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New 'Pentop' Computer To Help Children Learn
theodp writes "Educational toymaker LeapFrog is introducing the Fly "pentop" computer, a talking computer hidden within a pen the size of an electric toothbrush. Available in mid-October for $99 at Wal-Mart and Target, the device responds to written commands and is aimed at 9-14 year-olds who can use it as a calculator, a calendar, to create and record music, and to play logic and geography games."
I have 2 kids who are about 14, and I got to say there is no way I would give them something that costs $99 and is the size of a pen. They would loose it in 3 days.
Erlang Developer and podcaster
Leapfrog Talking Pen
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
I said consummate v's...CONSUMMATE!
great!
Now how can I tell my children that hiking, climbing, biking gives much more fun than electronic gadgets??? Do you really think such gadgets are good for children?
Somehow I am getting more and more sceptical about these pseudo-educational gadgets.
michal
Is it just me, or does this gadget come across as just ... stupid and overpriced ? Seriously, you have to buy their "special" paper to use it!
Why would you pay so much for a device without a screen? You can pick up a Palm Zire 31 for around USD$130 and you get something that kids would think is SO much better than a talking pen.
"[the pen] can "see" what you write, read it out loud, and respond to written commands."
Oh yeah, I can just see kids using it to spell a whole load of non-educational words and have the pen read them out aloud in the classroom. LOL!
I really doubt they'll sell a whole lot of them. The whole concept is rather pointless, really. You can use your phone for far more, it may be bigger, but at least it's wifi! And I suppose you can make calls on it. As a great comedian once pointed out, you buy hundreds of pens, but where's one when you need it? This product will not last very long.
We just had a thread on the future of technology in schools.
Something tells me that this is not it. Seriously.
If it didn't need this special 'paper' I would find it more interesting, that and an API/development kit for authoring my own applications for the device.
Using any flat surface (within reason) as a 'tablet'/gestural interface interests me greatly.
It took me a while to get hang of using the calculator (the circled "C" is the shortcut), one of Fly's really cool features. Following Fly's instructions, you draw a calculator box with numbers including "plus" and "minus" symbols on a piece of Fly paper. Then, you tap the numbers you want to calculate with the pen, and the gadget makes additions, subtractions, divisions, and multiplications for you. Here, too, you need good handwriting.
OK, so I need special paper, good handwriting, I draw a picture of a calculator, tap the numbers, and it speaks the answer. What could be simpler?
The UI on this thing sounds horrible, and the features it provides don't sound fun or useful, but other than that, it seems like a great device.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
This pen could be better utilized as a utility for the disabled, the blind could use it to learn how to write, could they not? Or it could be used as a tool to help the learning disabled.
Those guys have some pretty badass website, check it out: http://www.liveonthefly.com/
Seeing bad movies only encourages them. Watch responsibly
Yeahh... but does it run Linux?
there was a learning toy that consisted of an electronic pen, which you would press the tip to the pages of special work books made for it, and it would beep and light up to indicate if the answer was right or wrong. The "pen" was pretty large and bulky, and it was a black color. Does anyone remember what the name of it was?
Nothing a self-respecting spy would use, but it might make a good Police Inspector Gadget.
hejdig.
/OF
Remove the neccessity for special paper (with an accelerometer or some fancy triangulating gadget) and increase its computing power by connecting it to a computer or PDA (by bluetooth) and you might have something. I am not sure exactly what but something.
For instance have the pen somehow buzz which way to draw a line and it/you could make up a new interface on the fly.
I have tried digital whiteboard and wacom board and these solve other problems. If someone figures out how to put these solutions together into yet another solution we might have a cool thing.
I bet it's based on technology from Anoto. The whole thing sounds very much like what their technology is said to be capable of, and the "special paper" is very much in line as well. Cool application, but it does sound rather annoying, heh.
main(O){10<putchar(4^--O?77-(15&5128 >>4*O):10)&&main(2+O);}
...
