Santillana launches Pupitre, a new education app

Santillana is launching Pupitre (meaning school desk) in a clear commitment to the educational potential of the tablet, a device whose use is becoming increasingly widespread among children.

Pupitre incorporates all the usual tools used by school children at Preschool and Primary level, such as pencils, erasers, markers of multiple colors, crayons, magic markers plus a camera that enables children to draw on pictures taken with the device.

Thanks to all these helpful features, children can color or draw, join up lines, practice handwriting, label items, solve mathematical problems, write and order sentences, read stories and color them, and recognize English vocabulary ... all via the free download and activity packs that can be purchased at a price of € 0.89. The introductory pack is free, and all can be downloaded via the app. 

The app employs a modern, user-friendly interface, tailored to children aged 3-8, which is simple, engaging and motivating, packed with exciting challenges, virtual stickers and plenty of surprises that make learning fun.

Activity packs are classified in the app store thematically, by user ability and age. Each pack includes ten activities, each offering a fun challenge for the child, ranging from coloring and joining words and concepts with arrows to solving puzzles and riddles, all with an AutoCorrect feature. All activities can be completed as many times as the child wants to improve the final score. As the child successfully completes the activities, he or she wins new virtual prizes that can be used for further activities to encourage their creativity.

With the Christmas holidays coming up, now is the perfect time for children to learn while playing and practice what they have been working on at school.

The rise of educational apps.

The study on “The Use of New Technologies in the Home 2012”, prepared by the Online Business School (OBS), shows the growing penetration of tablets in the Spanish market. Since the launch of the first iPad a little over two years ago, these devices have already been acquired by 6.2% of Spanish households. The use of these new leisure tools is rapidly becoming widespread throughout Europe and there is a growing awareness in the education sector of the potential of these mobile devices.