Pen-Top Computer May Be a Help to Some Children With Disabilities

For sheer gee whiz alone, the latest technology gizmo is worth checking out.  It is called “the FLY”, and it is from LeapFrog Enterprises, the same people who make the LeapPad for students in the early stages of literacy.  The FLY is not yet on the market, but it is projected to retail for $99.00.

The FLY is being described as a pen-top computer.  While this may be a bit of an oversell, it does do some fun and educationally relevant things.  For instance, with specially designed “Flypaper,” a student can draw a piano and then use the FLY to play the keys.  Draw a calculator and then use the FLY to solve problems.  For foreign language exercises, students can write a word in English and hear it translated into Spanish.  There is additional software for test preparation in science, math and social studies.  For geography exercises, the pen-top can tell you the name of the capital of a state when you point to it, play the national anthem of a country when you point to it on a map, and create timed, interactive geography exercises.

Whether the Fly will have applications for children with disabilities remains to be seen, as this technology is still untried in the classroom.  But given its low cost, it does not present a huge investment to try it out and see.  It may in fact help struggling readers and be a useful tool for math exercises.  Even though it will never replace a laptop computer for power and functionality, it is fairly unobtrusive, so a child may be more likely to use it.  One of my personal frustrations is when I fight hard for a laptop at the parents’ request, and the school finally complies, only to have the child refuse to use it because of the “geek factor”.  Most teens would rather do anything other than use a piece of technology that stigmatizes them as different.  In any event, the FLY satisfies my personal fantasy from third grade, when I looked at my pencil in math and wished that it could give me the answers.  Now it can.

To read the LeapPad Enterprise  press release for the FLY (in .pdf format), click here.

Comments

[Lisa Hannum]

I heard this gadget was recently featured on the 10:00 news so I looked into it - sometimes things seem too good to be true. Prior to purchasing, and I've since seen them at Target, you might be interested in some "kid reviews" of the same product on Amazon.com.