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New 'Pentop' Computer To Help Children Learn

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the one-more-gadget-for-kids-to-lose dept.

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."

8 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. Missing something by kafka47 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    We just had a thread on the future of technology in schools.

    Something tells me that this is not it. Seriously.

    /K

  2. Leapfrog miss the possible usefullness? by jhoegl · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

  3. Re:Yeah, _THIS_ looks valuable by AndroidCat · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Not to mention that the calculator doesn't have an actual display, just the pen talking. That seems awkward when it's some large number. Any bets that if you start writing the number down (with the pen) as the pen speaks it, you'll interrupt it?

    --
    One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  4. Special paper? Smells like IP licensing :) by Emil+Brink · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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);}
  5. Easter Eggs by Fleetie · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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..."
  6. why spend $99 on something by bLindmOnkey · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

  7. OMG this will fail.. I have a better idea by brxndxn · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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!
  8. Yes, but what does it teach? by panurge · · Score: 2, Interesting
    From the article, I have the impression that to get anything out of it, you need good manual pen manipulation skills and the ability to write clearly. The problem looks like it is probably too big for the target audience- I would hate to have to write with an electric toothbrush size pen, and I have normal size hands.

    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.

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    Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.