Some of us who have done engineering-related courses in university or college had to learn programming. Some enjoyed it, while others didn’t understand it fully or found it too confusing.
Learning programming basics in the early years helps. An upcoming project by Google called Project Bloks can help introduce programming to kids. And that too in a way that is entertaining and intuitive.
What is Project Bloks?
It is a system of toy blocks which the kids can connect together to control other toys. It sounds like toys when it is in fact, helping them learn the fundamentals of coding.
For example, a block with a turning dial on it could be used to control the speed of a remote control car for example, or one with an on off switch for similar usage.
Project Bloks in Action
How can Project Bloks Help Children Grasp Programming Concepts?
Teaching them using Project Bloks would fuel their creativity and add a useful skillset for them to use in the future while playing with these blocks. This also encourages them to solve problems, instead of creating them.
Google does not plan to enter the toymaker market with this project. They want to create a base platform with most of the technology and coding. It wants to let its partners build the toys (similar to how Google uses the Nexus brand for smartphones).
Google believes that by using this platform the toymakers will have an easier time making kids toys and coding products for the market.
Coming Soon
Project bloks isn’t ready yet. It has been in development since 2013 and is being built with the help of researchers from Stanford and Chang Mai University, Google Creative Lab, Research at Google and a design company Ideo.
The project was revealed now to gauge developer interest and find partners who will be interested in working with and developing the Bloks toys.
No final date has been announced for the public release of Bloks.
Google isn’t the first to introduce toys to help kids learn coding, but they aim to provide a cheaper alternative. More varied projects are in the pipeline once Project Bloks takes off.
And last but not the least, kids will be at ease with programming in case Project Bloks goes mainstream.
