We have come a long way in the past decades regarding our knowledge, experience, and thoughts on the potential of information technology for enhancing young children's development. The world in which we live is changing rapidly and the field of education is experiencing these changes at an even faster pace. The impact of technology on children’s education has been tremendous. Even more impressive is the growth in the use of multimedia within the child education sector which has accelerated in recent years and looks set for continued expansion in the future. When information technology products were introduced in the early 1980s, the debate centered on the question, "Are computers good for young children?" In those days, there were two schools of thought. While the majority regarded computers as the solution for many problems in the field of education, a few expressed concern about the supposed effects.

Since then, by adopting the various technological tools that were available, we have been able to enhance the amount of their education that kids retain. Kids’ learning has moved out of its box ever since e-learning revolutionized the education system. With e-learning, kids can get past learning for tests and learn for pleasure. Thus, over the years, more and more e-learning tools have been created to provide more enjoyable and interactive ways of learning. One such creation is Animation.

But what role will animation play in kids’ education? Why should we consider it to be so potentially helpful?

Animation creates a lasting impression on the memory of the viewer - and this is the single most valuable reason for its popularity. In fact, animation makes learning more informative, engaging, and works well for kids. All of these elements provide a great platform for kids to learn some basic yet valuable lessons in their early childhood. It has been well established that animated e-learning materials are great to use in educating young minds. Animated characters are large, colorful, and action-oriented and are accompanied by funny sound effects. All these put together bring interest, spice, and lots of surprise. Aside from being great to watch, animation helps in getting a message across that sometimes words, audio or even video alone cannot.

Some of the key advantages of using multimedia and animation for creating effective e-learning materials for kid’s education are:

•Animation – invites and holds kids attention better and longer

•Videos – stimulates visual senses to encourage interaction

•Sound – stimulates the auditory senses similar to music.

Today’s children are much more integrated with technology than those of previous generations. They are always curious about new things and tend to learn more quickly especially if the method is fun and entertaining. Flash animated e-learning solutions helps in arousing curiosity among kids and encourages them to grasp the contents of any subject more easily. Kids can be kept interested in educational subject matter if it contains high quality flash animation and interactive 3D animation is even better for this purpose. That is why 3D animation finds widespread usage in education, especially to engage and educate young minds, enhancing their level of motivation and thus aids progression beyond normal academic standards.

As more and more parents start using computers in their homes, there is a growing acceptance of the belief that a well animated and aesthetically designed e-learning material can serve to enhance, not to supplement, kids education. Thus, we see that animation holds enormous potential for teaching and it has been proved time and again to be a really useful tool. But like any other tool, animation is only helpful when it is needed. We should only use animation when it serves a clear purpose. Kids of all ages are extremely receptive and are easily influenced by things that they visualize. If they are over stimulated by animation at a very young age, they may develop attention deficiency problems which would affect their learning abilities well into their later years. These days, there are many companies offering animated e-learning materials who are more concerned about becoming popular among children, but at the cost of over-stimulating the young minds.

Columbus, Ohio based Cybervation, Inc. is one company who has recognized this problem and that is why they have developed a special look and feel of animation which is unique and specially designed to help children stay focused in their learning without over-stimulating the young mind.

For more information about Cybervation, Inc. log on to http://www.cybervationinc.com or call 614 356 8000 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              614 356 8000      end_of_the_skype_highlighting today!