Kids can code: Helping our children to shape their worlds
Here at KinderLab Robotics we work to help children gain the technological literacies of the 21st century while also developing a sense of identity, value and purpose. We want to help inform the design of digital spaces so that children can use new technologies to become better people and to make the world a better place.
Too often, youth experiences with technology are framed in negative terms – cyberbullying, invasion of privacy, video game addiction, and so on. So although we feel that it is important to acknowledge these problems, we also want to encourage parents, educators and children to take an active part in describing the digital landscape that they would like to live in – and then help to shape it.
The period from pre-school to high school is an extremely rich time for child development, and a time that shapes future learning, attitudes and long-term creativity. We believe that physical objects and spaces – not necessarily screens – determine positive development. The manipulation of objects should play a major role in creative exploration and motor skill development. As children grow they find increasingly limited space in which to expand their developmental needs. But in their early years it’s possible to nurture a digital landscape in which children develop as grounded individuals who truly feel that they can influence and help craft their digital landscape.
Young children learn by doing. That’s why KIBO was developed from the ground up to be different. It appeals to both technically-minded kids and those that connect more to arts and culture or physical activity. At KinderLab we strive to open up a world of technological play and experimental programming to children who may not naturally lean towards fields of engineering or computer science. Children build their own robot with KIBO, program it to do what they want, and look the way they want it to. KIBO gives children the chance to make their ideas physical and tangible.
With KIBO, young children can become programmers or engineers. Equally they can dream of being designers, artists, dancers, choreographers and writers. Designed for open-ended play KIBO lets children make almost anything – and aspire to be almost anything – they choose.