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I don't understand all the hate in this thread. This is a clever and creative use of technology that combines a favorite toy (iPad) with the one thing it lacks:

I don't understand all the hate in this thread. This is a clever and creative use of technology that combines a favorite toy (iPad) with the one thing it lacks: physical interaction with real world objects. From what I understand (I'm a new dad so I'm still reading and learning), this sort of thing is very important for a developing mind.

wuliwong 12y ago
I'm with you. People citing their absence of research and their certainty that this will be discarded in a day is amusing. What those academic papers lack is an actual product and customers deciding to buy and use that product of their own free will. When someone releases an app to "connect people" or make some day-to-day taks easier, nobody seems to want academic papers to back their claims. I also feel like it goes without saying that this will most likely be discarded in a day but so will 99% of the products we build as startups. That's the great thing about today's environment. We get to experiment in the real world with real people and real products! Enjoy it while it lasts is my suggestion.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- thedufer 12y ago
  > When someone releases an app to "connect people" or make some day-to-day taks easier, nobody seems to want academic papers to back their claims. Most people are qualified to evaluate whether an app is allowing them to connect with others. On the other hand, they are not qualified to evaluate whether a product is educating their child. Education claims are widespread and difficult to disprove, but rarely come with any proof. It is completely rational to expect some.
  - bruceboughton 12y ago
    No it's not. No one is saying buy this and don't play with your kids as well. This is one tool among many.
butterfi 12y ago
The educational world is besieged by companies convinced that their technology is not only the solution to our educational woes, but a fat business opportunity waiting to be exploited. Teachers in classrooms have been burned so many times by technology that fails to deliver and uneven implementation across the district, that they instinctively cover their wallets every time a new company shows up promising to "revolutionize" education. Remember "Baby Einstein"? The company (owned by Disney) makes promises about how using their products will help develop young minds and was contradicted by researchers at the University of Washington. Lawsuits between Disney and UW followed, but Disney did ultimately offer refunds to parents that bought the DVD's. This is a classic example of a for-profit company making dubious claims about the educational value of their product. And Educators get these proposals all - the - time. I've been in the educational/web space for 20 years, and frankly, nothing turns me off faster then saying your new start-up is going to solve education problems. Maybe it will, but you'd better be different then the long line of failed products before you...
- MarcScott 12y ago
  I've been teaching for over 10 years now and have weathered the storms of many technology revolutions in the classroom. Interactive white boards < Virtual Learning Platforms < Netbooks < Flipped Classrooms < 1:1 Tablets It grows very tiresome.
  - dahart 12y ago
    I wish Osmo all the best, and hope it breaks the mold. But I have to agree about schools and tech, and generally about tech and education. Spend more time with your kids, and don't expect an iPad to teach your kids anything, and you'll be in a better place. I say this being a huge lover of technology, having developed ipad apps and video games professionally. The school my kids are in is continually blowing large sums of money buying technology that they don't leverage in the classroom. They can't leverage tech in the classroom, the teachers aren't developers, and they're not even trained in basic tech, and they don't have the money for the training because they're spending the money on e-whiteboards. The money would go so much further paying for art teachers, or supplies, or school activities, or almost anything. Our art classes are no longer funded by the state or school district, the school hires a part time art teacher to teach a class once a week, or maybe every other week. And yet they're buying ipads and interactive white boards. Its insane, and really, really sad. The interactive whiteboards are a complete joke and costs thousands a pop. Our entire state (UT) is using automated essay scoring, which does not, and will never, work. Not even a little. I know the school district, and the state, has been having discussions with the essay scoring software company, and they're being told it will improve. The school system has no idea that this fundamentally will not work, and the software company is fully incapable of improving automated essay scoring. One night I came home from work to find my child in tears and my wife on the verge of tears trying to help, because my kid couldn't figure out how to get the goal score on his automated essay the teacher had set. A couple of quick tests, and I discovered the software largely grades on length alone. We pasted the text of a proposal to ban automated essay scoring from all US schools, and his essay suddenly had a perfect score. What a joke, and the state is spending tax money on a statewide contract for this ridiculous and worthless software.
cognivore 12y ago
'cause it looks like total B.S. from people who don't know what they're talking about or what kids will really play with in the long term. For the same money you can get a something much healthier and long lasting in the form of a bike or, hell, a bunch of cardboard boxes and some art supplies and then let them go wild. Build themselves a transmogrifier or something. Make their own freakin' puzzles. My most beloved set of toys as a child was a bunch of plastic dinosaurs, a tiny pair of pliers, a trashed bike I was free to do whatever I liked to (bottle rocket launchers on the handlebars - oh yeah), and a really nice set of crayons and a giant roll of butcher paper. I'm not quite at the "get off my lawn" stage, but that isn't a toy, it's a product. Hence, the hate.
ovulator 12y ago
As a new fellow new dad, I saw this and thought "that is very impressive technology", but as a learning instrument and toy, why is the iPad required? The iPad seems like a replacement for the parent. Instead of an iPad I can sit sown with a kid and say, what letters do we need to spell fruit, and I can sit and help her find them. Or what shapes can we make with these blocks, or can you help dad make a cat? The technology in here seems to be an attempt at automating the parenting, so instead of me sitting down with my daughter I leave her in a room alone with the iPad (as seen in the video) and go do something else.
jberryman 12y ago
Haven't read the thread here, but the idea of an iPad mediating such simple play between kids makes me depressed, and I can't imagine it's not simply diminishing what the equivalent experience without the screen would have been. Also that's not how the Tangrams puzzle is supposed to work. I did think the drawing bit was cool though.

