adesso develops digital audio pen software for use in interactive learning

The new tools lets children playfully discover multimedia content in the matching audio pen books and products. They simply touch the tip of the audio pen on texts or images and the pen’s speaker plays information about the content, as well as sounds, music, stories, or puzzles and other tasks to make them think. It also supports read aloud and recording functions. That is all made possible by the mini camera housed in the tip of the pen, which reads pattern codes.

Tessloff Verlag has been publishing children’s non-fiction media for more than 60 years and has developed numerous titles for the BOOKii audio pen, including them as part of its WAS IST WAS Junior and WAS IST WAS Kindergarten children’s non-fiction series. The publisher’s BOOKii starter sets include the digital pen and an audio pen book. Among other things, they help children learn to tell the time, learn foreign languages and discover the human body. The system creatively combines knowledge sharing with games and fun activities to achieve a sustainable form of learning.

CTO Frank Dobelmann is responsible for software development at adesso: “This digitalisation project in publishing manages to combine the analogue world of books with digital opportunities in a fascinating way. It allows children of all ages to learn intuitively, while also playfully introducing them to the world of IT and digital content.”

To get children interested in this form of interactive learning, while also developing their IT skills, adesso will be launching a sponsorship program for schools in the new year. It will be directly supported by its employees: Last year, approximately 300 “adessi” took part in corporate runs across Germany. In the past the IT service provider donated a fixed amount for every starter. This time adesso – in cooperation with Tessloff Verlag – will use the sporting commitment of its employees to offer selected primary schools BOOKii starter sets to try out. A total of 32 schools near the adesso locations in Dortmund, Berlin, Hamburg and Nuremberg are participating.