tablet but not for eating

cat_with_no_tail

You must be trolling now, I know you're not that stupid.

I'd love to know how it's just "an expensive fashion item". Do you not get out from under your bridge much?

I have to use one at work, my dad uses one at his work (electrical engineer, waterboard distribution panels and such). Our plumber who came to fit the boiler last month used one. They use them in school (as I've already said, they encourage the kids from age 7 to do their homework online). Like it or not, they're a part of everyday life. You don't have to like it, but you DO have to deal with it. The earlier kids start using these tools the better. The kids who are comfortable using this stuff already will be free to power ahead whilst the others are being taught the basics in class. This is a fact.

Now, if you want to have a discussion about how society is becoming more and more reliant on technology to do simple tasks for us, and as a result we're sacrificing things like mental arithmetic and spelling that's fine, I'm happy to go there. For the most part, from previous discussions on here about smart phones and the like, I think we'd actually agree. That's a whole different thread though.

But your repeated assertions that tablets are nothing more than a fashion item are just plain rediculous. I'm not trying to pass it off as a *purely* educational toy. If it were, I'd not be buying it for her birthday, I'd just buy it because it's something that's useful.

In this case, she'll have her music on there, she'll have her films on there, she'll probably have some Disney princess theme or something too. So what? She'll also be using it for school work, checking out the websites for her football club and dance school, checking the school wiki, using it as an e-reader and playing any number of educational games I've already put on there. Whilst at the same time, becoming comfortable using the features of a device that is a part of life. I simply cannot comprehend how you could ever see that as being a bad thing?

If we were taling about a playstation or a DS or something, I'd agree with you. But as we're not, you're just wrong.

Thewaylander

i know they are used so i can understand you getting one CWNT, every parent will want to give his kid every advantage possible.

But i do question there use in education over a cheap netbook(This is questioning education systems not parenting as you guys just have to follow what is used in the system). i personally think there a bit of a wierd item in use in business and every time i've seen one used i thought a cheap laptop would be easier to do that on lol.

but if your getting one, google one is rocking the competition in my veiw hehe

cat_with_no_tail

The nexus is superb for the money if you want one. Agree.

I keep thinking I want one, but then I know I'd never use it. If I got one it'd just be a fashion item

Thewaylander

Cat With No Tail wrote:

The nexus is superb for the money if you want one. Agree.

I keep thinking I want one, but then I know I'd never use it. If I got one it'd just be a fashion item

be careful now or all the boys will want you

anj132

micksjoiner wrote:

well that went well
bought the Sumvision one if anybody is interested
thanks for help

I would be interested to know how you get on with it, but I guess I will have to wait until Xmas and with me wanting it for Xmas... dammit!

Is anyone else rocking this sumvision tablet?

I am tempted to get this over the Nexus for better USB support, HDMI out and Micro SD slot, plus it's £80 cheaper.

micksjoiner

will be trying it out first to see how good it is ,so will let you know

YeehaaMcgee

Cat With No Tail wrote:

I have to use one at work, my dad uses one at his work (electrical engineer, waterboard distribution panels and such). Our plumber who came to fit the boiler last month used one. They use them in school (as I've already said, they encourage the kids from age 7 to do their homework online). Like it or not, they're a part of everyday life. You don't have to like it, but you DO have to deal with it. The earlier kids start using these tools the better. The kids who are comfortable using this stuff already will be free to power ahead whilst the others are being taught the basics in class. This is a fact.

Nonsense. what the hell do you do that necessitates a tablet? They're forced into situations they don't really suit very well because they're in trend right now. A solution looking for a problem to solve.

Kids as young as 6 learning them won't give them any advantage in the long term. Think of how much technology has changed in the time since you were 6, or from when you were 6, until your teen years. What we use now will far more likely have been superseded by umpteen generations of toys, such that what we use today will have little or no connection to what's in use in 10 years time.
And besides, if tablets are so easy a 6 year old can use them, then why do kids need so much time to learn them? They're very simple devices, they don't actually DO much. They're primarily consumption devices, designed to get you to quickly spend small amounts of money on this, that, then something else. Ooh, this is only a quid, oh, and so's this. It all adds up, and it's insidious marketing.
I don't believe it's healthy to introduce children to the brainwashing that's so prevalent in adult life - so prevalent that we hardly notice it's there.

