![My free write from the other day also brought me back to my childhood. It was at that point when the tactile qualities of books were really honored. The content was secondary to the reading experience, by far. The touch of the book, the physical interaction between the child and the adult are more dominant than the activity at hand. This was really clear to me when I started doing some preliminary research.
Like the liberal arts nerd I am, there was the usual proquest inquiry. I skimmed through a few articles published in anthropology and educational journals, which gave me the encouragement to find something more concrete (which for me, is visual). A few youtube videos of adorable children mastering storybooks led me over to leapfrog. It is here I should note that I am not a parent, or an educator. My teaching experience is at the college level, or with adults, so my understanding of childhood learning is relatively limited.
A quick skim through LeapFrog’s learning products lead me to the “Tag”. It’s an enhanced reading interface that uses a special book and pen-like device that encourages the reader to discover intricacies within the book. It also creates games.
Here’s a blurb from LeapFrog:
The Tag School Reader is an easy-to-use handheld learning tool for students in PreK through Grade 3. This personal learning tool responds to every touch on specially printed books and materials, with audio feedback and on-demand reading assistance. Students reading Miss Spider’s Tea Party, for example, can touch an icon to hear the story read aloud, or touch a single word to hear the pronunciation. Even the pictures come to life for added story context and background information. Engaging activities focus on core reading skills including comprehension, vocabulary development, phonics, and phonemic awareness
The whole system is brilliant. You must buy the special books, the reader, (and of course batteries) to use it. The investment in the reader (about $25, but seems to only come in a package with the books themselves) is relatively nominal, but with books averaging about $13 a piece, they’ve established a system that really pulls you in. After you have the reader, of course you’ll need an entirely new book collection.
My critical side sees it as an elaborate ‘parent replacement’ system for those who can afford it. Part of the system is connection to “Learning Path”, which allows you to monitor your child’s progress, chart the subjects they like, and print out reading awards. It seems to me that if you read with your child, talk with them regularly, and really listen to what they have to say, you can do the same thing without all the gimmicks. However, I am not a parent. Given many people’s doubts and criticisms about the public school system and the inherently obsessive ”my child is better than yours” complex that educated parents seem to have, it really does have a place in our world.
A more grounded and design-related review
When I think about the future of books, in this instance: the reading habits of young children, the LeapFrog Tag system seems like the first step away from the Gutenberg Book. It adds an additional level of interaction and exploration to the physical interface, much like flash to a website. It is, however, still very grounded in traditional reading practices. The pages are still paper, and the Tag device is used with the same orientation as a writing utensil (a secondary training purpose, I’m sure).
In my opinion, as an exploratory, kinesthetic-type, there are a few downsides to the ‘slightly improved’ book interface (ie. the Tag system).
First - Tactility
Beyond my personal experience, most people I have spoken with about books references their smell and the texture of the pages. This might be a purely romantic phenomenon that will slowly erode with new technology, but it points to the sensory information received during reading that is not visual.
The Tag pen is plastic. The smooth and consistent shape will acquire some scratches over time, but for the most part isn’t terribly exciting when it comes to Touch. With most of our world now synthetic, does reading have to involve hours gripping a hunk of HDPE containing battery acid and lead?
[Well thought, though, is the diameter of the pen. Kids take a while to acquire fine motor skills.]
The singular object pulls creative, little hands away from the book and forces them, constantly, on the utensil. As much as we can all grab a pen and take notes for an hour or so (comfortably), isn’t it better to be touching 3 dimensional Shapes, using your full hand? Moving your fingers around, exploring the surface, the qualities of rough and smooth.. knowing that your fingers are touching an image, or a particular part of it.
I know we are supposed to be “trained” for future work, but does it need to be mandated through reading? Anyhow, as a grown-up, I’m not exactly happy having my hand on a rock sized piece of plastic for 10 hours a day.
