Digital Adventures had an opportunity to visit the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this year. This annual show brings together nearly 200,000 industry professionals, journalists, researchers and the general public to learn about the latest and greatest products from a wide-variety of manufacturers. From connected cars to virtual reality, there were a number of very cool technologies on display. One of the biggest themes on display was the rapidly increasing use of technology to make things easier for consumers. Thinking about all the engineers and developers that labored behind the scenes to create the technology-enabled future of tomorrow was truly impressive. We were also happy to see the continued expansion of age-appropriate tools to serve the education technology industry that will prepare the next generation of professionals with the skills they need to develop solutions to the problems of tomorrow.
Lego WeDo 2.0 Platform
Building on the success of their robotics platform and partnership with Scratch, Lego has launched a new STEM platform called WeDo. WeDo expands upon Lego’s strength in designing a product that mixes physical building with visual-based programming. Where this new product really shines is by bundling lessons on the fundamentals of a variety of engineering & science topics. While focused primarily on educators who want to utilize this platform to supplement STEM based coursework, the well-designed curriculum and familiar visual-based programming interface enables the use within other venues as well.
Dash & Dot
A new startup within the education technology space is Make Wonder. Their robots are controlled via an iOS app that leverages a familiar visual-based programming interface that is similar to Scratch. One of the key features of these robots is not only do they utilize motion but they also incorporate sound and lights which can form the foundation for some really cool projects. While there, we had an opportunity to view 2 of the robots doing a coordinated salsa dance demo which helps bring to life some of the things that kids can build with a combination of hardware/software resources.
We are excited to see what new projects can be built using the Lego WeDo 2.0 and Dash & Dot platforms. Stay tuned for new course offerings in the coming weeks that utilize these new platforms.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About the Author: Omowale Casselle ([email protected]) is the Co-founder & CEO of Digital Adventures. Prior to Digital Adventures, Omowale led the development, launch & management of an interactive advertising & marketing platform, SAMPLEit (division of Outerwall, Inc.), in high traffic retail locations (Walmart, Meijer, HEB) that will help consumers trial, discover, and ultimately make more informed choices about their most important purchase decisions. Earlier in his career, Omowale was part of the new product development team that successfully brought industry-leading vehicles to market including Ford Mustang, Ford Fusion, and Ford Escape Hybrid. His passion for continuous learning and development has led to degrees from Harvard Business School (MBA), University of Michigan (MS Engineering), and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (BS Engineering).