Why your 8-year-old should be coding | VentureBeat

April 12, 2013 9:01 AM Jolie O'Dell

Learn-to-code startups abound these days, but one in particular is focusing on the very young and is having some success in elementary schools around the country — even underserved schools with no budgets for STEM but a great need for better tools.

[The startup is ]{style="font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"}Tynker[; it makes a ]{style="font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"}web-based learning platform and a visual programming language[ for teachers and kids in K-12 classrooms. In a discussion with its co-founder, we found out why ]{style="font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"}[[teaching ]{.kLink style="outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1px !important; border-top-width: 0px !important; border-right-width: 0px !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 0px !important; border-top-style: none !important; border-right-style: none !important; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: none !important; font-size: inherit !important; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: none; background-color: transparent; width: auto !important; float: none !important; display: inline !important; font-family: inherit !important; position: static;"}[kids]{.kLink style="outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1px !important; border-top-width: 0px !important; border-right-width: 0px !important; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 0px !important; border-top-style: none !important; border-right-style: none !important; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: none !important; font-size: inherit !important; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: none; background-color: transparent; width: auto !important; float: none !important; display: inline !important; font-family: inherit !important; position: static;"}]{style="outline: none medium; font-family: inherit !important; font-size: inherit !important; position: static; color: #1f81e5;"}[ how to code is so important to him.]{style="font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"}[

]{style="outline: none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"}

Welcome to the new home of d11.me. I have moved the Url to robotcraft.org and hopefully everything has transferred successfully. You will need to reregister to make a new comment and you will need to update the RSS feeds. Thanks for putting up with the confusion.

Doug

The world just keeps on changing. Never bet against it.

Fraser Speirs - Blog - Teaching Programming with iOS and Amazon EC2

I just shut down the Amazon EC2 instance we've been using all school year, so I thought it was worth reflecting on. Last August, I wrote about my new approach to teaching Ruby programming on our iPads.

How did it work? In a word: perfectly.

When Did Intelligent Life Emerge in the Universe? » A Curious Mind

Figure 1. The Helix Nebula; the gaseous outer layers expelled by a dying star. The ejected material enriches the interstellar medium (from which new stars and planets form) with carbon. Credit: NASA, ESA, C. R. O’Dell (Vanderbilt University), M. Meixner and P. McCullough (STScI).

Observations from the ground and with the Hubble Space Telescope have shown that the cosmic rate of birth of new stars reached its peak some 9–10 billion years ago, and it has been declining ever since.  The peak in the universal rate of carbon production lags behind the cosmic star-formation rate by no more than about a billion years.  Consequently, we can guess that if the universe did indeed experience a burst of life-formation, similar perhaps (in terms of its eruptive nature) to the Cambrian explosion on Earth, the earliest this might have happened was about 9 billion years ago.

It took life on Earth about three billion years to develop from primitive to complex.  We have no idea if this is “typical,” but it seems reasonable to assume that if “intelligent” life develops at all, this process should take a few billion years, given the rather slow pace of Darwinian-like evolution.  This means that we might expect “intelligent” (more cautiously, “complex”) life forms to have emerged in abundance in the universe some 5–6 billion years ago.  If true, then there could be quite a few civilizations out there that are more advanced than ours by a few billions of years.  How is that for a humbling thought?

LEGO.com MINDSTORMS : News

Announcing LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 04/01/2013 Coming Fall 2013: LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Create and command robots that do what you want.

With LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 you can turn your LEGO creations into live robots that follow your every command. The new LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 set includes everything you need – motors, sensors, programmable brick, 550+ LEGO Technic elements, remote control – to create and command robots of even your wildest imagination, including 5 cool robot characters. Download the 3D building instructions and the app to command your robot via your smart device. Then program your robots to walk, talk, move and do whatever you want them to do to via the intuitive software program, the programmable brick or your smart device.

Jobs made Apple exciting, now it's just a company. Journalists are bored.

Now we are getting somewhere. This is really cool.

Dynamic Robot Manipulation – Brick throwing robot « adafruit industries blog

BigDog handles heavy objects. The goal is to use the strength of the legs and torso to help power motions of the arm. This sort of dynamic, whole-body approach is routinely used by human athletes and animals, and will enhance the performance of advanced robots. The control techniques and actuators needed for dynamic manipulation are being developed by Boston Dynamics with funding from the Army Research Laboratory’s RCTA program.

The ultimate robot!

Oreo Separator Machine #1 « adafruit industries blog

A detailed look into the complex world of Oreo separation- featuring music by my band, Anamanaguchi

Cool new way to program the NXT. Will have to follow this to see how it turns out...

Enchanting : Enchanting : Enchanting

What is Enchanting?