I'll get my coat.judging by the number of 9-14 year-olds that told me how bad they "pwnd my n00b ass" at Counter Strike last night, something tells me they are beyond this.
I wonder how many "Easter Eggs" are hidden in this baby's handwriting / command recognition system.
Like:
"Tell me a rude joke"
"Fart!"
etc.
If I were a programmer devloping that thing, I'd find it hard to resist sticking a few in!
"Absorbing your worst..."
RED RUM!!!
only catches on when the porn industry starts supporting it. hmm... okay, maybe it's not their target audience
Imagine a version that had a built in spell checker - you start writing then suddenly the pen takes over, your hand is mysteriously guided back to the start of the current word, you are powerless to resist as the pen forces you to strike a line through the word and then places you underneath the excision. Despite your writhing, your hand takes on a mind of its own and slowly and neatly traces out the letters r-e-c-e-i-v-e-d
AT&ROFLMAO
that will get lost very easily and run out of battery even quicker when you can buy a good old fashioned everything that it can do for less? The target age is 9-14 but by the time I was 12 any pen larger than the deluxe BIC one with a rubber grip was already too phony for us "teenagers". I highly doubt anyone older than the age of 11 would really want a $99 penputer to show off in english class. The games will probably get really boring really quickly and the pen will loose its snazz.
The point is, technology has only become a necesity of life because we've made it one, but notime soon will kids be behind technology for not owning a little expensive leapfrog pen. I tried organizing life on a palm pilot once in middle school only to realize it was horribly inconvenient. An expensive pen that doesn't have half the functionality of a palm pilot wouldn't be any different.
who wants to enlighten me
...and that's all there is to it.
okay, razor, blade, which do we sell the most to get the most profit from?
oh, i know: CUSTOM PAPER!?!?!
screw it. if you have to have custom paper to use this pen, why do you have to do circle-M to get to the menu? can't they just print a 'menu button' on the paper, and have you tap it to get the goods?
pass. no thanks.
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Great! Pretty soon parents won't ever have to interact with their children, a talking computer will do it all for them!
My wife is 8 months pregnant and has arranged her life and job to allow her to stay home with the child and then work part time as a nanny and bring the child with her.
Why the hell would anyone just toss a talking pen at a kid and leave them be? Why not instead sit down with them and HELP them learn. Computers don't help anyone learn anything. They are merely a delivery device.
I'm a Sys Admin, I have 4 computers in my home, my child won't have his or her own computer until Highschool at best. Learning tool my ass, the only they help you learn is how to download music and pr0n.
Apple free since 1990!
No one have a link of the NetBSD port for this thing yet?
Instead of charging $99 for a stupid talking device that doesn't even have a screen, and then having it compete against their Gameboy SP's and PSP's, how about develop some software for their portable devices.
Like.. put some educational interactive software on a PSP UMD disk. Make it so the kid has to get to certain levels in his educational software in order for him to 'earn' PSP time to play his games.
The idea of some $99 device that 9-14yo's will talk to annoys the hell out of me. When the fvck can a 9-14yo kid talk aloud and separate himself from friends, school, and family comotion?
Seriously.. the PSP and the Gameboy SP are two of the most ultimate devices that could be used for teaching... Instead, that aspect is completely ignored. Kids carry those things around.. They play them more than the parents control. How about some software that at least makes it so the kid has to spend a third of his time learning to spell or something.
--- We need more Ron Paul!
Geez, I was making fun of this thing back in January. I'm used to seeing stories on Slashdot 3 days or so after they break, but 8 months is a little long.
www.HearMySoulSpeak.com
A) Yes, but can it run Linux?
B) Imagine a Beowulf Cluster of pens!!!
What the hell is this? A computer for ANTS??? How do you expect Children to fit in this thing? It would have to be at LEAST 3 times the size!!!