wuliwong 12y ago

I'm with you. People citing their absence of research and their certainty that this will be discarded in a day is amusing. What those academic papers lack is an actual product and customers deciding to buy and use that product of their own free will. When someone releases an app to "connect people" or make some day-to-day taks easier, nobody seems to want academic papers to back their claims. I also feel like it goes without saying that this will most likely be discarded in a day but so will 99% of the products we build as startups. That's the great thing about today's environment. We get to experiment in the real world with real people and real products! Enjoy it while it lasts is my suggestion.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
thedufer 12y ago
> When someone releases an app to "connect people" or make some day-to-day taks easier, nobody seems to want academic papers to back their claims. Most people are qualified to evaluate whether an app is allowing them to connect with others. On the other hand, they are not qualified to evaluate whether a product is educating their child. Education claims are widespread and difficult to disprove, but rarely come with any proof. It is completely rational to expect some.
- bruceboughton 12y ago
  No it's not. No one is saying buy this and don't play with your kids as well. This is one tool among many.

butterfi 12y ago

The educational world is besieged by companies convinced that their technology is not only the solution to our educational woes, but a fat business opportunity waiting to be exploited. Teachers in classrooms have been burned so many times by technology that fails to deliver and uneven implementation across the district, that they instinctively cover their wallets every time a new company shows up promising to "revolutionize" education. Remember "Baby Einstein"? The company (owned by Disney) makes promises about how using their products will help develop young minds and was contradicted by researchers at the University of Washington. Lawsuits between Disney and UW followed, but Disney did ultimately offer refunds to parents that bought the DVD's. This is a classic example of a for-profit company making dubious claims about the educational value of their product. And Educators get these proposals all - the - time. I've been in the educational/web space for 20 years, and frankly, nothing turns me off faster then saying your new start-up is going to solve education problems. Maybe it will, but you'd better be different then the long line of failed products before you...

MarcScott 12y ago
I've been teaching for over 10 years now and have weathered the storms of many technology revolutions in the classroom. Interactive white boards < Virtual Learning Platforms < Netbooks < Flipped Classrooms < 1:1 Tablets It grows very tiresome.
- dahart 12y ago
  I wish Osmo all the best, and hope it breaks the mold. But I have to agree about schools and tech, and generally about tech and education. Spend more time with your kids, and don't expect an iPad to teach your kids anything, and you'll be in a better place. I say this being a huge lover of technology, having developed ipad apps and video games professionally. The school my kids are in is continually blowing large sums of money buying technology that they don't leverage in the classroom. They can't leverage tech in the classroom, the teachers aren't developers, and they're not even trained in basic tech, and they don't have the money for the training because they're spending the money on e-whiteboards. The money would go so much further paying for art teachers, or supplies, or school activities, or almost anything. Our art classes are no longer funded by the state or school district, the school hires a part time art teacher to teach a class once a week, or maybe every other week. And yet they're buying ipads and interactive white boards. Its insane, and really, really sad. The interactive whiteboards are a complete joke and costs thousands a pop. Our entire state (UT) is using automated essay scoring, which does not, and will never, work. Not even a little. I know the school district, and the state, has been having discussions with the essay scoring software company, and they're being told it will improve. The school system has no idea that this fundamentally will not work, and the software company is fully incapable of improving automated essay scoring. One night I came home from work to find my child in tears and my wife on the verge of tears trying to help, because my kid couldn't figure out how to get the goal score on his automated essay the teacher had set. A couple of quick tests, and I discovered the software largely grades on length alone. We pasted the text of a proposal to ban automated essay scoring from all US schools, and his essay suddenly had a perfect score. What a joke, and the state is spending tax money on a statewide contract for this ridiculous and worthless software.

cognivore 12y ago

'cause it looks like total B.S. from people who don't know what they're talking about or what kids will really play with in the long term. For the same money you can get a something much healthier and long lasting in the form of a bike or, hell, a bunch of cardboard boxes and some art supplies and then let them go wild. Build themselves a transmogrifier or something. Make their own freakin' puzzles. My most beloved set of toys as a child was a bunch of plastic dinosaurs, a tiny pair of pliers, a trashed bike I was free to do whatever I liked to (bottle rocket launchers on the handlebars - oh yeah), and a really nice set of crayons and a giant roll of butcher paper. I'm not quite at the "get off my lawn" stage, but that isn't a toy, it's a product. Hence, the hate.

ovulator 12y ago

As a new fellow new dad, I saw this and thought "that is very impressive technology", but as a learning instrument and toy, why is the iPad required? The iPad seems like a replacement for the parent. Instead of an iPad I can sit sown with a kid and say, what letters do we need to spell fruit, and I can sit and help her find them. Or what shapes can we make with these blocks, or can you help dad make a cat? The technology in here seems to be an attempt at automating the parenting, so instead of me sitting down with my daughter I leave her in a room alone with the iPad (as seen in the video) and go do something else.

jberryman 12y ago

Haven't read the thread here, but the idea of an iPad mediating such simple play between kids makes me depressed, and I can't imagine it's not simply diminishing what the equivalent experience without the screen would have been. Also that's not how the Tangrams puzzle is supposed to work. I did think the drawing bit was cool though.