Codie, The Toy Robot That Teaches Kids Programming

Recently at TechCrunch Disrupt in London, Codie Labs showed off “Codie” the programmable toy robot. The toy was invented to teach programming concepts. Users can write different programs that roll the toy robot around and have it perform simple tasks. I think Codie is an awesome way to get really young kids interested in programming.

I think having skills as a programmer is becoming increasingly more important today. There are countless new jobs and even hobbies that can benefit from having knowledge in programming. So why shouldn’t kids start coding at young age? They start spelling and math very young. I think programming is the next logical step.

This past summer I was trying to teach my younger brother about programming. He’s really into gaming so I thought he would appreciate understanding some of the logic behind creating a game. We went through an online introduction to programming course together. While the material was simple enough for him to understand, it was pretty dry. The hardest part was trying to keep him engaged. I tried to look for curricula that presented the material in a fun way, but nothing seemed promising.

I remember thinking back to educational toys/games I used as a kid. I had a lot of CD-ROM games that would give help with times tables or spelling. Even though the games were educational, I don’t remember that getting in the way of a fun game. I remember the all the fun characters in the games, and their catchphrases, but not how many of the games were basically homework. I think the field of programming really needs some engaging hook to draw in interest from young kids. Codie could be the answer to this.

Codie might just be a box that can be programmed to move around, but I think the most important part of his design is the fact that it looks like he has a face. On the front of the robot, there are two large round lights that resemble eyes. A grown person might like at the robot and think “those lights look like eyes”.  But to a kid, that robot is a character, and they can interact with him and control the character to move around and interact with the real world. If a child is able to write a program that brings Codie to life, letting him move around, this is so much more engaging than just teaching material. That kid is not going to forget that they programmed an actual little robot.

I think this is exactly what kind of toy young kids needs to get interested in programming. It really shows kids how powerful programming can be. Instead of going through really dry lessons like I had with my brother, kids can see first hand a practical use for programming concepts. And hopefully kids who play with Codie have a similar experience to me with my CD-ROM games. They won’t remember the experience as being forced to learn. Instead, they’ll just remember how fun it was. That will make the concepts stick a lot harder.

Source: 

http://techcrunch.com/2015/12/08/codie-is-a-fast-rolling-robot-toy-that-teaches-kids-progamming-concepts/