I am a big supporter of technology in our school systems - it only makes sense to acquaint kids - to some degree- with what technology is available. However, as per useless technology like this: the focus needs to be taken AWAY from trying to substitute real teaching with toys like this. Plus it's expensive and I wouldn't want my kid taking a $99 pen to school - When I was that age it was hard to keep track of a pencil.
there is less learning being achieved.
before the advent of electronics children learned a lot more than they are learning now, all these electronic gizmos, computers included, are nothing more than a distraction. look at the quality of education in the last 20 years. teachers are using these items as a crutch, its time to go back to the basics
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
If this thing could work so as to encourage children who cannot be bothered to learn to write clearly or draw even simple lines, it could actually be useful at one stage of development. Anyone who thinks to ask for hand-written applications for jobs nowadays will realise that many people cannot write properly, and there are still places where this is essential. Those of us who were educated before progressive education will remember how we were forced to learn to write letters and numbers clearly, use rulers and compasses etc.(and how long it took) Nowadays forcing children does not seem to be an option, but the simple ability to write does not motivate them to learn unless they have very involved parents. So, given the number of parents who are too busy or cannot be bothered, perhaps this thing or a derivative has a place.
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
[i]I bought a seven-dollar pen because I always lose pens and I got sick of not caring.[/i] - Mitch Hedberg (RIP)
How can they use a pentop computer from inside the pen? Something about this doesn't make sense.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
PENS? You mean like friggin Bics?!?! What - it's not enough we gotta worry about computers and cell phones - friggin' PENS now! What's next, toilet rolls?
Jack! Get our lobbyists on pen DRM right away!! With any luck we'll have a bill pushed thru by 6!!
Suzie's about to lose her anal virginity. After that happens, her ass will be very loose.
Bobby's about to lose his button. After that happens, his collar will be very loose.
There's no real need to invoke extreme vulgarity when all that you are trying to do is make a grammar point.
Getting into the habit of being extremely and unnecessarily vulgar is easy, but it's a difficult habit to break. And it can be very costly if you misjudge the extent that it might cause offence.
Just a thought.
My wife and I have purchased several products for our children. Although they're nice products, they're poorly made. We've had several products that have broken and been replaced and then broken again. They also charge an arm and a leg for replacement pieces. I find it very coincidental that they make it extremely easy to replace the parts that keep braking. A simple screw to remove and put a new one in, *gulp* almost as if they planned it that way.
http://www.liveonthefly.com/
I, for one, welcome our new pentop computer overloards!
It would be great to have everyone use this feature during the SATs. Speaking the answer out loud is such a great help to some of us...
As a parent myself, I've personally discovered that LeapFrog really doesn't seem to make *any* products I'd consider very "useful" for kid's learning.
Reading about this latest gadget from them doesn't surprise me much....
My kid was given one of LeapFrog's earlier products when she was 1 or 2... a big plastic caterpilar pull-toy that speaks letters and sounds of the alphabet when each of its legs (corresponding to one letter each) are pressed. IMHO, this was probably the most sensible/useful thing they've offered in their product line, and for my kid, even it wasn't that good. By the time she was old enough to really get anything out of the whole concept - she wanted it served to her in some other format besides a "toddler pull-toy". (She's 3 now, and learning her alphabet using much cheaper but more effective toys, such as a cardboard alphabet train puzzle, where a letter and picture of something starting with that letter are printed on each "train car" in the puzzle. Not to mention, presenting it visually allows her to learn how to write both the uppercase and lowercase version of the letters.)
If you're willing to invest a little bit of time in working with your kid, you can speak things like vowel and consonant sounds to him/her and save the $30-50 one of these speaking toys costs you - and he/she will probably learn more quickly coming from your own mouth anyway.
As another poster commented, their "special dot-matrix FLY paper" sounds a lot like Anoto paper, which means you can use the pen to write anywhere, but for it to actually do anything you need to be using official Anoto-licensed paper. It sounds like they've taken Logitech's and Nokia's digital pen concept and combined it with a kiddie-PDA. Interesting idea.
