Toy Spy Robots: A Practical Way to Teach Programming

Seymour Papert taught us years ago the most effective way to teach computer programming to children was to make it fun, and MIT’s Logo programming language remains popular (and free). Since then, other languages designed to teach programming concepts have been developed, including Scratch, Game Maker, and Alice. (I wrote an article on educational programming languages for TechEdge that is online here.)

From a commercial standpoint, especially with languages like Logo, the urge to combine programming with real world robotics has been highly successful, most notably with the Lego Mindstorms line of products. Now, a new company has developed a toy spy robot that will encourage the creation and posting of programs by its fans.

The Spy Video TRAKR from Wild Planet Entertainment will blend online and offline fun for budding robotics enthusiasts. Offline, the target market of eight-year-old and older boys can guide the remote controlled vehicle into other rooms and use its wireless camera for surveillance. Taking a tip from Webkinz, which ties an online product with toys in the real world, the Spy Video TRAKR will offer strong inducements to play on their site. Here’s a quote from a recent news article:

Wild Planet says the Trakr goes a step further than other Web-tied toys. It sends children online to create application and then brings them back to the toy, instead of just leaving them playing related games online.

The marketing pitch for this seems brilliant. The toy will function as a spy robot right out of the box, but for the kid who wants more, plenty of customization is offered, whether it’s an app downloaded from the site or one he makes on his own. Here’s part of the press release:

Though the Spy Video TRAKR can be used without ever being hooked up to a computer, tech-minded kids will be quick to connect their toy and start the customization process. Beginners can access an online application modulator that will allow them to modify existing apps as they familiarize themselves with writing code. All the tools they need to write their own unique programs will be available online, for free.

The toy will be available in October, in time for Christmas, and should retail for about $120. I wish the best for Wild Planet, and I hope their new product is highly successful. Also, hopefully, it will encourage many new future programmers to pursue careers in the STEM fields.

References:
Zimmerman, A. (February 10, 2010). I spy a market for kids. The Wall Street Journal, D1.

Slot Cars Race in Vain Against Video Games

I’ve written before about the last American pinball manufacturer, the continued popularity of electric football, and efforts to preserve old Soviet arcade consoles. Now comes a story about the dying sport of slot car racing.

Like many kids of the 60s and 70s, I had a slot car track, powered by electricity, that allowed me and my friends to race tiny cars. The biggest problem was in keeping the cars on the tracks as they zoomed around the curves. There was something spectacular, though, about watching a tiny car fly off the track and across the room. It definitely taught us that control was more important than speed.

Mark Yost has an article in this morning’s Wall Street Journal (he also wrote about electric football in 2008) about the United Slot Racers Association’s Scale Division National Championships. Yes, there is a formal organization devoted to racing slot cars, on custom tracks up to 165 feet long. Control is still an issue; even on these gargantuan tracks, racers must take care to slow down on curves. Cost is considerably higher, too, as the joysticks used are customized for trigger pull and allow the tiny cars (1/24 scale to the real Indy racers) to actually brake around curves. The cars themselves can cost $600 or more.

Although there is considerable math and engineering in this upper echelon of a once popular hobby, providing a potential entryway to relay some pedagogical concepts to kids if they could only be interested, few pay the hobby much attention since its heyday 40 years ago.

“I think that kids who are into math and science or who like to build things in the garage might like our sport, because there’s a lot to calculate with gear ratios and things like that,” said [one of the racers]. “But it’s clear that most of the kids today prefer video games.”

Indeed, most aficionados are 50 or older. Only one teen competitor was mentioned, and he came in second in the competition. He was introduced to the sport by his father. The players lamented that videogames now are dominant in such competitive forays. One said: “Xbox is our enemy.” The older folks suggested that when they pass on, competitive slot car racing will, too.

References:
Yost, M. (2009, June 4). Gentlemen, slot your engines. The Wall Street Journal, D6.

CFP: TechEd 2009

Here’s part of a recent e-mail from Maureen Julian about an interesting conference coming up:

Dear Friends,

Our annual TechEd conference provides unique learning experiences to thousands of education leaders and practitioners from public/private K-12 schools, community colleges, and universities. This Call for Presentations is key to fulfilling the needs of our TechEd audience. TechEd’s mission is to highlight pioneering methods of delivering education in a learner-centered environment through effective uses of technology, learning communities, diverse learning styles, collaborative partnerships and innovative administrative practices.

Here are just a few examples of the topics our attendees are excited to learn more about!

♦ Animation/Gaming
♦ Nanotechnology
♦ 24/7 Learning
♦ Facebook / Myspace & You Tube
♦ STEM Education
♦ Second Life…and more

For a complete listing of session themes, please go to:

http://www.techedevents.org/2009/?page=449

Submission Deadline is October 17, 2008

CSTA Publishes Educational Game Programming Article

I opened the mail today to find the latest issue of CSTA Voice, a quarterly for members of the Computer Science Teachers Association. Late last year Dr. Chris Stephenson, Executive Director of CSTA, and Pat Phillips, Editor of CSTA Voice, arranged to reprint my article, “Programmed to Learn.” The article focuses on using Logo, Scratch, and Alice for teaching STEM topics. The article first appeared in TechEdge, the journal of the Texas Computer Education Association. The article will be printed in three parts in CSTA Voice.

The Computer Science Teachers Association is funded in part by the National Science Foundation. Below is the introductory paragraph from their website, explaining their raison d’être:

The Computer Science Teachers Association is a membership organization that supports and promotes the teaching of computer science and other computing disciplines. CSTA provides opportunities for K-12 teachers and students to better understand the computing disciplines and to more successfully prepare themselves to teach and learn.

