Touch is the killer app for education. Computer mice and keyboards are unnatural, though the best of what is available today. It’s easy enough to learn the idiom of manipulating a plastic block on a desk to manipulate a pointer on a screen, but it certainly is an abstract skill. Touch removes the abstraction of manipulating shapes through a mouse with direct manipulation. Children clearly ‘get’ the paradigm, and instantly love the empowerment they feel through immediate success using touch based computers.

The video below highlights the experience of Churchend Primary School in the UK and their trial of the Microsoft Surface. The school saw a brief glimpse into the future of education with the children saying it best:

It feels like you are not in school, it feels like you are in a playing room.

Despite the feel of play, according to the teacher the children “clearly learned quite a lot”.

Welcome to the future of play school.