Speak & Spell

Lucy and Corbett talk about the educational toy, Speak & Spell, by Texas Instruments.  That is right it is time to play with a brightly colored calculator and learn something to boot.  You never know it may be the thing to need to "phone home."

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:28

Welcome to What You Missed When You Didn't Exist. I am Corbett and I am 54.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

And I'm Lucy, and I'm twenty-five. Bam.

SPEAKER_03 0:39

And you can tell by the disparity in our age, there's a reason why we're talking about things that happen when people didn't exist.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

It's me. I'm the one that didn't exist.

SPEAKER_03 0:49

Yeah, well, you get to do this in about 20 years with your kids.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Thanks. So excited.

SPEAKER_03 0:56

Yeah. Can't wait. In this episode, we are talking about a toy, a learning toy, a smart toy. So most kids weren't excited about it, but somewhere, and more so later. The toy is called the speaking spell, which I don't even think you've ever seen one. Have you ever seen one? It looks in hand?

SPEAKER_01 1:16

It looks like a calculator.

SPEAKER_03 1:17

It's very much like a calculator, but have you ever I thought, because you've been to Grams before, I figured there's probably one just sitting there.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

I don't think she has one.

SPEAKER_03 1:24

Well, your grandmother probably has one somewhere. Believe it or not, we had two of them, I know. Maybe three. Because there was also the speaking math and speaking. Oh, there was a couple different speaking reads, speaking somethings. There was several. Well. But speakin' spell was the first one. Came out in 19, I want to say 78 or 79. The first one was pretty basic and used a cathode tube lighting system. If you've seen the pictures of them, you can tell there's like a little digital looking display.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Yeah, it looks like we can see on a register.

SPEAKER_03 1:52

Right. But these were using cathode raid tubes. If you look at those from a slightly different angle, all the lights light up. If you look at it straight on, then you see that the words or the letters they're trying to spell out.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 2:05

So it's very it's a very unique system. They changed it around, I think, eighty-three or eighty-five, I want to say. But it was a okay, the speaking spell was a it looks like a big calculator, like a about the size of a yellow tablet. Well, maybe shorter than that, but basically yellow, a yellow tablet size with a big red handle across the top, the whole casing is red, and there's an entire typewriter flooring of uh letters. I think they're all in alphabetical order. Yeah. So they're not like a typewriter, which is terrible.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Why would you put it in alphabetical order?

SPEAKER_03 2:36

Because when you're learning to read and write, you don't know how to type. Hard to believe this. This was before there was a texting thing going on.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

Well, that should be the texting thing. They had a missed opportunity there.

SPEAKER_03 2:52

Well, texting didn't exist because the internet, you know what? We're not gonna go into that right now. Let's talk about a speaking spell. The speaking spell, this weird-looking device, would basically say spell dog, and you would type in D-O-G. It's like, great! Now spell, you know, regurgitate or something else, and you had to spell it all out, and it would kind of reward you with a hey, good job, or that's great, or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

What if you got it wrong?

SPEAKER_03 3:17

Uh it's like, that's wrong, try again. Oh, and if you I think you do it three times, it would eventually show you the word. There were a series of, I think the first one you couldn't change it at all. It was just the one device. The next iteration that it came out in 82 or 83 was the cartridge system. You could open up where the batteries were, and there was a cartridge kind of put in the back, and you could change like the level at which you're learning. So you could carry you from the early five through seven through fifteen if you wanted to, because it could go up to really big words. I think it could only hold about 10 characters, or maybe 12. So you couldn't do a gigantic word, but it was something to get people in a vocabulary level that was kind of neat. And it was fun because it was digital. Digital. It was the future.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

Yeah, it is. It's fancy.

SPEAKER_03 4:08

47 years ago. Crazy time. The thing that probably made it prominently more well known was it was used in a promotional advertising through the movie system.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

We call that an advertisement?

SPEAKER_03 4:23

Well, no, we would probably call that Gorilla Marketing, because it was thrown into a movie. Specifically, a movie with an alien called E.T. The Extraterrestrial.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Ah, yes.

SPEAKER_03 4:35

Which was an incredibly popular movie and had two major sponsors. One was Speakin's Spell, and the other one was Reese's Pieces.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

Yes. So good.

SPEAKER_03 4:47

Two big promotions that came out of that movie that pretty much took off. The Speakin' Spell was used in making E.T.'s phone home device because that was how he would phone home, was wiring a bunch of weird stuff to the speaking spell because that's how him and Elliot could communicate. And he would learn little words, and they would eat Reese's pieces together. It was a movie.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

Every kid's dream.

SPEAKER_03 5:10

Every kid's dream. Have a have a weird computer robot voice and an alien.