Enchanting is a tool to allow children an easy-to-understand way to program LEGO MINDSTORMS NXTrobots. It is based on Scratchand BYOB/Snap!, and powered by leJOS NXJ(Java for the NXT). Enchanting is free and open-source.

For more details, see the About page. Is it any good?

Yes! But, don't take my word for it. See what people are saying about Enchanting.

How do I use it?

Try out our brand new Enchanting Cards! (Here is a preliminary German translation.)

Your other best resource at this time, aside from diving in and trying it out, is the interactive book Robotics with Enchanting and LEGO® NXT: A Project Based Introduction to Programming, available for the iPad or as an interactive PDF for use on your computer. (Please note that we've re-arranged the order of the palettes and changes the 'motor' blocks' colour from red to cyan).

Knowing how to use Scratchis certainly helpful, and, for the advanced user, look at how to use BYOB/Snap, especially the BYOB manual.

I just backed a Kickstarter project!

Next Generation LiveCode (Open Source) by RunRev Ltd — Kickstarter

LiveCode is like a next generation version of HyperCard. It is used to create #1 one app store apps, real-time flight booking systems and control satellites. It is used to create simple one off apps and utilities to solve day-to-day problems.

There are some things it can’t do – yet. This project is to create a next-generation LiveCode.

Our vision is that this new next-generation LiveCode will be free and open source.

It will run on every popular platform and device.

It will let you write programs in English.

And by being open, its English language programming will be extensible to any computing problem out there. That's a world first.

If you couldn’t code before, LiveCode is the answer. If you’ve used the existing version of LiveCode before and it didn’t do everything you needed, this next-generation version has you covered.

Can't wait to see Mark Frauenfelder at the science museum next week!

Celebrity Lecture Series | Fort Worth Museum of Science and History

February 28, 2013 Mark Frauenfelder The Maker Movement – 7 pm Adult \$12 Children (2-12)/Senior (65+) \$10.00

Mark Frauenfelder is the editor-in-chief of Make magazine, the leading publication of the do-it-yourself movement, and the founder of the popular Boing Boing blog, which has over five million unique visitors per month. He is the former editor-in-chief of Wired online, and was an editor at Wired magazine and Wired Books from 1993-1998. He has appeared on The Colbert Report and The Martha Stewart Show, and has written for New York Times Magazine, Popular Science, Business Week, The Hollywood Reporter, Wired and other national publications.

Hans 555 Timer IC - Circuit Playground Plushie ID: 1022 - \$9.95 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits

Hans is the 'old man' of the group. He tends to be nervous and is often indecisive. Hans frequently changes his mind, and is a little fidgety (he oscillates) when he's not moving around. He is very meticulous and precise in other ways; Hans does not like to compromise, preferring to be in a steady state until a dramatic change is called for. Hans speaks with the voice of a kindly old man with a Swiss-German accent, though his voice can become more nasally when he's upset or feels strongly about something. His catchphrase is "maybe so, but perhaps not."

About the 555: The 555 timer IC was designed by Hans Camenzind in 1971. It consists of two threshold triggers, an RS flip-flop, and an output buffer. The 555 provides an easy, reliable way to create rectangular waveforms of adjustable pulse width and frequency by using different external component values.

Review: Marware Axis and MicroShell Folio iPad mini cases | 9to5Mac

Marware, one of the leading accessory makers for Apple’s mobile devices, has sent us two of their latest iPad mini cases for review. Both cases are unique in their own right, but both are built with versatility and quality materials. Check our reviews of both the Marware Axis and Marware MicroShell Folio cases for the iPad mini below.

via adafruit.com

Handy.

Posted on December 6, 2012 by RobotGrrl

Last night was the final countdown for the RoboBrrd Indiegogo campaign, we surpassed our stretch goal!

Big thanks to all the new and old friends of RoboBrrd, for backing the project and/or spreading the word!

We will be keeping everyone in the loop as to what is happening, and we will be posting pics and vids of the behind the scenes action on twitter/facebook/g , so you can follow RoboBrrd!

If you have any questions about RoboBrrd feel free to ask them!

It is extremely exciting to be able to get RoboBrrd in the hands of even more people now. I can’t wait to see what people will be making with them!

YIPEE WOOT WOOT CHIRP CHIRP BEEP BLOOP WHIRR SQUAWK!

Thanks again!

This post was originally posted on RobotGrrl.com

Tags: 2012, awesome, campaign, crowdfunding, fun, funded, indiegogo, robobrrd, woot

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• ← 27 hours left! & RoboBrrd Dashboard Beta!

via robobrrd.com

Congratulations to RoboBrrd for making their funding goal!

via robobrrd.com

Help make it happen. Support the RoboBrrd campaign today!

via adafruit.com

That's one amazing robot!

