0.5 The educational consultant

Introduction

Normally, when talking about the Speak N Spell, what is mentioned is the technology breakthrough we made with the speech synthesizer, the TMC0280. Seldom do we talk about the other significant breakthrough, the educational one. When calculators began to be affordable enough to be used by students, they were quickly restricted from the schools. They were seen. at best, as a crutch for students, and at worst as cheating. Our first attempt to break into the educational market came with the Little Professor. It was more acceptable to teachers, as it allowed the student to determine the answer, but it was still a bit suspect in the school systems.

Our market communications team at TI had worked hard to make the Little Professor educationally sound. It was just as important to make the next product just as educationally sound. This meant we needed to find the most respected expert in spelling to consult with us to assure the correct concepts and word lists for the product. This task was assigned to one of market communications team, Alecia Helton. Alecia was, like the rest of us, in her mid twenties with a Master's Degree in communications. Also, as with the rest of us on the team, she never doubted the possibility that we could actually accomplish what we had set out to do. So, with "blind" faith, she began her assignment to guarantee the Speak N Spell would be educationally sound.

But, before going into the story of how the Speak N Spell got its vocabulary, let me jump to the end of the story. Once the Speak N Spell was introduced into the market, we began to hear stories about how it was being adopted by teachers as a teaching tool in the class room. One teacher reported that the Speak N Spell was used as a reward for students. If the student's school work had been done quickly and accurately they would be allowed to play quietly with it. We were amazed at how well the product had been accepted into the educational system. This prompted us to develop follow on educational products. I'll talk about them in a later chapter.

The educational consultant

Once we were convinced that we could actually create the product, we needed to make sure it was educationally sound. We created Educational Products and not toys – we were not allowed to us the “T” word at all. The market communications team had found the right educational experts in Math to consult with us on the Little Professor and we were certain they could do it again for a spelling product.

After a bit of searching, Alecia found an educational expert in spelling. His name was William Kottmeyer. His spelling books, that were used in elementary schools, were the most popular texts in the United States. He was the right person to help us create an educationally sound product with a vocabulary list befitting this new concept. We were careful to explain to him exactly what we were doing and why we thought he would love the concept. The only exception was that he didn’t love it. In fact, he disliked it so much he recommended that we kill the program rather than introduce it to the market. Based on that first discussion he was probably correct. But our goal was for him to help us make it educationally sound, while still being fun to play with. Here is his summary of issues on which he based his opinion on why the product should not have been created: