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Lego, the toy that changed playtime for kids everywhere, has always been seen as one of the most innovative and fun ways for kids to play, learn and create. However, with the turn of the last decade or so, more and more kids have been playing video games, watching television, and generally have been allowing their minds to rot. Sure, there are some techniques that Lego have used in order to keep up with the technological advancements of the twenty-first century such as its yearly Lego Robots Competition, which allow children to design and programme their robots but it simply is not enough. In fact, a new company called Kano seem to know what the market really is looking for in this technology filled era.
Kano much like Lego allows children to open their minds to possibilities and their imagination but Kano takes it a step further. Not only are kids able to create and design their own computer from scratch; it is easy enough to keep them interested. Created as a challenge by one of the creators, 7-year-old cousin to make a computer as simple and fun as Lego, this really is a toy for anyone of all ages to get anyone and everyone coding. Coding? Yes, coding, when people hear this word, especially if they are terrible with computers like me, they think of html’s and all these other complicated computing that is hard to understand but Kano have simplified it basing itself on three principles: “simple steps, story telling, physical computing and tying them all together a sense of play and exploration.”
Kids can now hack up games like minecraft and even create some favourite classics like pong and snake that have long died with the creation of smart phones. As stated by Al Alcorn by creator of pong, as computers get more complicated it is has become harder to understand it all and it is more important than ever for kids to learn the science behind computing in order to prepare them for the future. In my opinion, this is all true as advancement in technology can only go so far if only a handful of people have the ability to really understand the workings of a computer. Many of us in this generation will easily be able to state that we cannot live without our phones, computers, and so on but at the end of the day we aren’t gaining anymore knowledge about it then the day before, we are merely acting as consumers.
This new, upcoming product will soon be going global and with it there may certainly be a change in the way we view our computers. The product has so many unique selling points to it that it is hard to pinpoint what makes it such a success. The act of creating something that was thought to difficult, made simple is really one of its main highlights because even those who are born in this era of information, it is hard to grasp the inner workings of the very thing that we carry around and use day in and day out. For kids it bring a whole new dimension to the world of computers rather than just playing video games on it all day and for adults, it allows them to learn with their children the basics of coding that will most certainly be a skill that will be highly sought after in the coming future. As a conclusion, all I can say is Lego better watch out because this start-up will be some tough competition awaiting the company very soon.