From Discovery Bad Astronomy Blog

[This is truly astonishing: the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped what may turn out to be the Space Picture of the Year: Curiosity descending to Mars under its parachutes!]{style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;"}

The simple and sheer amazingness of this picture cannot be overstated. Here we have a picture taken by a camera on board a space probe that’s been orbiting Mars for six years, reset and re-aimed by programmers hundreds of millions of kilometers away using math and science pioneered centuries ago, so that it could catch the fleeting view of another machine we humans flung across space, traveling hundreds of million of kilometers to another world at mind-bending speeds, only to gently – and perfectly – touch down on the surface mere minutes later.

The news these days is filled with polarization, with hate, with fear, with ignorance. But while these feelings are a part of us, and always will be, they neither dominate nor define us. Not if we don’t let them. When we reach, when we explore, when we’re curious – that’s when we’re at our best. We can learn about the world around us, the Universe around us. It doesn’t divide us, or separate us, or create artificial and wholly made-up barriers between us. As we saw on Twitter, at New York Times Square where hundreds of people watched the landing live, and all over the world: science and exploration bind us together. Science makes the world a better place, and it makes us better people.

It’s what we can do, and what we must do.

Finally getting around to turning on iTunes match. I only have about 4,000 songs in my library. It will be interesting to see how many match their database.

A great TED talk about the Arduino and open source hardware. Video

via rcarduino.blogspot.com

Way cool.

For the past years, Apple has been showcasing the educational advantages of devices like Macs, iPhones and iPods on its Apple in Education website. Since the introduction of the iPad in 2010, however, the company has been making an effort to position the device as the best tool now available to teachers and students to improve the quality of education and level of engagement. The dedicated iPad in Education webpage showcases recent moves by Apple such as iBooks Textbooks and the iTunes U iOS app.

While we have covered schools and educational institutions adopting iPads in the past, the latest profile posted by Apple today on their UK website is quite possibly the best example of iPad in education to date. Those of you who have been following the progress of iPad deployment in schools may remember Fraser Speirs’ iPad Project, which made headlines throughout 2011 as it was the first one-to-one iPad deployment to every people in a school. Speirs documented the process of giving an iPad to every teacher and student at Cedars School of Excellence (Scotland) on his personal website, and today Apple has posted a video profile showing how “Cedars students boost learning with iPad”.

The full video is available here, and it shows teachers and kids using the iPad as a modern, regular tool in their daily lives that has improved the way they create and share content of any kind. One particular segment towards the end of the video struck a chord with me:

I don’t think we could ever go back from where we are right now with the iPad. The only way’s really forward — to more access to knowledge, more empowerment, more creativity…all these things in the classroom”.

As I wrote before, Apple’s education strategy will be interesting to follow. Actually seeing kids and teachers who have been using the iPad as a real substitute for and enhancement over old learning tools for over a year now, however, reminds me that, no matter Apple’s strategy as a company, software is the future of education, and the iPad is giving our kids a bit of that future today.

Detractors of the iPad as a learning tool point at the management required by connected devices to ensure that, in the classroom, the possibilities offered by the Internet don’t get in the way of teachers’ requirements and students’ attention. Fortunately, this is something Apple has been addressing since day one, and that has recently improved with more tools.

Every major change in our society and culture will be awarded an equal amount of optimism and skepticism. As someone who’s been lucky enough to find his dream job in the possibilities offered by the Internet and software, I tend to see skepticism as a challenge, rather than a roadblock. People like Fraser Speirs are proving that, beyond analysts and blog posts, a better education for our kids is possible, today, every day, with a device that’s making kids eager to learn.

Free of the constraints of paper and old, disconnected learning material, the iPad brings new challenges and practical issues to overcome. With time, patience, and willingness to look past rules established in societies different than ours, we must make sure these devices we have built and ecosystems we have nurtured won’t be remembered for Angry Birds, because among other things, our kids deserve a better, modern education. And we have to start building it today.

via macstories.net

Get Started with Arduino and iOS

Save 60% – One Week Only Use code: WKAAVE

Turn your iPhone or iPad into the hub of a distributed sensor network with the help of an Arduino microcontroller. For Objective-C programmers who like to experiment, Alasdair Allan's new video and related ebook explain the basics of Arduino and other hardware components you need—and lets you have fun in the process. The new video also covers the latest TTL Redpark Serial Cable for iOS.

Ebooks and videos from oreilly.com are DRM-free. You get free lifetime access, multiple file formats, free updates.
Deal expires May 21, 2012 at 11:59pm PT, and cannot be combined with other offers.

via shop.oreilly.com

Nice combo.

via venturebeat.com

Sounds like they will need a lot of robots!

via gigaom.com

Hmmm... getting closer and closer to mainstream.