SPEAKER_02 5:15

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 5:16

Uh the speaking spell also came out with different language packets, was kind of cool as it went. So you could learn other languages to put, you know, the cartridge system. You put in another cartridge, you could learn another language. At least a basic level. Later on, they came out with the speak and read, which was kind of like the speaking spell, I thought, but it was yellow. Uh, then there was a speak and math, which is kind of dumb because why do you need to speak math? Math is math. And it was a calculator, it was like 100% a calculator. It was trying to teach you basic math skills. And it had its own cartridge system and a couple other things, but more or less it died off about the early 90s, I want to say.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

They still have a 2019 model.

SPEAKER_03 5:54

I was gonna get to that in 2019. I'm sorry. No, in 2019 they did a retro version of it, and I've seen the breakdown because I was looking through it online. And if you look at the original, they open it up and show you, and the circuit boards like the whole thing. Because back in 1978, it was the whole thing. And the new one is more or less just a gigantic plastic shell with a little bitty green card or little green circuit board in it. It's not even as big as the display, I think.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 6:24

It's it's sort of funny, it doesn't need even close to that level of size and girth anymore. And honestly, I think a lot of this could probably be done on tablets and things like that. But I will admit the speaking spell, probably not the funnest toy.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

Well, obviously, it's educational. No one wants to play with educational toys.

SPEAKER_03 6:42

Well, I don't know. It was kind of fun. And there was game versions you could play in it to where like you you had to beat the game. And it was it was sort of fun to do that. I think that's like I I will say that. I think we've talked about this in the past too. If you get your students to like, I bet you can't do it, like, oh yeah, they'll do whatever it is they gotta do.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

Oh yes, 100%.

SPEAKER_03 7:02

You'd like we're gonna learn how to spell, like, uh, and I bet you can't do it. Oh, really? Everybody's up for a fight when the time comes, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

Oh, always. You gotta prove yourself.

SPEAKER_03 7:14

Yeah, but it's a fun, it was a fun toy, and it's hard to say it's a toy because it really was just a big flat tablet thing. I think it was probably the first feel of like, ooh, this is like a computer because it's talking. Computers can talk, which of course computers couldn't talk for many decades after that. Not really. It was that fake dialogue talk that Stephen Hawking had on his talking computer feel.

SPEAKER_02 7:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:38

Which is funny because they could have done recorded voices. I'm not sure why they went with the synthesized voice. Maybe it was something to do with the programming.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

Maybe it was easier.

SPEAKER_03 7:45

Maybe. But so we fixed literacy, and now every kid is literate and everything's great. So how's the future, Lucy?

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Uh-oh, that's funny. I think it's funny that it's actually made by Texas Instruments. Oh, yeah. Who makes calculators, which is why it probably feels like a calculator.

SPEAKER_03 8:02

Well, they started off making calculators. They also made computers. One of my first computers was a TRS 80. It's like uh really yep. I've got like three of them. I've got three TRS 80s because my brother had them and left them to me. Uh-huh. But they were, I think one of them or both of them were probably our home computers at one point. But Texas Instruments, actually, yeah, the Sheldon, the Sheldon TV show. He had a Texas Instruments computer that came from Radio Shack. Because Radio Shack put out those computers. Which they were just uh wind or uh one IBM clone back then. It was gonna be a Windows computer, basically, but uh used DOS. That's a whole nother thing. But anyway, yes, Texas Instruments was a calculator company first. Well, actually, they're probably office equipment, I bet, in general. I'd have to look up Texas Instruments to get that one out for you. But yeah, calculators naturally going to make a calculator toy.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

Oh, yeah, so exciting. Well, the future now, kids are probably less literate than ever, which is exciting. Most students are reading at least two grades below grade level. Okay, that's off. Yeah. And the kids that are on grade level are probably because their parents were able to spend time with them. And there's literacy games now. There's like apps where students on their iPads can learn to read bit by bit and they get different rewards and challenges. But most students have dyslexia, and most students have to listen to audiobooks so they can listen to it and completely understand. But the reading comprehension is totally gone. And spelling spell check happens for you, so kids don't have to learn to spell anymore.

SPEAKER_03 9:48

That is sort of weird. I never think about that. And spell check's not always right.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

That's true.

SPEAKER_03 9:54

I think that's always the joke quote is I before e except after C. That's weird because if you write it, hey it's a spelling joke. Look it up.

SPEAKER_01 10:04

I I get it. I get it. But weird is the only exception. That's what it is. So I think it's just we're in a different era of ways of teaching kids to read. Everything has to be a game now. Everything has to be a way for students to engage with it.

SPEAKER_03 10:22

Are you trying to say speaking spell ruined it by making it a game?

SPEAKER_01 10:25

Maybe.

SPEAKER_03 10:26

Oh, can't believe you're such a downer on speaking spell.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

I know. E.T.

