledge LAN product that
allows real time translation from Italian into English and vice versa, and ten other
languages, so that children from Italy would be able to log onto our Web server and
communicate and collaborate with children in America or anywhere on the planet to be able
to work in a process that teaches them things in a way never before possible without the
Internet.
Question 10
We’re seeing some sequences of the Italian version of the CD ROM Casper. Which is the
function of this sort of product?
Answer
The Italian version of Casper is a fantastic product. We worked with Steven Spielberg to
take the actual Casper story from the movie and make a storybook that would allow children
to learn how to read. All of it is translated into Italian with all the Italian vocabulary
so that children can learn the words interactively with the storybook in a way that was
never before possible.
Question 11
How is the WWW going to change education?
Answer
I think the WWW is going to change education in a huge way. In the past, all software for
children has been one child-one computer, working in solo arrangement. Now with the WWW,
we can make software products that are collaborative, where children come together and
work on a project, and not only do they learn the lesson plan of the actual project, they
also learn teamwork and collaboration, which is going to be so essential for them later in
life. This is now possible with the WWW.
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