This is [the Apple iPad] fresh out of the box with my 9 and 4 year-old sons using it. They had the device in their hands for no more than 1 minute before I turned on the video camera. The game they're playing is Implode! XL:
This was [the XO laptop from OLPC] fresh out of the box. Watch as 4-year-old Isaac uses the XO (OLPC) laptop for the first time:
Videos by Cameron Moll
this shows that children can handle a touchscreen. hardly a surprise considering that the future development of olpc will include a touchscreen too.
it also shows that navigating the old sugar interface is aparently not intuitive, and/or that the touchpad is hard to use. both have been changed since.
what we can not see is, how the children handle the interface on the ipad. how they find new applications, etc.
i suspect that it won't be much different from sugar with its current interface modulo touchscreen vs touchpad differences.
greetings, eMBee.
I think touchscreens are much easier for children to use than any other input mechanism - its a natural movement vs. the eye/hand spacial link needed with a mouse.
That said, do you think the mouse movement skills - matching hand to eye - might be a benefit to children's cognitive development?
HOW DO I PURCHASE AN XO LAPTOP FOR MY CHILD AND DONATE ONE AT THE SAME TIME?
As of: April 6, 2010
?????
Sean