I was very excited when Doug shared with me the fact that his brother Mike’s math doodle has been posted on Vi Hart’s page. One person doing these things is already wonderful. Two people starts to look like a movement.
In this era of slick iPads and Flash and glossy screens, there is something immensely appealing about going back to telling animated stories with nothing but pencil and paper — albeit transformed by the relatively recent availability of digital video recording and internet sharing.
Also, this is a creative form that I can see children learning to do, to express their own original thoughts and ideas. Not only wouldn’t it require them to go through the intermediate step of learning some commercial software package or other, but it’s also more expressive. In fact, on a certain measure of expressiveness, it could be argued that there is nothing more powerful than the combination of human voice and drawing with pencil on paper.
Maybe the future has just become a little friendlier.
My 9 yr old is hooked on Vihart site! Thanks so much for this!