(Elaica Zayas) One day, two sessions! The second session today was not what I expected. The session was titled, “Second Screen: Changing the way we watch TV.” I initially thought it would be about creating content solely for smaller screens such as smartphones and tablets. However, it was much more to it. The intent of the session was to understand how to make the most of a second screen in addition to the first screen.
Emma Worrollo, a managing director with The Pineapple Lounge, began with an introduction explaining how to keep the attention of children who use a second screen. She then goes on to explain a project she worked on with an 11 year old girl where she attached a camera to her while she went through her day. She showed the clip of the girl who was talking about how she watches TV shows, Skype’s her friend and plays games on her iPad all at once. She wanted to be able to interact with the television and still use her iPad.
Something I learned new in this session was the actually having two screens when watching television. Simon Cobb, a senior producer at CBBC, and Marc Goodchild, the co-founder of SyncScreen and Partner, discussed a new show on BBC that allowed a child to use their tablet to be apart of the television. Marc demonstrated the iPad connected to the television and how you were actually able to do things live with the television show. It is set to launch in August 2014.
I thought this idea was so interesting. However, I don’t think it is something that will actually keep children’s attention. Multitasking for anyone draws your attention away from focusing completely on one thing. When multitasking, children won’t understand the different things separately. It is often hard for even me to multitask and understand everything that I am doing in its entirety.
It is such an interesting idea but I just don’t think it is something that will be successful in the children’s industry. I’m not to far from the age demographic they are trying to reach so I still understand what it is they want. I just don’t think that is something that would grab their attention and keep it for very long.
Something that would for sure stick with children is allowing for a small player in the corner of the tablet to stream the television while they are playing games, or on social media!