Now, if you HAVE a tablet, and your kids play with it, fine, but buying one specifically for the kids is something that horrifies me, frankly.
You can self-justify your decisions as much as you want, but this is my opinion, and my view on the matter.

cat_with_no_tail

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

Cat With No Tail wrote:

I have to use one at work, my dad uses one at his work (electrical engineer, waterboard distribution panels and such). Our plumber who came to fit the boiler last month used one. They use them in school (as I've already said, they encourage the kids from age 7 to do their homework online). Like it or not, they're a part of everyday life. You don't have to like it, but you DO have to deal with it. The earlier kids start using these tools the better. The kids who are comfortable using this stuff already will be free to power ahead whilst the others are being taught the basics in class. This is a fact.

Nonsense. what the hell do you do that necessitates a tablet? They're forced into situations they don't really suit very well because they're in trend right now. A solution looking for a problem to solve.

Kids as young as 6 learning them won't give them any advantage in the long term. Think of how much technology has changed in the time since you were 6, or from when you were 6, until your teen years. What we use now will far more likely have been superseded by umpteen generations of toys, such that what we use today will have little or no connection to what's in use in 10 years time.
And besides, if tablets are so easy a 6 year old can use them, then why do kids need so much time to learn them? They're very simple devices, they don't actually DO much. They're primarily consumption devices, designed to get you to quickly spend small amounts of money on this, that, then something else. Ooh, this is only a quid, oh, and so's this. It all adds up, and it's insidious marketing.
I don't believe it's healthy to introduce children to the brainwashing that's so prevalent in adult life - so prevalent that we hardly notice it's there.

Now, if you HAVE a tablet, and your kids play with it, fine, but buying one specifically for the kids is something that horrifies me, frankly.
You can self-justify your decisions as much as you want, but this is my opinion, and my view on the matter.

Now you see, I agree much more with what you wrote there than what you initially wrote.

As for what I use one for at work. My job means I spend a fair bit of my time presenting stuff to various business heads, consultants, directors etc around the office. It's marginally more convenient walking round with a tablet than it is walking round with the laptop. It's all part of the paperless office hippy BS. Mainly though, my company, like most others, uses them because they look good. I'd be perfectly happy using my old laptop, but they provide these, and we're expected to use them.

We're getting back to my previous post again here. I never said I particularly agree with the overuse of tablets. I think they do have their place, but I agree that a lot of the time they're an answer to a problem that never existed. That doesn't get you out of using them though.

I also agree with your point about technology moving on. I'm sure that in 15 years time, whenever it is that my kids hit the workplace, there will have been several other "innovations" that everyone has to use. That's not to say it's useless learning it now though.

A lot of the skills learnt on one platform tend to be transferable to another. Even today, a mouse is still a mouse, a keyboard still has the same layout as it did 20years ago, and so-on. Sure, a lot changes, but a lot stays the same too. Someone who is already familiar with a laptop is more likely to be able to figure how to work a tablet (smartphone use notwithstanding) because many of the basic principles remain the same.

Kids do pick it up quick, and you're right, it's pretty easy to master the basics of using tablets, just as it's easy to learn to use a keyboard. The more you use it though, the better you get. They're not massively complicated, but there are features that take practice. Again, it all boils down to familiarity. Also, as I've said before, there are loads and loads of (free) educational apps. The kids see it as playing, but they're learning too.

The key thing imo is to recognize the middle ground between the kids knowing how to use these things, and becoming completely reliant on them. They CAN be a really useful educational tool, and loads of fun, the key is moderation.