SPEAKER_03 10:30

would be sad.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

Well then he can phone home. Ay, yeah, yeah. Hopefully it should get up as the years go along, but right now I think COVID played a major part in literacy levels because parents didn't have time to teach their kids to read like they did in the classroom. We're in the kind of a weird little hiccup situation right now, I think. So hopefully it should go up.

SPEAKER_03 10:55

That is a hopeful statement. Hopefully.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Yes. Hopefully. All the hopes and dreams.

SPEAKER_03 11:02

I never thought about that that COVID would cause that sort of, well, burp in the system. Kids missing out on in school education. But I kind of blame, I will say, like, I agree with you in the sense that parents need to be involved a little bit. Doesn't mean you have to teach them everything, obviously, but reading with them or encouraging them to read and or write or do things. It's something that's always been a problem though.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

Well, I think in a sense, it gave every single parent the realization of, oh crap, I have to both parent and teach at the same time because they still had to do their jobs so that way they could get money and survive during the pandemic. But then they'd never realize what teachers have to go through and experience in order to make sure their students get what's happening. So I've also been noticing a lot more teacher appreciation, which is nice. Just because those parents were like, Oh my gosh, you're teaching my kids and I could not do it because it was exhausting. And I'm like, Oh, thanks.

SPEAKER_03 12:02

No, no, I get that. As a spouse, you kind of run into the oh yeah, that I I do everything in this, I do everything. And then you you wind out, oh, I guess they do half of it, at least.

SPEAKER_02 12:14

I guess I better appreciate the other person.

SPEAKER_03 12:17

And teachers really only do like uh, and this is I'm not slamming you, but teachers only do like a third of it because they're the kids only at the school for six to eight hours.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:27

And you're being handed from one teacher to another teacher to another teacher to another. So you're not even staying with one teacher all day long. So to go in and start blaming your teacher, probably not gonna help.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

True. Very, very true.

SPEAKER_03 12:40

But I would I think with like your teachers, I was pretty good about well, siding up with them and ganging up on you, which was kind of fun.

SPEAKER_01 12:47

Okay, that only happened with one teacher. So meh. Well, because you I was a golden child with golden grades.

SPEAKER_03 12:57

Uh sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

Sometimes I had like one C in my entire school career. Come on.

SPEAKER_03 13:03

And it was math.

SPEAKER_01 13:05

It was math because I played Geometry Dash in Geometry.

SPEAKER_03 13:08

Uh I think it was more like geometry dodge.

SPEAKER_01 13:13

Geometry dash. It's the game. And it's funny because the kids now are obsessed with it. So I tell them that story every single chance I get, and they're like, wait, miss, you played geometry dash? I'm like, yeah, it's actually how I failed geometry class. They're like, oh, like, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:30

So it's funny. So live and learn. That's a good one.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

Yes. Yes, exactly. But it's fine. I think the games can help to a certain extent, especially if you're a student that can get really into it. But I think a lot of the games have to also survive themselves, kind of in a capitalistic mindset, right? They have to find ways to keep their game alive and going. So they have to make it more fun and not as much learning oriented. Cause I remember like that was how I learned to type was there was this typing game, and you just had to complete all the levels, but you had to type the fastest and the most accurate. And so that was how I learned to type, was just through a game. And I loved it. It was like a dancing game, I guess. And so you had these characters that had to dance based on how you typed. And if you typed incorrectly, they did the wrong dance move.

SPEAKER_03 14:24

So oh, okay. That would explain a lot. You did love those dancing games.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

I did. Well, just dance, I wasn't typing, I was just dancing.

SPEAKER_03 14:33

Oh, I know, but I didn't realize it was a full-fledged game and it revolved around dancing, which explains a lot. Yeah. Of course, now you have a useless skill because I don't think anybody even types anymore because it's all textbooks. Oh my gosh. It's all thumbs up.

SPEAKER_01 14:44

Chicken teching is crazy.

SPEAKER_03 14:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:47

It's very upsetting. Actually, kids play typing games in class.

SPEAKER_03 14:50

Do they?

SPEAKER_01 14:50

And I'm like, you know what? You're practicing a skill. I'm okay with it. Because most of them just want to play Geometry Dash. And I'm like, that's not a skill. You're not even learning geometry. You're focusing on reaction time. It's not even a skill. Gamma. Yep. So I've been teaching my kids to play typing games and Wordle. And they're playing GeoGesser, so they're using their inferencing and context clues to figure out where they are in the world. See? Secretly academic. No, that's true. Even though they think they're playing games, which they are.

SPEAKER_03 15:23

Yeah, I have a coworker who plays that every so often just to like they drop you somewhere in the middle of the world and you have to figure out where you're at.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

Yeah, it's fun. And you can play competitively. So you guys are like trying to figure out who can get it the fastest. So fun.

