I have commented on my 9-years old daughter's activities with my EE, which she learned how to use in... about... three hours. (Android-wise young generation.)
She saw in the Edge a potential for her schooling and Math revising. So she asked me if she could borrow it for a couple of hours. And I let her take it.
What she did, on the eve of a "complicated"
Maths exam about multiplication is the following:
- She opened a new Journal on the e-ink side.
- She opened Wikipedia in the tablet side and searched for the multiplication tables and formulas.
- She wrote by hand (and by heart) the tables in the Journal, checking in the Wiki when she was in doubt (11 times 9 can be difficult, you know).
- After she finished and had all the tables handwritten, she opened the Audio Recorder, and using her best "voice talent" abilities, recorded in a very funny way the whole Math Mantra Recitation. This was partly a game, as she was obviously mimicking her Math teacher.
- Then she wrote for her own sake several math operations in the Journal and did her own exercises while she was listening aloud her own recording as a background for memorizing.
She hates studying math, and in this way she enjoyed it very much, because it was all her own "multimedia production".
As she got an A and was very encouraged by the results, then she used a similar method to revise for a Natural Science exam about magnetism.
She rehearsed her long oral presentation by recording it, while reading her own checklist in the Journal with the contents. Then she listened to it critically, to improve the poor parts and brush-up her own speech.
(While I also listened to her, in the next room, I happened to find out that "imán" in Spanish ("magnet") came from the French "aimant", which means "lovers", as the magnet and the iron stick together and do not separate. And I also came to know that "magnet" came from the ancient city Magnesia, where magnetic properties were first observed in stones.)
She also got an A.
So now she is very excited with this Edge-based approach to her elementary school routines, combining internet search, handwritten notes and audio-recording for rehearsing and learning.
She says she likes to do it with the Edge better than in the computer, because "it feels like a book and I love it".
I think it is a pity that the Edge has not been more spread among schools.
While I use it for my own Ph.D. project, and I see many high-school or college students find it helpful in the context of their studies, the experience with my little daughter has made me see that Elementary School children also find an interest in the Edge as a tool for their learning, and it is very easy for them to use it.
Sad to think the "book" concept will probably disappear... Someone said the Edge was not "sexy", but I find books sexier, in their own way, than flat slates. (Is this sick or something?)