YeehaaMcgee

The stuff I was playing with, or that was available when I was six, had absolutely no brearing with what was available by my mid-teens - and that's something I can virtually guarantee will be true for your kids.
Nothing I learnt on the old C64s etc was of any general use later on - it only became useful because I was the kind of uber-geeky kid who learnt how to program in assembly before I was 9, but even that could be called useless, since any programming I've done since has been in entirely different languages (C++/C#), where many of the concepts of my formative years are entirely useless.

Torres

But are they really useless skills?

My programming experience is quite limited; however the bit I really struggling is thinking how a program should think (keeping the order "logical", using iterations etc.) so even if the languages are completely different this is a transferable skill that you probably learned early doors. Likewise learning what "floating point numbers" and "boolians" are.

cat_with_no_tail

I'm not talking about programming though, I'm not expecting my 7yr old to do any programming on her tablet. I'm getting her one because she'll get enjoyment out of it, as well as learning how to use something they'll be using in schools for a good few years yet.

Tbf, my C64 wasn't used for anything other than a games machine with the joystick. So it really contributed nothing to my computer skills. However, we got our first windows machine in '95. The stuff I learnt on that machine has been applicable to almost every other machine and OS I've ever used since in one way or another. Sure, they improve upon stuff, and change it slightly with each edition but the basics all stay the same. The main changes have come in making things faster, smaller, slimmer.

You can't go round saying "I'm not going to teach my kids how to use x because it'll be obsolete in 15years".

And yes, kids do pick stuff up quickly. Computers are not particularly complicated machines for what most people use them for. But the more you use them, the better you get with all the other stuff that just comes with experience.

My kid will probably be able to use her tablet as well as any adult within a few months. If not less. She knows a lot of it already because it's transferable stuff she's picked up from using the laptop. Once she's at that stage, she doesn't need to worry about it any more, and can concentrate on other stuff while other kids are still being taught the basics.

We did the same thing with her reading, her writing, her maths. Why should use of technology be any different to any other subject? As another user already said. It's natural that you want your kid to have the bet start in life, and the more advantages you can give them, the better.

They're learning about dinosaurs at school at the moment. So we're doing it at home too. In books, on the internet, and as best we can at the museum (the man museum is not exactly the natural history museum).

YeehaaMcgee

Cat With No Tail wrote:

Tbf, my C64 wasn't used for anything other than a games machine with the joystick. So it really contributed nothing to my computer skills. However, we got our first windows machine in '95. The stuff I learnt on that machine has been applicable to almost every other machine and OS I've ever used since in one way or another. Sure, they improve upon stuff, and change it slightly with each edition but the basics all stay the same. The main changes have come in making things faster, smaller, slimmer.

So you went from a C64 in your childhood, to a vastly different system in Win95? Then you take the next step from win95 to today's tablets?
What exactly do tablets have in common with desktop operating systems? Not a lot. We've come a long way in that time, and it will happen again. What you learn to do on a tablet today will be unrecognisable in another 10-15 year's time.

I've said it before, and here it is again, I have no problem with kids using things like laptops, tablets or whatever that are in the house, but I STILL maintain that it's a frivolous, stupid spend of money to buy one specifically for a child.

Chunkers1980

Trouble is yeahaa some people are willing to spend say £500 to get say 10% benefit. Poorer people may need 80% benefit to spend £500, it is the way of the world, who is to say they are wrong as long as they are getting marginal benefit?

I really do not know what you're expecting from technology. Yes things have got faster and smaller, but they essentially work the same as they did 18 years ago. The tablet just displays information and visuals - that's it really.

cat_with_no_tail

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

Cat With No Tail wrote:

Tbf, my C64 wasn't used for anything other than a games machine with the joystick. So it really contributed nothing to my computer skills. However, we got our first windows machine in '95. The stuff I learnt on that machine has been applicable to almost every other machine and OS I've ever used since in one way or another. Sure, they improve upon stuff, and change it slightly with each edition but the basics all stay the same. The main changes have come in making things faster, smaller, slimmer.

