Three GREAT must read articles:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/05/news/dolls04.4.php - “Play sites offer safe fun — and lucrative advertising space” - Great article from the International Herald Tribune on how 3d virtual world are being used by kids. “Even as the children are having fun, the adults running the sites are engaged in a cutthroat competition to be the destination of choice for a generation that is growing up on computers from day one.”

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2007/06/your_take_roundupvirtual_world.html “Virtual Worlds for Kids Entwined with Real World” is another great article on kids use of 3D worlds. This article is from Media Shift and takes a closer look at Club Penguin and Whyville. Both 3D worlds are aimed at the pre-teen and tween populations.

http://www.xplora.org/ww/en/pub/xplora/practice/examples/kids_and_virtual_worlds.htm This article, “Kids and Virtual Worlds”, it highlights a research/educator that is using virtual 3D worlds with 3-5 year-olds. It is sponsored by http://www.activeworlds.com/.

Regards till my next post,

Dembe:-)