The first part of my article, appearing in the March 2008 issue of CSTA Voice, focuses on the programming language Logo and the Logo Foundation at MIT.

Texas Students to Explore Science in Online Virtual World

Lee Wilson over at Headway Strategies has written another fine article on educational gaming. Recently, Technology & Learning published a two part article by Wilson on the myths surrounding educational videogames. Formerly a senior exec over at Harcourt, Pearson, and Chancery Software, Wilson runs a consulting firm in Austin and writes The Education Business Blog. He is quite knowledgeable when taking the pulse of ed tech, and I quote him in an upcoming article of my own coming out in the next couple months. Right now, Wilson says, the cutting edge of ed tech is in online virtual worlds.

The March issue of Cable in the Classroom Magazine includes an article by Wilson entitled Virtual Worlds = Virtual Learning. In it, Wilson describes how Whyville.net is being leveraged by the Texas Workforce Commission to engender positive attitudes toward science in school kids and perhaps help instill the notion of pursuing science as a career. The TxWC is partnering with Whyville to create the Whyville Bioplex, with the goal of reaching “25,000 students with a biotech experience in their middle school career-education class in the next year.”

Whyville is a STEM-based academic virtual world (VW), where students can login and play at educational games with other kids around the country. I’ve encouraged teacher use of Whyville in my district, and listed it on my Top 10 Free Educational Videogames.

Wilson summarizes the benefits of using VWs for science exploration and gives a brief history of Whyville in the article. Here’s his summary paragraph:

The scientific method is an active practice. We do lab work to move beyond theory—to teach students how to be scientists. Virtual worlds allow us to safely take students to the frontiers of science where the really interesting questions await. By exposing them to the reality of science, we can engage a new generation of minds in this great endeavor.

STEM Possibilities Through Programming the Nintendo DS

Josh Fishburn, a grad student over at U. Denver, graduate RA at the NSF, and adjunct at Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, notes on his blog a YouTube video of a French team controlling a robot through a homebrewed software mod for the Nintendo DS.

I agree with Josh that the possibilities of programming in a “closed” system are intriguing. It reminds me of listening to Elliot Soloway over at GoKnow, in a lecture he gave at UNT, regarding the travails GoKnow had when setting out to create a truly educational game for the Nintendo GameBoy. At the time, Nintendo was not at all interested in educational games, perhaps fearing a negative backlash toward the GAMEboy brand if too many titles promoted educational objectives. My how times have changed, with the BrainAge series and other educational titles for the DS out there. Of course, Nintendo’s main handheld product is not referred to as a GAMEboy anymore, either; it’s now simply known as the DS.  

There have always been ways of programming your own game cartridges, though such efforts have largely been the purview of uber-geek programmers willing to poke around in grey market areas. Perhaps, as Josh’s video shows, closed system programming may become more prevalent. Certainly Microsoft has seen the light with their XNA programming initiative for the Xbox.

If Nintendo or another company offered a simple way to program or modify game cartridges, millions of young boys and girls the world over might well take a stronger interest in computer programming. I suspect math and engineering initiatives would get a major boost from such an initiative.

NASA Looks to Build Educational MMO

Dr. Daniel Laughlin, Project Manager over at NASA’s Learning Technologies, Goddard Space Flight Center, announced recently that NASA has released a Request for Information (RFI) regarding the development of a NASA-themed MMO aimed at middle/high school students to college students. The vision for the MMO is one designed for educating students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) using NASA educational materials and appropriate learning game activities and simulations within the MMO (i.e, not necessarily “World of Warcraft in Space.”)

The thinking is, an exciting STEM MMO will encourage students to pursue careers in STEM fields. Here’s the main copy regarding the reasoning behind NASA LT’s latest initiative:

Persistent immersive synthetic environments in the form of massive multiplayer online gaming and social virtual worlds, initially popularized as gaming and social settings, are now finding growing interest as education and training venues. There is increasing recognition that these synthetic environments can serve as powerful “hands-on” tools for teaching a range of complex subjects, including STEM-based instruction. Virtual worlds with scientifically accurate simulations could permit learners to tinker with chemical reactions in living cells, practice operating and repairing expensive equipment, and experience microgravity – making it easier to grasp complex concepts and quickly transfer this understanding to practical problems. MMOs help players develop and exercise a skill set closely matching the thinking, planning, learning, and technical skills increasingly in demand by employers today. These skills include strategic thinking, interpretative analysis, problem solving, plan formulation and execution, team-building and collaboration, and adaptation to rapid change.

The power of games as educational tools is rapidly gaining recognition. NASA is in a position to develop an online game that functions as a persistent, synthetic environment supporting education as a laboratory, a massive visualization tool, and collaborative workspace while simultaneously drawing users into a challenging, game-play experience.

Submitters to the RFI are expected to address the following:

1. How a NASA-based educational MMO should be designed.
2. How a NASA-based educational MMO should support both formal and informal education efforts.
3. How a NASA-based educational MMO should connect to current and future NASA missions.
4. How NASA career opportunities exploration and significant STEM learning experiences would be incorporated into the design [of] a NASA- based educational MMO.
5. How a NASA-based educational MMO game play would be engaging for all participants.

In due course, a request for proposals (RFP) should be forthcoming. For more details, visit the MMORFI information at SpaceRef.com, and the NASA MMO Game page.