Underneath Pearson's Poptropica
Dean Groom,
Design 4 Learning,
Dec 07, 2009
Good review of Pearson's Poptripoca, "the virtual world that is the new black for pre-schoolers and primary age explorers." While Peason has been foscused in the mainstream on course manuals and books, experiments like this look at was to commercialize other aspects of education - such as this game that combines social pressure and micropayments to 'look better'. It also seems to have bypassed the filters that 'protect' schoolchildren. "The biggest reason Poptropica is popular in public school – DET have not yet banned it - its accessible. Kids are playing it. If you have kids in 4-11, then chances are they are playing Poptropica. You might not have noticed – it looks just like another cute platformer, but it is a social-network."
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