Deb and Indy,

I hope you don't mind if I throw in some thoughts.  I'll first start by
letting you know that I'm 27.

I think that a person's reaction to interactive exhibits is more than just a
byproduct of age.  In general I don't tend to get that much out of a lot of
interactives.  I think like Deb said, that this may have a lot to do with
how I was raised.  We didn't have a lot of money when I was a child so there
were no computers or video games in the house (those were at school or
sometimes a special $.25 treat at a resturant, like the juke box).  However,
there were summer trips to the zoos, museums, historical sites, and
camp-outs at state parks because the expense of those was easier on the
pocket book.  Money was also budgeted for books but even when that became to
hard there was the Reading is Fundamental program at school that made up for
it (thank goodness).  So I was raised to use my imagination.  And most of
the time its better than anything anyone else can think up for me as an
interactive.

However, during my studies to obtain my degree, I really started
understanding that not everyone learns the same way; this particularly came
through when we started looking at interactive exhibits.  Some are visual
learners, some audio, some tactile, some are combinations, etc.  So to just
look at a person's interest in an interactive as just an attraction to
lights, bells, and whistles because of their age can be missing the point of
why they are really attracted to it.  Perhaps it has nothing to do with age
at all but how they were encouraged/taught to learn and relate to world
around them.

So perhaps the best thing to do would be to try strike a balance between
objects, text labels, and interactives keeping in mind the different ways
that people can learn.

Heather Marie

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