{"id":39430,"date":"2016-07-03T15:48:11","date_gmt":"2016-07-03T15:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/new-research-project-will-make-computer-science\/"},"modified":"2016-07-03T15:48:11","modified_gmt":"2016-07-03T15:48:11","slug":"new-research-project-will-make-computer-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/new-research-project-will-make-computer-science\/","title":{"rendered":"New research project will make computer science more hands-on in the classroom\u2014meet Project Bloks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"tumblr_blog\" href=\"http:\/\/codeorg.tumblr.com\/post\/146557448103\">codeorg<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>At Code.org we\u2019re all about finding lots of different ways for students to interact with computational thinking. That\u2019s why we\u2019re excited about <a href=\"http:\/\/g.co\/projectbloks\">Project Bloks<\/a>, a collaboration between Google, <a href=\"https:\/\/tltl.stanford.edu\/people\/paulo-blikstein\">Paulo Blikstein<\/a> (Director of the Transformative Learning Technologies Lab, Stanford University) and IDEO. Project Bloks is creating an open hardware platform through which developers, designers, and researchers can make new \u201ctangible programming\u201d experiences\u2014hands-on tools for helping kids learn computer science.<b><br \/><\/b><\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<figure class=\"tmblr-embed tmblr-full\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"540\" height=\"304\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AuRTS35ouTs?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=opaque\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Coding doesn\u2019t have to happen on a computer screen. Why not make it physical for kids who are just learning to do it?<\/p>\n<p>The project is still in development, but the demo kits produced so far showcase the potential of the research. These kits have been integrated with LEGO\u00ae Education WeDo 2.0 and Mirobot devices, and also work with Code.org puzzles!<\/p>\n<figure class=\"tmblr-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/66.media.tumblr.com\/ea94047e7d7f13e8cb506267d5e09094\/tumblr_inline_o9ftxuytgh1s7qct1_540.jpg\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>Pulling focus away from the tools typically used in coding\u2014a keyboard, a screen\u2014and toward tangible activities could eventually make computer science education more accessible, too. Project Bloks will be an open platform for interactive design; it\u2019s not hard to envision a group of developers and educators using it to make CS lessons for kids with disabilities.<\/p>\n<p>The project and demo kit will be at the Google booth at education conference <a href=\"https:\/\/conference.iste.org\/2016\/\">ISTE<\/a> in Denver, US, going on right now! If you\u2019re there, stop by and check it out!<\/p>\n<figure class=\"tmblr-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/66.media.tumblr.com\/cf158b8e142a5bbbd1c8772aed60639d\/tumblr_inline_o9ftyhCgDZ1s7qct1_540.jpg\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>For everyone else: if you\u2019re interested in participating in Project Bloks\u2019 research, <a href=\"http:\/\/g.co\/projectbloks\">learn more and sign up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>codeorg: At Code.org we\u2019re all about finding lots of different ways for students to interact with computational thinking. That\u2019s why we\u2019re excited about Project Bloks, a collaboration between Google, Paulo Blikstein (Director of the Transformative Learning Technologies Lab, Stanford University) and IDEO. Project Bloks is creating an open hardware platform through which developers, designers, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[1537],"class_list":["post-39430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-critical-toys"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6PWot-afY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39430\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}