The CITE: A smartbook for kids

Welcome

This blog is dedicated to the topics of Course materials, Innovation, and Technology in Education. it is intended as an information source for the college store industry, or anyone interested in how course materials are changing. Suggestions for discussion topics or news stories are welcome.

The site uses Google's cookies to provide services and analyze traffic. Your IP address and user agent are shared with Google, along with performance and security statistics to ensure service quality, generate usage statistics, detect abuse and take action.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

A smartbook for kids

The 2010 holiday shopping season is months away but Mattel Chief Executive Officer, Robert Eckert, predicts that they have already developed the must have toy, a smartbook device called the Fisher-Price iXL. The device is designed for three to six year olds and includes six applications for books, games, music, and photos. According to Engadget, the home screen was modeled after the iPhone/iPod Touch. The Bits Blog also has a posting about the device and many parents and teachers added interesting comments in the readers’ comments section. Several parents say that their young children already know how to use devices such as laptops and iPhones and they will not be interested in a toy device. Others say that children should not be exposed to technology at such a young age. What do you think?