“The teachermate features a 2.5-inch screen, 512 MB of memory, and costs only $50,” eSchool News says of a gizmo called the teachermate, which also allows storage on SD cards.
Some Chicago students and teachers are or will be trying the teachermate, with units expected to reach all 500 of the city’s elementary schools in two years.
“In addition to the rollout in Chicago, schools in New York City, Detroit, New Orleans, San Antonio, Phoenix, and the Denver area are piloting the device,” ESL reports. And demo units are apparently available for $50 to educators everywhere, at least in the U.S. In Chicago, JPMorgan Chase is helping to finance the project.
Said to be super-easy to use
“The teachermate,” says ESN, “is lightweight and portable, yet the images on its screen are highly visible. All you have to do is switch on the power button and it’s ready to go. A row of three colored buttons on the top, a circle of arrows to the right, and a big blue ‘enter; button on the left make up all the controls. The software’s learning games are simple and have fun noises and actions for kids to look at.”
Of XO-level importance—or just repackaged drill and kill?
Follow the ESN link, check out the site of the nonprofit Innovations for Learning, including the basic specs and other details of the machine, and let me know your feelings. Valuable innovation? Or just drill-and-kill and a nightmare to educators who favor the constructivist philosophy that permeates the One Laptop Per Child program?
If the teachermate can live up the ballyhoo, it just might be of XO-level importance. The teachermate’s creators want the machine to teach math, too, not just reading. But questions abound
Vs. XO and other alternatives
Just how might the teachermate stack up against not just the OLPC XO but also the usual PCs and the Intel Classmate (latest news here) and the Asus machines—all of them far, far pricier? Could the teachermate be something to use early on before moving to a bigger, better machine?
Are the 2.5 inch color screens big enough to encourage kids in the early grades to read book or at least long stories? That’s smaller than many PDAs but perhaps in the territory of many cellphones. Also, what about the absence of a keyboard, at least of the mechanical variety, unless the USB connection will work with one? Could no keyboard be a plus? Should the very youngest kids be learning handwriting?
Ed issues—even more important than computer ones
More important than the gizmo issues, as I see it, are the educational ones. What do you think of the testimonials and the press clips and the related research and the reading program and other built-in content—plus the related research project to measure results? One plus, as I see it, is an awareness of phonics-related issues (PDF).
Is the teachermate approach, however, too structured? Does it allow sufficient flexibility for teachers and kids? Will it increase or decrease interaction with the actual teacher?
Simply put, is the available curriculum sound? Indeed aligned with the U.S. mainstream, and how aobut the teachermate’s potential for countries outside the States, especially for those that can’t afford XOs for all who could benefit?
If nothing else, is the teachermate helpful for test preparation (yep, I’ve got mixed feelings in that area). Check out the FAQ’s statements on these issues.
Let’s analyze this together
I’m not going to reach any final conclusions now—I’d invite you to help me analyze the product, especially compared to alternatives, including no computers at all, and if you’re an educator and order your own, I’d especially like to hear from you. If you don’t like the teachermate now, could it be improved? How about a version with a larger screen, for example, and a vast library of age-suitable books built in?
Would you want your child learning off a teachermate, and why or why not? That’s the bottom line.