Second - Variation
As you click through the book with the Tag pen, there are options for exploration, There seems to be a (finite) amount of interactivity per page, but with additional features such as musical games and sound effects. This is one of those gray areas. Yes, this is super-cool. Yes, it’s going to fun the first 10 times or so. Yes, it’s a step up from some old ‘boring’ book with words and pictures (training us to require multi-modal media for our attention). But, at the same time, it’s limiting.
I could go either way on this. Using imagination trumps everything. But I know that oftentimes, adults imagination-engines are rusty. They’ve read the book six times already, and as much as they have unbounded love for their kid, it’s an eye roll and the laundry list of stuff running in the background of their heads.
What could be better? Well, other than surgically installing a magical “act like a kid” chip into everyone over the age of 30 (yeah, sorry, didn’t know where to put that number), I’m not sure. I’m a proponent for interpersonal play. Yes, I’m including imaginary friends. Where does that leave us? Perhaps something that is slightly less limited by the 5mb of memory in the book/reader? Perhaps a system that could store and integrate the child’s ideas and suggestions into the reading feedback? Perhaps a remix of stories, using the same characters as the (original) book in some sort of mutable format?
Something along those lines. If we’re going to put technology into this age-old mix, it better by dynamic.
Third - Sound
Part of being read aloud to is hearing the change in tone and pitch. Not to mention the experience of sitting on an adult’s lap and feeling their breath rise and fall, feeling the expulsion of air as sounds are made.
I’m making no move towards suggesting a robot-replacement of Mom, but if we’re going to use technology, let’s make it rewarding. The single speaker situated at the top of the Tag has a pretty sharp sound to it. I’m not sure if it’s always the same voice (they probably have a set of actors they use routinely), but it’s always that fake-sounding “you’re being read aloud this very happy and educational book!”. Let’s not delude participants of the future. They know there’s more to being a human than acting like a tv character. For something as intimate as reading, this needs a personal and warm quality to it that also can possess a range of emotions children can connect to.
//That seemed like a pretty thorough rundown and a long post for me. I’ll pick up on this again later and see where it takes me.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kzij5w8fcC1qbr61zo1_400.jpg)
My free write from the other day also brought me back to my childhood. It was at that point when the tactile qualities of books were really honored. The content was secondary to the reading experience, by far. The touch of the book, the physical interaction between the child and the adult are more dominant than the activity at hand. This was really clear to me when I started doing some preliminary research.
Like the liberal arts nerd I am, there was the usual proquest inquiry. I skimmed through a few articles published in anthropology and educational journals, which gave me the encouragement to find something more concrete (which for me, is visual). A few youtube videos of adorable children mastering storybooks led me over to leapfrog. It is here I should note that I am not a parent, or an educator. My teaching experience is at the college level, or with adults, so my understanding of childhood learning is relatively limited.
A quick skim through LeapFrog’s learning products lead me to the “Tag”. It’s an enhanced reading interface that uses a special book and pen-like device that encourages the reader to discover intricacies within the book. It also creates games.
Here’s a blurb from LeapFrog:
The Tag School Reader is an easy-to-use handheld learning tool for students in PreK through Grade 3. This personal learning tool responds to every touch on specially printed books and materials, with audio feedback and on-demand reading assistance. Students reading Miss Spider’s Tea Party, for example, can touch an icon to hear the story read aloud, or touch a single word to hear the pronunciation. Even the pictures come to life for added story context and background information. Engaging activities focus on core reading skills including comprehension, vocabulary development, phonics, and phonemic awareness
The whole system is brilliant. You must buy the special books, the reader, (and of course batteries) to use it. The investment in the reader (about $25, but seems to only come in a package with the books themselves) is relatively nominal, but with books averaging about $13 a piece, they’ve established a system that really pulls you in. After you have the reader, of course you’ll need an entirely new book collection.
My critical side sees it as an elaborate ‘parent replacement’ system for those who can afford it. Part of the system is connection to “Learning Path”, which allows you to monitor your child’s progress, chart the subjects they like, and print out reading awards. It seems to me that if you read with your child, talk with them regularly, and really listen to what they have to say, you can do the same thing without all the gimmicks. However, I am not a parent. Given many people’s doubts and criticisms about the public school system and the inherently obsessive ”my child is better than yours” complex that educated parents seem to have, it really does have a place in our world.
