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It's important to remember that toys like the MicroBit are not just about writing computer programs: they're about actually doing things in the real world. As

It's important to remember that toys like the MicroBit are not just about writing computer programs: they're about actually doing things in the real world. As you say, we're so painfully overexposed to seeing cool stuff on a computer screen that none of it's cool any more. A child learning basic programming can't make anything that can compete with even the lousiest modern game. But take that same basic programming and apply it to something that's physical, which you can touch and pick up and show your friends... now that's cool again. Remember Logo, Papert's educational language? With the turtle graphics? You weren't supposed to drive a pointer around on the screen. You were supposed to use with a real turtle, driving around on the floor drawing pictures with a marker pen! (Have these vanished completely? I could barely find anything on Youtube, except a few modern and rather inaccurate recreations. Here's a moderately crummy original video from the 70s talking about them, though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTd3N5Oj2jk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTd3N5Oj2jk)

TickleSteve 11y ago
True, and in that they have value... I played around with both a real Turtle and in Logo on an RM Nimbus back in the day. Computing is so much of an everyday thing now that there is no Wow! factor anymore. If nothing else, maybe we're enabling the next generation of embedded-softies which would be no bad thing. BTW: http://www.calormen.com/jslogo http://www.calormen.com/jslogo
david-given 11y ago
...serious question: why can you not these days get marker-pen turtles for silly small amounts of money? (Or, indeed, at all?) Battery, wireless and sensing technology is now so easy and cheap that producing a battery-powered turtle which talks Bluetooth ought to be simple. You could use the works from an optical mouse for motion tracking. The old turtles got quite sophisticated, and eventually turned into plotters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR8enP09RPI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR8enP09RPI (The hole in the middle was where you put the pen for turtle mode.) Look at those elegant curves as it draws straight lines! And you can see it calibrate itself against the edge of the paper. They made a later version with a longer cable but I can't find a video. Ah! There's a 1985 review of the plotter on page 28 of this: ftp://ftp.stardot.org.uk/pub/docs/magazines/beebug/volume04/greyscale/BeebUG%20Volume%2004%20Number%2002%20June%201985.pdf Man, I had that magazine when it was new...

TickleSteve 11y ago

True, and in that they have value... I played around with both a real Turtle and in Logo on an RM Nimbus back in the day. Computing is so much of an everyday thing now that there is no Wow! factor anymore. If nothing else, maybe we're enabling the next generation of embedded-softies which would be no bad thing. BTW: http://www.calormen.com/jslogo http://www.calormen.com/jslogo

david-given 11y ago

...serious question: why can you not these days get marker-pen turtles for silly small amounts of money? (Or, indeed, at all?) Battery, wireless and sensing technology is now so easy and cheap that producing a battery-powered turtle which talks Bluetooth ought to be simple. You could use the works from an optical mouse for motion tracking. The old turtles got quite sophisticated, and eventually turned into plotters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR8enP09RPI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR8enP09RPI (The hole in the middle was where you put the pen for turtle mode.) Look at those elegant curves as it draws straight lines! And you can see it calibrate itself against the edge of the paper. They made a later version with a longer cable but I can't find a video. Ah! There's a 1985 review of the plotter on page 28 of this: ftp://ftp.stardot.org.uk/pub/docs/magazines/beebug/volume04/greyscale/BeebUG%20Volume%2004%20Number%2002%20June%201985.pdf Man, I had that magazine when it was new...