Little Professor
The Little Professor is an electronic learning aid for primary school students. The display and numeric keypad are similar to a pocket calculator , but they provide arithmetic tasks for which the solution must be typed in. Between the display and the keyboard, an illustration shows the face of a man with a white mustache and glasses, an open book at the keyboard, which is held by two hands at the edge.
use
The user can choose between one of the four basic arithmetic operations and, depending on the device version, between three to five levels of difficulty. The device automatically displays an equation (e.g. 7 + 12 =) and the user types in a solution. If the solution is correct, the professor's beard bobs in the display and the device gives the next equation. If the answer is incorrect, "EEE" is displayed and the user has two more attempts to enter the answer. If the entry is incorrect three times in a row, the device displays the correct solution. After every ten tasks, the device shows the number of correct solutions the first time you try.
history
The company Texas Instruments brought Little Professor in 1976 on the market, sales price at that time were just under 20 US dollars. By 1977 the product had already sold over a million times and became a worldwide success in the 1980s. Even in the 21st century, the Little Professor is still selling very well in a form that has hardly changed. The main change since the 1990s has been the exclusive operation with built-in solar cells, while the early Little Professor models were still operated with batteries. The Little Professor is also available as an app for smartphones.
Web links
- Description (eng.)
- Manual at TI (eng.)