I was involved in thinking about and watching the development of children using computers long before it was widely accepted. Besides, most software for children doesn't require them to listen to anything. They just sit and look. That, of course, has been the chief complaint about television for a half-century. Ideation is the ability to create a vision that's mentally tangible without anything else.
Good readers are good ideators.
An art teacher recently told her, Healy says, that some of her students could not draw a horse without first being shown a picture of one. Some kids are so immersed in visual media that they can't form images in their minds. With a storm howling outside, Healy spent an hour in the school gym with Jemicy's middle school pupils. Each small group was to report back to the larger group. Computers do not have instinct.