http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/05/05/kano_raises_15_million_dollars/

 

It's supposed to be for kids.

 

But I want one.

 

I don't really know why but I do.

 

Is 2 too young to have one? It's for him, honest!

You don't know why you want one...come on, of course you do - how could any technology person not find that appealing?  It looks a fantastic little bit of kit, I'm a STEM ambassador for school stuff and would love to get a hold of some kits like to take to schools.

 

John

Now that is cool.

 

Both my kids already have Pi's, but my mouse is hovering on ordering one of these....

It's available on amazon via pre-order. Interesting kit and definitely something I could see a small group or groups of kids working with.

 

I brought my 10yr old Niece a sphero with hopes she'll discover the programming side after the fun has worn off. Only see her a few times in the year, maybe in time we can remote pair program her sphero. She declared she wanted to see the computers brain, this kit and pi's in general seem to fit that requirement.

 

I've also wondered about how to go about teaching computing, although more software development. Not in school, but more as a an after school/local hall, opt in. The pi was a fantastic enabler for this. Just never got deep enough into exploring the how and wherefores. Thanks John for STEM, hadn't discovered that.

 

Spoke to a ICT teacher a few weeks ago about what she was doing in school and it seemed to be pretty low level stuff. I've never needed to know how the memory bus talks to the cpu, learnt it for my degree, but I've ever needed in 25+ years of development. So it seemed curriculum to known about how the computer works more than making it work. IMHO, the how it works should be for boffins who have that level of aptitude, not pushed onto teenagers who really want to make a thing move over the screen gobble something and back again.

 

I'll keep an eye on these kits, thanks for sharing.

It's only within the last couple of years I've been involved with STEM as the company I work for has a large involvement with the program but primarily more chemistry and biology, the schools were looking for IT Help so our group were signed up to offer that.  I've been surprised at how poor IT is in schools, we've met some fantastic teachers who are really enthusiastic but having to teach networking using ropes and not being allowed retired PC's to allow the pupils to have a go at building PC's.  We've set up activities where they've set up their own network, put together simple software code, identified and built a PC, shown our server room etc. and they generally love that sort of thing - as you say they're taught very dry and frequently completely outdated stuff rather than practical hands on activities which are much more enjoyable for them and far more relevant.  

 

There's been a lot of talk about teaching programming as standard for all pupils over the last couple of years but I don't know if there's actually been any progress, it certainly makes sense as I think it can give you some idea how the software is working even if they're not planning to go any further.  I quite often have parents asking me how their children can get into programming and I forget things are very different now, when I was in secondary school computing was a standard class and we were taught Basic and then Comal whereas when I ask parents what their children have done computing wise it's learning Microsoft Office instead.  That is a useful skill but a very separate one, I think it's increasingly difficult for children now to understand how technology works as they haven't seen the steady progression that we have.

 

The function of the STEM project is pretty much exactly what you've described, primarily after school classes for enthusiastic pupils to take their interest further, the schools here have been very keen to have any help and do anything they can to support us in that.

 

John 

Edited 6 May, 201511 yr by JohnMcL7

KANO makes me think there should be a robotic teaching ninja robot called CATO!

Unfortunately a lot of 'computing' teaching in schools right now is more to do with using 'apps'.

 

A lot of the cool and funky tools are US based and they can have problems getting around the American mindset of giving these things away in exchange for the marketable profiles of the kids. that's totally acceptable in the USA but breaches DPA over here.

 

Also teachers just don't have the time to spend teaching kids basics or letting kids explore these sorts of thing themselves. there is a new curriculum up here (Curriculum for Excellence) but everything in it happens at a frenetic pace. the agendas are driven by non-educating politicians which means the focus is on what is shiny and new (Apple, Android and Apps) not on the foundations of what computers and It is based upon. so we end up with yet another generation of well trained users/consumers and not creators.

 

Pi is a remarkable development but I doubt there is much time to make the most of it in schools outside of geeky lunchtime clubs.

Originally saw these on Kickstarer and wavered about investing.

£119 on Amazon which is too much for me to buy as a toy right now.

£119 on Amazon which is too much for me to buy as a toy right now.

 

I had exactly the same thought.

 

I'm fancying making up a Pi 2 Squeezeplayer as a gift for my Mum, a friend showed me a nifty little audio board which plugs into the Pi and you can get a neat case to go with it.  She has a little MP3 player in the kitchen but I like the Squeezebox stuff (have a Touch myself) and with a little work it should be possible to have her PC auto sync her music with the Pi so it can be both a server and player.  Then if she fancied it in another room I could buy the same again and set up another.

John