A more grounded and design-related review
When I think about the future of books, in this instance: the reading habits of young children, the LeapFrog Tag system seems like the first step away from the Gutenberg Book. It adds an additional level of interaction and exploration to the physical interface, much like flash to a website. It is, however, still very grounded in traditional reading practices. The pages are still paper, and the Tag device is used with the same orientation as a writing utensil (a secondary training purpose, I’m sure).
In my opinion, as an exploratory, kinesthetic-type, there are a few downsides to the ‘slightly improved’ book interface (ie. the Tag system).
First - Tactility
Beyond my personal experience, most people I have spoken with about books references their smell and the texture of the pages. This might be a purely romantic phenomenon that will slowly erode with new technology, but it points to the sensory information received during reading that is not visual.
The Tag pen is plastic. The smooth and consistent shape will acquire some scratches over time, but for the most part isn’t terribly exciting when it comes to Touch. With most of our world now synthetic, does reading have to involve hours gripping a hunk of HDPE containing battery acid and lead?
[Well thought, though, is the diameter of the pen. Kids take a while to acquire fine motor skills.]
The singular object pulls creative, little hands away from the book and forces them, constantly, on the utensil. As much as we can all grab a pen and take notes for an hour or so (comfortably), isn’t it better to be touching 3 dimensional Shapes, using your full hand? Moving your fingers around, exploring the surface, the qualities of rough and smooth.. knowing that your fingers are touching an image, or a particular part of it.
I know we are supposed to be “trained” for future work, but does it need to be mandated through reading? Anyhow, as a grown-up, I’m not exactly happy having my hand on a rock sized piece of plastic for 10 hours a day.
Second - Variation
As you click through the book with the Tag pen, there are options for exploration, There seems to be a (finite) amount of interactivity per page, but with additional features such as musical games and sound effects. This is one of those gray areas. Yes, this is super-cool. Yes, it’s going to fun the first 10 times or so. Yes, it’s a step up from some old ‘boring’ book with words and pictures (training us to require multi-modal media for our attention). But, at the same time, it’s limiting.
I could go either way on this. Using imagination trumps everything. But I know that oftentimes, adults imagination-engines are rusty. They’ve read the book six times already, and as much as they have unbounded love for their kid, it’s an eye roll and the laundry list of stuff running in the background of their heads.
What could be better? Well, other than surgically installing a magical “act like a kid” chip into everyone over the age of 30 (yeah, sorry, didn’t know where to put that number), I’m not sure. I’m a proponent for interpersonal play. Yes, I’m including imaginary friends. Where does that leave us? Perhaps something that is slightly less limited by the 5mb of memory in the book/reader? Perhaps a system that could store and integrate the child’s ideas and suggestions into the reading feedback? Perhaps a remix of stories, using the same characters as the (original) book in some sort of mutable format?
Something along those lines. If we’re going to put technology into this age-old mix, it better by dynamic.
Third - Sound
Part of being read aloud to is hearing the change in tone and pitch. Not to mention the experience of sitting on an adult’s lap and feeling their breath rise and fall, feeling the expulsion of air as sounds are made.
I’m making no move towards suggesting a robot-replacement of Mom, but if we’re going to use technology, let’s make it rewarding. The single speaker situated at the top of the Tag has a pretty sharp sound to it. I’m not sure if it’s always the same voice (they probably have a set of actors they use routinely), but it’s always that fake-sounding “you’re being read aloud this very happy and educational book!”. Let’s not delude participants of the future. They know there’s more to being a human than acting like a tv character. For something as intimate as reading, this needs a personal and warm quality to it that also can possess a range of emotions children can connect to.
//That seemed like a pretty thorough rundown and a long post for me. I’ll pick up on this again later and see where it takes me.
