Robots & Visual Programmers

After recently discussing the widely underestimated importance of visual programming, it’s great to see research like Visual Programming Environments For Kids.

How do we teach children technology? is a basic question that, as the ubiquity of computing in 21st century progresses, more and more parents and educators are grappling with at earlier stages of a child’s development.

However, another consideration is whether the question “How do we teach children technology?” is the right question to be asking ourselves. The concern is that we risk teaching technology as a set of abstract concepts that are difficult for children to learn, internalize, and apply. What is lost is that technology has the ability to serve as a platform for children at all ages to apply creative thinking across multiple disciplines and interests.

That the first step of their plan explicitly involved serving pizza and ice-cream to the kids, brought a smile to my face.