10 October,2010 09:41 AM IST | | Sowmya Rajaram
Toddlers as young as two are being sold laptops that help build vocabulary, and augmented reality books allow them to hold a page up to a webcam so that characters jump out in 3D colour. That's if they have escaped gadget bombing in the womb, with a sound recorder that plays mommy's voice when the foetus is disturbed.u00a0Sowmya Rajaramu00a0looks at the kiddie gadget revolution
If you thought the iPad would make a great gift for your child when he turns 18, you might be a little late on the ball. Toddlers of tomorrow may be pushing tablet touchscreens and grappling with 3D before they learn to spell properly, if the latest gadgets expected to launch in the market for kids as young as three, are any indication.
Take a look at the Genius Kids Designer, a pen tablet launched by Inspan Infotech last month, for kids aged 3 to 8. Equipped with a 5" x 8" screen, in-built games and a 'pen', the tablet aims to teach children how to draw, paint and write while learning about colours and geography. It can be connected to the computer using a USB port. It also supports Windows 7, Vista and XP.
Kumaravel V, Product Manager, Inspan Infotech, says, "It is meant to accelerate learning in children." Isn't a tablet at age three a bit much? He doesn't think so. "It's a great learning tool. It's not like people do not already have electronic devices for alphabet and number learning. This just takes it one step further."
Books that jump off the page
He's not alone in his belief. Jamie Pitman, Press Officer, The Salariya Book Company, which is behind the Scribblers brand in the UK, appeals to people to " ufffdnot be afraid of new technology, to allow children to use the gadgets that we have created." His stand for technology and innovation in the childrens space is borne out by the wild popularity of the Book, Webcam, Action! series of augmented reality books published by Scribblers.
Simply put, augmented reality means characters in the books jump to life in glorious 3D colour, complete with background music, when held up to a webcam. Here's how it works: "The reader downloads a small program from our dedicated website (www.scribblersbooks.com/bookwebcamaction) which links with the computer's webcam. When the last page of the book is held up to the webcam, a high-contrast part of the illustration acts as a 'trigger image', which then plays the 3D animation on screen," he explains.
So if you hold the trigger image (i.e. the page) upside down, the animation will play upside down. The reader controls the camera angle by moving the book in front of the webcam. We saw a video of the 3D animation at work with Tyrone the Clean 'o' Saurus and What Lola Wants...Lola Gets, two of the titles under the augmented reality series, and came away impressed.
Pitman is quick though, to make a case for the magic of reading a book in actual print. "Although these technologies are becoming widely available, we mustn't forget that at this stage they are still luxury devices, and that to jump headfirst into the e-book and app game while forgetting about print is to ignore the needs of an overwhelming majority of parents and children. As long as technology doesn't become more important than the story, I think we should be okay."
Beyond Barbie and Ken
The sheer range of gadgets masquerading as toys in departmental stores across Mumbai is impressive. Where we made do with a Barbie doll and a Lego toy set, today's two year-olds are spoilt for choice with mini-laptops and shooting games that teach them the alphabet.
At Early Learning Centre in Malad, learning and skill-development is encouraged through toys like the Cash Register and Scanner. Complete with a chip, pin machine, a working microphone for making announcements, play money and a credit card, it's a far cry from the days when our only exposure to money management was in school. Meant for children aged 3 to 8 years, the cash register lets a child understand the concept of money.
Then there's a gaming console called V Smile TV Learning System, available at Landmark stores across the country, which lets your child fire alphabets, quite literally. Describing it as a "very innovative gadget", Velu Rajaram, Head of Gifts, Toys, Stationery, Landmark Ltd., says it helps children learn through gaming. Plug it into your television, and watch it teach lessons in math, spelling and science as your kids play games that have age-appropriate skill levels. If you think that's cool, the V Tech Challenger laptop (Rs 2,899) will impress you even more. It introduces kids (aged between four and seven) to the basics vaocabulary, and--hold your horses--French.
Usage is important
Educators, however, aren't jumping on to the technology bandwagon with glee just yet. Bubla Basu, senior English teacher at JB Petit School for Girls, is circumspect when she says, "It depends on how it is used. We are living in a gadget-augmented world, and can't escape technology." Chandita Mukherjee, co-founder of Comet Media Foundation, that sources innovative, traditional learning tools from NGOs across the country, agrees.
"There is no one-sided answer to this. I would imagine that it's a good thing because it increases the child's confidence and gives him/her the facility to manipulate things in the electronic world. But we also have to consider if we are turning them into consumers at a young age instead of encouraging active learning in the outside world."
As an example, Mukherjee cites traditional methods of teaching addition and subtraction, which involve working with concrete objects. "Somewhere, a dependence on technology tends to discourage creativity. That's why the software being used is important. Is it open source software like GIMP, that lets you tweak the code to adapt it to the child's needs and encourages a child to think creatively? That's important."
The jury is certainly out on this one. But something tells us that your toddler is going to have to adapt to gadgets far sooner than you did.
Trend forecast
More tablets in school
Says Jamie Pitman, Press Officer, The Salariya Book Company, "I think once the iPad drives the competition to make tablets inexpensive and, in the future, somewhat disposable, we'll see a rise in the use of these tablets in schools and homes. Also, all the big players are at loggerheads at the moment, with Apple refusing to support Flash and smartphones not agreeing on which operating system to use. Once these hiccups are sorted, (if they ever are), we'll see the development process for things like apps become far more streamlined.
Then, Lola the Leopard, Monty the Meerkat and Tyrone the Clean 'o' Saurus are preparing for more adventures in 3D. Carolyn Scrace and David Salariya are working on two new titles, which will showcase more augmented reality technology whilst telling an entertaining story."
Sound recorder for baby
"There is a vibrator and sound recorder for mothers to record their voice. It has a sensor tou00a0 detect the baby's movement while it sleeps, and will play the mother's voice to soothe the baby when it is disturbed," says Velu Rajaram of Landmark Ltd.
