zlacker

Last year my daughter was just learning to sound out words and write them, and was coming to me for help in spelling them to make little sentences. One day I was busy working, so I suggested she go ask alexa how to spell the words. An hour later she came back with a whole page story! After that, she'd go to alexa a few times a week to get help with spelling, and started exploring games and asking for other info.

>>abeh+(OP)
This is a good example of how, when guided properly, this technology can obviously be of practical and positive use for children. Sure, if you still want to criticize you could say that the child should rather learn spelling with their parents/real humans, but hey... Get used to technology already.

Imo the biggest problem when introducing children to these devices is how to get them to understand that this is very different from an actual human. Even if you find proper wording that a 4yo would understand, these words are easily overwhelmed by the fact that you can talk to it like a normal person. It's already interesting to watch children slowly grasp the concept of (video) calls, but then taking the next step and understanding there isn't a person at the other end of the Alexa dot is yet another step, because if it isn't a human, what else is it?

>>iforgo+Ma
My kids know “Siri” as simply a computer they can talk to. They think she’s basically a robot. Mine are 6, 5, 3. Since we use HomePods everywhere they interact with them really just like they would another UI but haven’t associated Siri with a person. It’s generally some variation of playing music or turning on HomeKit stuff. But they aren’t trying to have conversations. To them is just an iPad with no screen.

>>abeh+(OP)
That's so much better than telling someone to look up a work in a dictionary to learn how to spell it.