• TV
  • MOVIES
  • MUSIC
  • SHOWBIZ
  • SOAPS
  • GAMING
  • TECH
  • FORUMS
  • Follow
    • Follow
    • facebook
    • twitter
    • google+
    • instagram
    • youtube
Hearst Corporation
  • TV
  • MOVIES
  • MUSIC
  • SHOWBIZ
  • SOAPS
  • GAMING
  • TECH
  • FORUMS
Forums
  • Register
  • Login
  • Forums
  • Gadgets
  • Tablets and e-Readers
Kids and Tablets
thedrewser
23-07-2012
An incident yesterday really made me laugh. My 2.5 year old son was playing his Peppa Pig game on my iPad and my wife was sitting next to him. He said to her what he wanted to do next in the game and my wife went to press the appropriate on-screen buttons to do the task. However, she obviously wasn't quick enough for him as he knocked her hand away and very quickly and easily did the button pressing himself to get to where he wanted to be.

Also, when he discovered gesture control and the app switching ability his face lit up and he was away, flicking between the different games he had active.

I then had a thought:- are kids more tech savvy these days or is technology really that easy to use that an under three can virtually master it?
c4rv
23-07-2012
we use ipad's at foundation year in my kids school and they have no problems working them. My daughter was using an android tablet (with a little help from my son to get her started) when she was 3.

Tablet control is very intuitive, way more then using a mouse and keyboard.
cnbcwatcher
23-07-2012
Maybe the iPads and stuff are very easy to use for kids? I personally prefer mouse and keyboard as I'm an old-school computing girl (I grew up in the era of Windows 3.1-98 so I would be used to keyboard and mouse!). They probably like all the games as well. However I do think kids should learn how to use good old mouse and keyboard as well as tablet devices.
Izak
23-07-2012
I was quite worried about using computers when I was a kid (early 90s). Before we got ours at home when I was 10, I really tried to get out of doing projects on the PC at school because I always thought I would mess something up!

Everything is so much easier these days. The computers at my school were BBCs and Arcimedies both weren't the most user friendly when it came to working them. Then our first home computer ran Windows 3.11, again even attempting to run a game of some kind could end in disaster (or tears when a kids concerned). iPads and PCs these days are simple to use and easy to pick up and play without much fuss.
c4rv
23-07-2012
Originally Posted by cnbcwatcher:
“Maybe the iPads and stuff are very easy to use for kids? I personally prefer mouse and keyboard as I'm an old-school computing girl (I grew up in the era of Windows 3.1-98 so I would be used to keyboard and mouse!). They probably like all the games as well. However I do think kids should learn how to use good old mouse and keyboard as well as tablet devices.”

they do but you can't use a keyboard and mouse till you know how to read which most kids won't know to a sufficient level till they are 6 or more. There is a long (in child terms anyway) period from 3 to 6 where touch screen and icons make a lot of sense. As I said it appears very intuitive.
cnbcwatcher
23-07-2012
Originally Posted by c4rv:
“they do but you can't use a keyboard and mouse till you know how to read which most kids won't know to a sufficient level till they are 6 or more. There is a long (in child terms anyway) period from 3 to 6 where touch screen and icons make a lot of sense. As I said it appears very intuitive.”

There is that. I first learned about computers when I was 6, although my dad tells me I played with them for a bit before that. First version of Windows I used was Windows 98. Oh the many hours I spent playing games on that OS on my friend's computer I have very fond memories of that OS.
LostFool
23-07-2012
I was on a flight last week and across the aisle there was a little 2 or 3 year old girl playing a game on her father's iPad. She was a totally at ease with it - I suppose at that age pointing just comes naturally.

Kids born now will grow up thinking that the keyboards and mice we use belong in the stone age. It's us old gits who will have the problem of adjusting.
cnbcwatcher
23-07-2012
Originally Posted by LostFool:
“Kids born now will grow up thinking that the keyboards and mice we use belong in the stone age. It's us old gits who will have the problem of adjusting.”

I'm 22 and don't get on with tablets. I prefer desktop and laptops. I don't think laptops will die out altogether. Instead there'll probably be an increase in Ultrabooks and Macbook Air-style laptops.
c4rv
24-07-2012
Originally Posted by cnbcwatcher:
“I'm 22 and don't get on with tablets. I prefer desktop and laptops. I don't think laptops will die out altogether. Instead there'll probably be an increase in Ultrabooks and Macbook Air-style laptops.”

there is a market for both right now. Laptops are great for content creation, tablets for content consumption. Though saying that I am going on a two week trip (inc. 8 hour flight) and I am planning on taking my transformer & vega and leave netbook and laptop at home.
thedrewser
24-07-2012
There are periodic reports on tech sites of experiments with technology where you don't even have to physically touch a device to make it do what you want, so I expect in about 30 years time even touch screen tablets will be classified as old fashioned and nobody will remember what a mouse and desktop PC was unless you go to a museum.
c4rv
24-07-2012
Originally Posted by thedrewser:
“There are periodic reports on tech sites of experiments with technology where you don't even have to physically touch a device to make it do what you want, so I expect in about 30 years time even touch screen tablets will be classified as old fashioned and nobody will remember what a mouse and desktop PC was unless you go to a museum.”

Direct control via monitoring brain patterns or by visual indicators is already available, not quite at consumor level yet but its coming.

Also kinect shows that you can have a touch interface but operate it remotely.
VIEW DESKTOP SITE TOP

JOIN US HERE

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Hearst Corporation

Hearst Corporation

DIGITAL SPY, PART OF THE HEARST UK ENTERTAINMENT NETWORK

© 2015 Hearst Magazines UK is the trading name of the National Magazine Company Ltd, 72 Broadwick Street, London, W1F 9EP. Registered in England 112955. All rights reserved.

  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Complaints
  • Site Map