today´s children are growing up immersed in media

Recent studies such as the Kaiser Family Foundation's 1999 Report on Kids Media & The New Millennium (Roberts et al, 1999) and the Markle Foundation's 2000 Report on Children and Interactive Media (Wartella et al., 2000) indicate that young people now spend as much time using media as they do in school, with family or friends. Research has also shown that playing computer games is the most common way that all children ages 2-18 use computers (Huston et al, 1999; Roberts et al, 1999)). Simply by virtue of the amount of time and attention that young people spend in digital playscapes, one may argue that their external landscapes of learning are dramatically shifting.

Researchers such as Prensky (2001) and members of the Next Generation Forum (1999) contend that internal land-scapes of learning (including cognitive structures and abilities for a creative lifelong learning) are also shifting. For instance, Prensky suggests that today's children process more information more rapidly than previous generations and that linear instruction may actually be detrimental to young minds wired for non-linear and parallel processing. He maintains that for most young people today, visual intelligence skills supercede those of verbal intelligence. Consequently, images have become the primary means of experience and expression; text is secondary. Finally, he suggests that social connectedness is experienced much differently in digital generations

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digital playspaces have unique characteristics

Digital playspaces have unique characteristics, such as character identification, active engagement, opportunities for sensorimotor practice, control over decisions and outcomes, adaptive and powerful interfaces, response elicited by feedback, microworlds controlled by the user, and fantastic tools (Salomon, 1990 and 1998; Galvis, 2001). Learning more about how children use these features may help us better understand the attraction and the educational potential educational these technologies.

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research on digital playspaces: many unknowns.

Researchers (Downes,1994; Murray, 1999) have suggested that interactive play on computers has the potential to substantially improve computer literacy skills and to influence attitudes towards technology.

Griffiths and Hunt (1995) report that fun is stated as the main reason for playing for both sexes and that computer playing for most children is fairly absorbing and harmless activity. For a small minority of children it may be problematic (Griffiths, 1997).

Research also shows that aggressive behavior may result from playing video and computer games, especially among young children, but that it may also promote cognitive and educational progress, and social interaction among young people (Durkin, 1995; Emes, 1997).

Despite these trends, very little research is available about what young people learn through their engagement with digital playscapes, if and how they transfer knowledge and skills from these environments to their analog lives, and how transfer may be facilitated through the design of play environments as well as their contexts of use. Similarly, parents and teachers are generally not aware of the learning potential of technology-enhanced play and cannot assess the quality of various digital playscapes

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