No matter how good the relationship of our children with the touch devices, there is nothing for the learning as the physical game, the one in which they hold and move objects with their own hands. So think at least the creators of Primo, a toy that kids from 4-7 years can learn their first programming skills without realizing it.
Primo, manufactured by an eponymous company based in Islington, United Kingdom, consists of three main parts: a simple robot called Cubetto able to move on himself, a physical interface to program consisting of a board with holes and parts with board that can be filled and therefore coded to the kids like.
The end game is that children enter a series of commands, represented in the pieces, which are able to instruct the robot to follow the path to move to a particular destination. Through interaction with these command lines, say the creators of Primo, children become familiar gradually with the concepts that, in his opinion, support logic programming language.
Some of these pieces give an instruction to the robot, and others, such as a green circle shape indicates that the last command sequence, which, according to its creators, significantly increases the chances of repeat programming. For example, from the table it is possible to hack the robot to order him to repeat, in infinite loop, a certain number of orders.
It is not the first toy created for children to learn program: Lego has a programmable robot called Mindstorms and the company called Play-i already designed two robots that could be handled through a touch tablet. Yes it is, however, as explained by the team of Primo, a review of the way we try to bring the little ones to technology, no screens or devices.
“We are working on a tool that helps children to become creators, not just consumers of the digital world in which we live” sentencing. Primo has been financed through a campaign of ‘crowdfunding’ on Kickstarter. For these entrepreneurs, the program “It is an incredible tool that empowers people and changes their way of solving problems and use logic”.