Kinect Sesame Street allows Kids to Interact With Show

Ever watched your kid jump and down and talk at your TV during Sesame Street like Elmo and company are really listening? Well, now they are. Microsoft and Sesame Street have teamed up to bring Kinect Sesame Street to kids across the nation. The plan is to uses the  Kinect for Xbox 360 to allow children to interact with the show. Instead of merely watching kids will be allowed to actively answer questions, communicate and interact with what is going on in the show. This could help be a boon for Sesame Street which is using the device to develop more interactive content for their television programming. The current Kinect Sesame Street offers only episodes from last season but will offer more episodes in the future and the shows direction will move towards more interactive content. The use of the Kinect for Sesame Street could have further implications for other children's programming and classrooms as a whole.

The Kinect Sesame Street allows children to communicate with what they are seeing in ways they never have before. The program, which is available next week, allows kids to throw balls back and forth with Elmo, count coconuts on with Grover, even communicate with on screen characters who react to what the child says. Sesame Street already has a host of apps, but this will be their first attempt at integrating their television content with your child's interactions.

What Sesame Street hopes to accomplish with this is an active learning environment for your child. With the television being a passive medium many children do not retain information by simply watching. However, through the act of participating with these programs the children are opened up to a more effective learning environment. Other educational programs could soon follow suit. Nat Geo WILD also has a plan in the works.

The impact could reach beyond television and into the classroom. The technology could allow for more advanced subjects to be taught through one-on-one interactive learning allowing individual students and classrooms to receive hands on interactive education. What are your thoughts? Is this something you would buy for your child and what do you think the further implications of this could be?