Have fun: Join D.N.A. (National Dyslexics Association)
Cosby created something very similar to this in the 80's. He had a magic pen called Mortimer Ichabod that looked like a giant bee with a marker shoved up his ass. It made cool noises when you wrote with it that assisted with education (somehow). Check it out: http://www.mystiesplace.com/picturepages/pictures. html
We had this product as an assignment for a group marketing project in my class two semesters back. Three days in, I had to request a new product from my prof because we were convinced this would crash and burn; not one good thing to say about it.
I've seen this pen in use for about nine months. (A friend works at LeapFrog, and I sometimes stopped by to pick her up after work.) And I have to say: It's pretty freaking cool. A few points:
* It doesn't compete (as some commenters have said) with Palm devices or general-purpose computers. Its real competitors are those "toy" computers, electronic learning tools... that is, LeapFrog's other products! It's more a grandchild of the Speak 'n' Spell than the Apple II.
* As a product, it's kind of hard to "get" until demo'd... and then you get it immediately. If I were running the company's PR department I'd launch an aggressive journalist demo program. I did something similar with Globalstar satellite phones as a client... yeah, the company tanked, but we scored some GREAT press in the targeted marine sector. It's a similar product at base: a new, untested solution in a well-established market.
* IMHO, the real application for Fly is outside children's education. For example: Real Estate appraisers and construction pros could draw a room's layout on ordinary-feeling paper and get back square footage, price per square foot, materials needed, etc.
* I can't wait for it to be hacked. Slashdotters, your kids don't need Fly: YOU do.
Tom Geller
Fly Pentop is a fun learning tool for kids. Write a word in english and it will translate it to spanish. It is way cool.
Visit Pentops for more information.
Think Harry Poter folks. Kids and a few adults want a magic wand. They want motions and actions to go with it. They want it personalized to accomodate their behavior. They want to augment the performance with additional features. It is similar to a Swiss Army knife, but not sharp; like the first palm devices, but not geeky; like a full pocket protector, but not nerdy.
We need more READING. It should be a crime to let someone graduate high school who still reads at a sixth grade level.
I run into people at COLLEGE who I think still read at a third grade level.
If you can't read well, you can't collect information and ideas well. If you can't do that, all you've got to form your worldview and reasoning is the vacuum between your ears. Pen sized computers aren't going to fix this. We need to abolish the "let's watch a video and talk about our feelings" curricula and have children READ!
And once they can read, teach them to write. Writing is the process of organizing your ideas. Without the ability to organize and coherently express your thoughts, how are you ever going to think clearly about different opinions? Formulate new ones? How are you ever going to be understood by anyone?
No, the biggest thing missing in education is not more technological toys. The thing education sorely needs is some actual education. Did you know first grade teachers are no longer allowed to correct students' spelling? Have you ever seen a first grader spell? Did you know there are still schools that don't teach basic phonics? This produces a generation of children who go through all of grade school but still cannot read. Oh, sure, technically they can "read," but they have no ability to sound out new words, cannot derive definitions from the syllables of new words, and sure as hell can't spell. The very building blocks of literacy I grew up with are now unheard of in public schools.
And some assclown thinks pen-sized computers are going to help. Teach the kids how to use a real pen first, then the pen computer might be of some use.
I remember the last time they had this technology... when it was called "Mortimer Ichabod Marker".
At 14 I was already working towards buying my first car so I could get my driver's permit at 15 1/2. If your kids are that careless as to lose a hudred dollar gift at that age, I seriously hope you're not expecting them to be mature enough to drive a motor vehicle in two years.
Used to be, 14 was young adulthood, with responsibilites and learning experiences, but with the allowances for failure that being a minor allows. Nowadays it's 30 year olds acting like clueless children, suing everybody for everything they do wrong, and 50-70 year old politicians writing off accidents and crimes during their late 30's as "immaturity" or "indescretion of youth".
Sheesh.
This is just another step toward finding someone to beat the Buggers.
Ursula Andress, Catherine Deneuve, and Charo, twice...