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Google Launches 'Project Bloks' Toys To Teach Kids To Code (thenextweb.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Google has launched a hardware project dubbed 'Project Bloks' to help teach kids how to code. There are three components to the learning experience: Brain Board, Base Boards, and Pucks. The Brain Board features a processing unit that is based off of Raspberry Pi Zero, which controls and provides power to the rest of the connected components. It does also interact with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth devices. The Base Boards are connective units that let users design instruction flows. Finally, the Pucks are the components you interact with. They're shaped with switches, arrows, buttons, dials and more, and can be programmed to turn things on or off, move avatars, play music, and more. What's neat is you can record instructions from multiple pucks into a single one. Some of them can be made with simple, inexpensive materials like paper with conductive ink. You can watch the official introduction video on YouTube. Google did release a subsequent video about the project called "Developing on Project Bloks."
Judging by the name, it certainly looks like children were involved in the design process. Aside from my snarky remark, I'm not really impressed. If you've ever worked with those old 1000-in-1 electronic kits, you've done pretty much what they show here, hell, probably much more. Even if this didn't emulate a toy we've already had for ages, there are so many products marketed towards kids entering programming, and none of them seem to have really taken off at all. Lego Mindstorms has probably been the most successful of them all, but even then it's not something I've see many kids using, mostly adults actually. Google has a really bad record of throwing an overhyped (and overused, sometimes) idea into an oversaturated market, and it doesn't look like anything's changed today :/
And let's be honest, this is probably going to silently abandoned two years from now and it'll never grace Slashdot again.
"Set a man a fire, he'll be warm for the rest of the night. Set a man afire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
They have something like this at the Denver Museums of Nature and Science robotics exhibit. It's these, actually.
The focus is more on electronics and robotics than logical structure, but similar. They were very fun to play with. My kids spent most of their time at that station.
potty-training still needs some work, though
whatever happened to giving them a stream of encrypted porn and letting them have at it?
Kids these days are soft.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
I'm still LOLing at the Europeans even today, most of whom are mourning the first of many nations to leave the EU. It's a matter of time before the rest of the EU fails, too. I'm so thankful for being a Canadian, because we are smarter and better than the Europeans and Americans. Unlike the United States and most of Europe, Canada is not a failed state. Look for Canada to become the dominant power as China sinks deeper into recession, the United States spirals downward in decay, and the EU breaks apart at the seams. I really wonder if Civilization V will include the effects of the decay of the United States and EU and the rise of Canada as the world's dominant superpower.
I know the European and American moderators won't like hearing this and will quickly hide it at -1. It doesn't change the fact that your countries are decadent and in rapid decline, soon to be passed by Canada.
That last sentence is the first change you have made in entire days. You would think that if you have the time to obsessively wait until each story comes up and then post a stupid rant, you'd at least be willing to change something. I'm pretty disappointed, to be honest.
"Set a man a fire, he'll be warm for the rest of the night. Set a man afire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
Sheesh, just leave it alone. Seems like they are trying to teach "coding" a younger and younger age. The interested ones will figure it out on their own.
Google Launches 'Project Bloks' Toys To Teach Kids To Code
Good job they're not trying to teach kids to spell.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Can we go back to calling it programming yet? Code is the product of programming. Code is something you create and put to use through programming. Unless of course you say "coding" as a verb.
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
You teach kids to code with toys and then when they grow up they only know how to code with toys.
Yeah that's why everything in the world is built out of Lego, you teach kids to build things with Lego and when they grow up they only know how to build things with Lego.
Not this fucking shit again........
Everyone must learn to code or you'll starve to death in the new economy!!
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
BASIC seemed to work just fine when I was 6 years old, I didn't need it dumbed down.
I used a book called "Usborne Guide to Computer Games" to get going, got it from the library: https://2warpstoneptune.files....
Endlessly reinventing the same tired old wheel.
We have a name for this. It's called Visual Programming, and it sucks. Really, it does. Even better, this physical version of the concept retains all the suck of the original, then adds extra suck, when you run out of the control bloks you need.
This whole concept bizarrely teaches physical limitations in the one realm where physical limitations do not apply: programming[1]. Your programs are limited by the number and type of "lines of code" that you have in the bucket. *boggle* Project Bloks is likely to drive a new generation of coders to develop a level of terseness that would make a Perl devotee weep. Is that really what you want?
I'm sure this is entertaining for about 5 minutes. After that, even the five year olds shown in the video will lose interest. Thankfully, there will be no new generation of Perl mavens with a bucket full of regexes.
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[1] In this house, young lady, we obey the.... yeah yeah, put your hand down, you in the back. You know what I meant.
I think this is just another simplistic "solution" to a problem not quite understood. We have seen similar projects in the past - in the 70es it was "University for All"; everybody should be pushed through some sort of higher education, it didn't really matter which or whether it actually gave useful skills. Not that education isn't a good thing, but as it turned out, having a major in creative arts wasn't always what the economy needed. And, it is not a bad thing as such if everybody knows how to write code - at least you may then have a basis for understanding what computers can (and not least: cannot) do, but the real problems for the economy are not as simple as "not enough coders". And the problems with the economy are not the most important in society either; I would say inequality is a far more important problem to solve. Inequality lies behind most of the unrest in the world, just as it always has.
Teach a kid to code and you create a carpenter. Teach a kid to think and you create an architect. Which is better?
Just look at this: https://scratch.mit.edu/
You will notice Bloks is basically the physical implementation of MIT's web based Scratch language for kids.
Furthermore, I think the web based version would be a great natural next step for those children, since it will allow them even more freedom and sophistication plus the ability to share their creations with other children.
Say what you will about the evil empire, It's good to see something like this coming out of Google.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain... time... to... die...