SWISSDIGITIZATION.CH

My mother bought both of us children a math learning game (Owl math Calculator) when we were in elementary school (early 1980s). She found it very useful and it was supposed to make the kids smarter instead of dumber, unlike the frowned-upon calculators. I don't remember how she knew about its existence. I think it was a recommendation from another mother. Although it was a different manufacturer, our two devices were designed the same: It was an owl with two diodes for eyes. One green and one red. And it had buttons like a calculator. And now you could enter a calculation with a result. If that calculation was right, the green diode would light up, and if it was wrong, the red diode would light up. I may remember that although we were excited about the technology, we didn't enjoy it for very long. Actually, it wasn't really anything new: like in school, you had to solve calculations and you were eventually corrected. 

A short time later, my mother bought the Little Professor, which you can still buy today. Instead of diodes, it had an LCD display. She kept it for herself (so as not to cause a conflict of ownership among us kids) but we were allowed to play with it, but we lost interest very quickly. The concept was the same as with the owls. The Little Professor did not solve any calculations for us, but merely corrected them. The little face in the display smirked when we were right or looked angry when we were wrong. One of the game modes was that you were allowed to get it wrong five times until the game ended. The Little Professor came with a manual with game variations, but we weren't very interested in it. There wasn't much gameplay behind it either, but we quickly found it to be pure school material.