So you went from a C64 in your childhood, to a vastly different system in Win95? Then you take the next step from win95 to today's tablets?
What exactly do tablets have in common with desktop operating systems? Not a lot. We've come a long way in that time, and it will happen again. What you learn to do on a tablet today will be unrecognisable in another 10-15 year's time.

I've said it before, and here it is again, I have no problem with kids using things like laptops, tablets or whatever that are in the house, but I STILL maintain that it's a frivolous, stupid spend of money to buy one specifically for a child.

Well done for comepletely missing the point. I'd say that there are a number of very broad similarities between the OS on a tablet, and that of a regular computer. You still use the internet in the exact same way, access files in the same way, save data in the same way. The main difference is of course that instead of using a mouse to do all this, you use your finger over the screen. Unrecognizable from a laptop? I don't think so. And are you honestly going to sit there and tell me that win95 is unrecognizable from win7? or 8 for that matter. Sure, in another 15 years tablets will probably be obsolete, we might all be walking round with brain implants that generate HUDs, but that move won't happen overnight. The technology will continue to advance, and things learned on one platform will be applied to the next thing, and the next and the next. I still have no idea how you can't see that.

As for a "frivolous, stupid spend of money". It' a birthday present. She'll get at least a years worth of use out of it, has all her music, films, games etc on it. can take it with her when we go away, or when we're out in the car, or when she's waiting for dance classes to start or the doctors or whatever. She'll enjoy it, and learn while she's doing it. How is it stupid buying your kids something they'll enjoy? Of all the things she's getting for her birthday, this is the item she'll enjoy the most.

You're just clutching at straws now, you're arguing for the sake of it, and for that reason, I'm out.

YeehaaMcgee

Cat With No Tail wrote:

And are you honestly going to sit there and tell me that win95 is unrecognizable from win7? or 8 for that matter.

Win 7 no, win 8, yes, very much so. The desktop is basically there for compatibility, and for transitional purposes, because they were left resting on their laurels too long.

Gazlar

back to the op and i havent trwaled through this thread as I dont care, but I bought a Archos carbon 9.7 from maplin, a nice 9.7 inch tablet running android ice cream for 159.99 and thats with google play support too so you can download a shoot load of apps. they had a smaller one too, cant remember how much mind that also ran google play but used an older android o/s

lankystreakofpee

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

Let them be kids, let them run around, play in the mud and get hurt.

So, we shouldn't buy our kids a gadget because they will spend their whole time on the internet and not outside enjoying kids things...

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

I was the kind of uber-geeky kid who learnt how to program in assembly before I was 9

Sounds to me like you should have spent more time outside yourself

I have to agree with CWNT on this one. I would say my kids are pretty well rounded individuals and they spend more time outside playing in the mud and doing sport etc than anything else, but I also allow them to play on the PS3 and on the computer but all in moderation. I've bought my 10 year old the Sumvision tablet because he will get some enjoyment out of it and if he learns something along the way, then that's an added bonus! I've also bought my 4 year old a "LeapPad2" for Christmas as she is bright as a button and I think it will be a good addition to all of the other activities that we do together.

TBH Yeehaa, if you find that giving our kids new technology is bad parenting i couldn't give a rat's ar$e. Each to their own and all that, but you do come across as a bit of a sanctimonious git...

Merry Christmas

YeehaaMcgee

lankystreakofpee wrote:

TBH Yeehaa, if you find that giving our kids new technology is bad parenting i couldn't give a rat's ar$e.

Fair enough. I never expected to change anyone's opinion, just stating my own

lankystreakofpee wrote:

Each to their own and all that, but you do come across as a bit of a sanctimonious git...

You too.

cat_with_no_tail

lankystreakofpee

This whole thread reminds me of this:

ckelly10

Wow I remember when I was 6 and I got a power ranger figure or a new VHS - how lucky are the kids today. Suppose why not introduce them to this technology at a young age when there brains can absorb new information quicker. Just as long as it doesnt stop them from playing outside and doing 'normal' 6 year old things.