What is the purpose of an iPod Touch

[Corey Batt]

To build one what Simon put across:

My partners parents were for all intensive purposes Luddites. This lead to her not gaining much knowledge about technology which carried through to the near present. When she applied for a new job which involved extensive usage of technology, she would have been unable to take on such a role if I hadn't expanded her knowledge through teaching her certain skills.

Embrace technology within reason, but don't cripple your children.

 

[Simon]

My partners parents were for all intensive purposes Luddites. .

To all intents and purposes

I am sorry - just can't help myself. Is like baited vs bated breath to me

 

[Corey Batt]

Good call.

 

[depreciator]

I don't like technology much, but I like seeing my kids (7 and 9) handle technology like it's second nature. We don't have any computer game things, but they can whiz around a computer and they know the logic of games and websites. They'll need those skills.

But they also have a cubby in the back yard and big space in the studio where they make stuff with their hands.

It's a balance.

Would be great on a long trip though, woulda killed for one when I was a kid travelling around Australia, you can only play eye-spy, guess the model of the next car or how many white reflectors until the next red one for so long

We all head off for Perth on Sunday and our drive to Broome. My wife bought an iPod Touch for the above reason. From my memory of that drive, there are a few patches where we'll run out of 'eye spy' targets pretty quickly.

 

[4GH1RH]

Agree.Whatever happened to 11 yr olds building cubby houses? Sigh.

Council Planning Regulations for cubbies got too complex for 11 year olds!

I am a primary teacher and we use iPod touches our classrooms. We only have 4 iPod touches in a school of 660 kids, so they have to be shared a lot. (Yes, learning to share!). In my experience they are not fragile - I don't consider Apple products fragile. Yes, Apple products are pricey, but in my experience are robust, and considering our laptops etc are used by 5 to 12 years olds, there is very little repairs or support for Apple products.

Kids of all ages love the iPod touches, and I don't find them antisocial at all. Typically there will be two or three kids around a single iPod touch, and they are sharing, playing together, watching together.

The touch screen interface of the iPhone and iPod (and now iPad) is so natural, once you have used it, you will be touching the screen on every digital device you have! I kept trying to zoom and pan my digital camera!

I agree though that such things are a privilege, and a contribution should be made. I would offer to buy a basic iPod or Shuffle, and expect my 11yo to earn the difference if they wanted to upgrade to an iPod touch.

But then again, I don't have an 11yo!

 

[xactly]

totally! learn thru play,
there are lots of fantastic little things you can do with it! some really educational,

very interactive too, lots of blue tooth multiplayer games

2c-

- shes eleven, she will want a phone soon, or you might want to have her carry an emergency contact , you might want to expand it to an iphone, put it on prepaid so the internet charges arent a worry.

the ipone 3s are now superceded technology since the 4's came out last month so they wil be going cheap on ebay,

you could buy one but not buy a phone card for it, then it turns into a cheap ipod touch! if she wants to put movies or games on it then she hooks it up to the family computer internet where you can keep an eye on her content and downloads

- negative side is the unrestricted access to the net/facebook/without your knowlege. A portal to the good, the bad and the very very ugly
Im probaly a bit biased in this area as my brother works with kids, internet bullying and grooming by pedophilles is a common theme. the computer is in the lounge room in his house. he has rules about whoyou can talk to online.


goodluck! 11yo girls have come a long way and technology is cheap and fun. Peer pressure be damned....my 4yo niece demands her turn on it, she doesnt want to be "part of the crowd" ...she wants to play the games!

just wait till she starts asking you for an ipad
cheers

 

[INVSTOR]

Thanks everyone, very educational.

We've already been through the cyber-bullying/facebook lesson. My daughter said a boy at school stunk and her friends agreed. A mum (who I used to be friends with who has it in for my daughter told the teacher). My daughter is a perfectionist so she was so disappointed that she got in trouble that she didn't eat/cried for 3 days and has learnt a very good lesson. She thought she was stating a fact without realising it was bullying, didn't realise how public the statement was and she never wants to go on facebook again!! Facebook is not good for kids. There were even parents getting angry with my daughter for not accepting there kids as facebook friends. I told her she could only be facebook friends with her best friends, but believe me it causes so many probs!!

Good idea about the Iphone, I'll have to get me a second hand one too.