SPEAKER_03 15:36

Oh, I guess that's I don't know. Well, I see now I'm kind of torn because when you're going into this, you were talking about how games ruined it all. And now games may be okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

Well, it depends on the game, and it also depends on how the kids are using it. Because obviously any kid can figure out a cheat code or a hack to just automatically win the game. That's just how it works. But if you have students that are engaging with it for the right reasons, then I'm sure that it can help so, so much. Because I probably could have cheated at that typing game. And I probably could have just had like one person doing one side and I could have done the other side and I wouldn't have learned to type. But I think it just it's hard to find the balance between, oh, I want to play a game and turn my brain off, and oh, I need to be learning something and using my brain skills. But I think literacy games, it's just hard. It's really hard to make those fun. Because kids don't want to read. Period. Ouch. Well, you get through the phase of, oh, hey, mom and dad, can you read me a bedtime story? Like when you get out of that phase, you have to read by yourself.

SPEAKER_03 16:44

No. Yeah, and you don't know the voices.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

Exactly. So it's just, it's hard. And then you get to these thick books, and you're like, oh, it's so long. I'm not getting the satisfaction of finishing it in one go. It's it's a different world. The attention spans are short. I think people are still learning words because some of these kids know some advanced words, but they don't know how to spell them because they don't read anymore. They just listen to it.

SPEAKER_03 17:09

Yeah, I could see that.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

Audiobooks are at an all-time high.

SPEAKER_03 17:12

100%. Well, I mean, audiobooks, I can see audiobooks being at an all-time high just because of the fact that we're all like commuting to work or you know, running from one place to another. We don't have time to sit down and just read in a comfy chair.

SPEAKER_01 17:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:25

Which is sadly becoming norm. Go, go, go, yes.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

It is unfortunate.

SPEAKER_03 17:29

Go, go, go society.

SPEAKER_00 17:31

Yeah. Because it's so good to sit with a book. Well, I think it's the fun.

SPEAKER_03 17:34

Okay, I will say the fun of reading really is getting absorbed into the story. So much that you get emotionally upset when something changes or a care, you know, a character dies or something happens.

SPEAKER_01 17:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:45

And you walk away from it just as if you, you know, just as if you had been part of that actual thing happening.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:52

But you gotta, yeah, if you're if you're not invested in it, if you're not interested or really reading it or listening to it. Honestly, I would I would I would say listening is sort of valid. I I'm torn because I have been listening to a lot of books, and it's faster because I am on the go. And usually I'm trying to like figure out technical problems while I'm listening to some book in the background and I'm absorbing it subconsciously. I don't know, subconsciously, I'm listening to it, but I'm doing like two or three things at the same time, so it's probably not great. And you don't get a chance to really be committed to the book, the story, the emotional pull.

SPEAKER_01 18:25

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 18:27

I think that's the thing that when I'm really wrapped up in a good book, it's because I'm I'm invested. When you're just like shoving it through your head, it I mean, you can still absorb the information. Speed readers are that way.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

You lose the joy out of it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:40

It's like force feeding yourself something instead of sitting and tasting it. I need this to stay alive versus I'm just gonna sit here and enjoy this. Maybe that's an American thing. I notice like Europeans and uh Australians and stuff, they have that time to sit down and relax and enjoy things and supposed to get up and go, get up and go. We gotta hurry up and work.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

Oh, it is an American thing, 100%.

SPEAKER_03 19:03

Well, I remember a lot of Europeans talking like, man, you guys are just never gonna stop.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

It's like, well, we kind of have to.

SPEAKER_03 19:10

Yeah, we've put ourselves into this situation, so here we are.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:14

So anyway, speaking spell, it's a fun toy or a calculator with color.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

I think all calculators have color.

SPEAKER_03 19:22

Well, a pretty color. Do you have a red calculator? I don't think so. Uh actually, you guys know. Your calculator's technically your phone now, so yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

No. They make fun toys for children now, but a lot of them are learning based. But I don't think they last very long because iPads are so quick and easy and they can keep it forever and ever and ever.

SPEAKER_03 19:43

And you just get an app. Get an app. Get the new app. Yep. Get the next new app.

SPEAKER_01 19:47

Yeah. And then get a new iPad.

SPEAKER_03 19:51

Anyway.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

Read a book.

SPEAKER_03 19:53

Read a book. So over what you missed, you didn't exist. Read a book. Read a book. Play with your calculator.

SPEAKER_01 20:00

Make learning fun.

SPEAKER_03 20:02

Or just learn. You don't even have to have fun. You can just do it.

SPEAKER_01 20:06

Force learning.

SPEAKER_03 20:08

Forced learning.

unknown 20:30

Don't you know they need to fifty two?