 

[depreciator]

Yeah, cyber bullying is pretty awful.

There is this internet forum I know of where people use aliases and get stuck into other people often egged on by third parties who correspond with eachother through private messages and......Oh......hang-on.....forget all that.....sorry, what was I thinking.

 

[INVSTOR]

Yep, I'm a bad influence on her!!!

 

[Xenia]

My daughter got a pink one when she turned 5. She listens to music on long drives, her brother plays on his nintendo ds and her little sister falls asleep. It all works well for us.

I download audio books, seminars and other wealth creation stuff onto my ipod and use it to turn driving time into learning time. I'm on the road a lot and find it a very valuable tool. I used to put CD's in the car but ipods are less bulky. I love them.

 

[Xenia]

Thanks everyone, very educational.

We've already been through the cyber-bullying/facebook lesson. My daughter said a boy at school stunk and her friends agreed. A mum (who I used to be friends with who has it in for my daughter told the teacher). My daughter is a perfectionist so she was so disappointed that she got in trouble that she didn't eat/cried for 3 days and has learnt a very good lesson. She thought she was stating a fact without realising it was bullying, didn't realise how public the statement was and she never wants to go on facebook again!! Facebook is not good for kids. There were even parents getting angry with my daughter for not accepting there kids as facebook friends. I told her she could only be facebook friends with her best friends, but believe me it causes so many probs!!

Good idea about the Iphone, I'll have to get me a second hand one too.

wow! Poor girl. There is a valuable lesson in teaching her that what others think is none of her business. People can only judge others by their own conditioning and when that is limited so is their judgment. Children understand and accept this better than adults.

 

[AlmostBob]

The PURPOSE of an ipod touch is to separate the gullible from their money

 

[INVSTOR]

Yep, situations can be difficult at times Xenia, but can also be good life lessons.

It was good to see that my daughter didn't feel bullied, pressured by the immature parents involved and she stuck to her guns by not accepting the friends requests.

She learnt that just because someone is and adult/parent there behaviour may not necessarily be the correct behaviour.

One of the parents involved used to ring me up last year with some way out stories about my daughter and was threatening to tell the teacher/principal. The stories didn't add up and I would tell her to go ahead but she never did. So she finally found something to get her into trouble! That was probably the hardest thing for my daughter to understand. That some adults aren't quite right in the head and like to cause trouble.

 

[jingo]

After seeing a friend play the i pod touch my 6.5 yr old wants one, so we are going to buy her one at the end of the week. I think it's essential for the young ones to be up with the technology otherwise they will be left behind. My daughter isn't taken with computers, so I was happy when she expressed an interest in this device!!

 

[the_captain]

I've been toying with getting two iPod touches and using them as remote controls for TV and streaming music throughout the house. This can be done relatively cheaply now with Wi-Fi networking. It is also possible to use them to control home automation and so forth.

Take a look at www.sonos.com for some ideas.

Now that I have spoken about my intention to buy doodads, am I allowed to continue to post here?

 

[tess85]

My turning "11" daughter says all she wants for her birthday is and iPod Touch.

When I was 11 my sister gave me "The Eleventh Hour" by Graeme Base... fantastic book which gave me hours of entertainment. Perfect present for an 11 years old!

No real thoughts re: iPod Touch but I do think it's somewhat too expensive a present to be giving an 11 year old... but I dunno... am probably out of touch with kids these days!

 

[INVSTOR]

sHE LOVES pAUL Jennings books, and they are free at the library. I don't spend lots of money on her throughout the year, and she also wants to sacrifice having a birthday party to get it, so i think it's fair enough.Just hope there's not lots of expenses along the way that I haven't considered!
Me and hubby are still getting our heads around it.

 

[Simon]

I've been toying with getting two iPod touches and using them as remote controls for TV and streaming music throughout the house. This can be done relatively cheaply now with Wi-Fi networking. It is also possible to use them to control home automation and so forth.

Take a look at www.sonos.com for some ideas.

Now that I have spoken about my intention to buy doodads, am I allowed to continue to post here?

Thats a great idea - I am going to check it out myself!

 

[Pecan]

My second son saved and bought himself an ipod last year, very well used toy. Then he sold it to his older brother and it is still a well used toy. Not dropped yet.

 

[D.T.]

Wow the_captain that looks awesome.