– ideas how to establish, grow a digital learning system for bricks in the cloud –

“In 1954 Godtfred Christiansen came up with the idea of a toy system. Godtfred saw the immense potential in Lego bricks to become a system for creative play, but the bricks still had some problems from a technical standpoint: their locking ability was limited and they were not versatile. In 1958, the modern brick design was developed.” (1)

As a software engineer, I believe that in 2019 (almost 2020) LEGO are still lacking the tool for a versatile digital system of education and in the past 6 years, LEGO, FIRST and several kids and educators inspired and challenged me to learn and think about digital education on bricks.

Based on this I believe that LEGO has the potential in 2020 to power self-confidence by creating a digital learning system. My working name for this system here will be LEGO Digital Continuum and Learning System.

Lack of a versatile tool – Problem statement

Many of the current LEGO digital and robotics education tools are limited to a narrow focus; They are tied to a single platform (2) and present a single learning approach as well.

We are all different in age, gender, nationality, experience level, interests and dreams.

For many years I have had exposure to gamification concepts, kudos to Mario Herger, a wonderful and talented former colleague and person from whom I learned that confidence and game mechanics nowadays are consciously designed in a systematic way within all games and gamified systems.

Following your learning curve, the system grows, expands and provides you with more insights, tools, options gradually. In an ideal case, this keeps you in the constant flow [Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly 1975. Beyond Boredom and Anxiety: Experiencing Flow in Work and Play] with constant engagement and confidence boost.

EV3 Tree Visualizer
http://ev3treevis.azurewebsites.net

Teaching robotics within the programs of FIRST LEGO League, FIRST LEGO League Jr, WRO and having exposure to in-house programs such as SAP CodingKids and the wonderful foundation of Skool, Yes She Codes there seems to be a constant struggle seen about the learning curve of any digital education system. Most of the tools are steep at the beginning, yet lack expansion afterwards while one grows. Most problematic of all is that they are heavily heterogeneous, therefore there is an investment to re-learn from the basics many times.

As an example: once you learn how to code WeDo 2.0, it is cumbersome to take that knowledge onward while learning SPIKE or EV3, right? I have heard so many educators, parents and coaches claim, that they are not capable to understand the insights of a robotics platform as this is too complex for them, but no worries – kids will be able to learn them fro sure.

Really? If we, adults, coaches, parents, teachers are not confident enough to jumpstart – how can we expect the young ones to do so.

Digital System – Solution proposal

I believe that Godtfred did with phisical bricks what needs to be done here at the digital bricks.

Have you noticed that no adults are afraid or reluctant to put together LEGO bricks, right?
It is obvious everyone can do that.

So shall be digital learning. We would need a versatile digital education system to learn, play and bring kids from kindergarden to highschool level.

Let me tell you about my dream.

My initial ideas, requirements

Very fast and easy learning curve. Easy to switch on, easy to on board. Everyone can use in 5 minutes. No install needed, can be used from the web-browser.
How to realize: Create an awesome web HTML5 based application.

Present a very limited initial toolbox and user interface (similar to Scratch Jr)
How to realize: e.g. pick ONE parameter for each EV3 block and default on all other parameters. Conditional statements shall be easy to understand – no content is to be hidden behind tabs, or complex structures. Therefore only IF-THEN is realized, no else or switch-case complexity.
Working name: EV3 Blockly Jr

Easily expands as experience level grows.
How to realize: Expand with optional parameters, capabilities. Create a stackable system of using iconic parameters, still clearly separating blocks from parameters. The parameter system must be consistent for each hardware stack with any visual programming language (VPL).

Examples are:

Ranges for steering: -4 .. 0=straight .. +4
Numeric parameter types such as rotation, degrees, seconds
Colors <red,black,white…>
IRproximity <veryclose-close-mid-far-reallyfar>
IRremote <button1, button 2, button 3, button 4, button 9>

Easily expands as inventory grows.

Similarly to the WeDo 2.0 – long pressing on a sensor/motor icon adds optional port selection, not displayed initially.
This enables more advanced users/ones with more accessory to use all the 4 or 6 or whatever ports when in need.

Switch to more advanced visual representation / visual programming language as experience grows.

Switching between visual representations, VPLs should happen easily, with a press of a button even from complex to simple whenever conversion is possible. A very good example is Microsoft MakeCode.

EV3 Blockly Junior is a starter environment to kickstart 4-8 year old into robotics.
EV3 Blockly Junior advanced (stackable parameters, port selection, conditional statement)
EV3 Blockly a visual representation of EV3G language, full compatibilty.
LEGO EV3 Programming (iPad, Win10 tool). Limited EV3G language environment for EV3 for tablet mode.
pro: tablet mode
con: Data wires and myblocks are painfully missing.
LEGO Mindstorms EV3 (current tool from NI on Windows 7/8/10 and for not upgraded Macs)
pro: huge variety of EV3 functionality, good modularity with myblocks, local variables are present in the form of data wires
con: inferior performance: slow, hard to have an overview, some very advanced mode sensor functions missing, lack of fast coding due to graphical language
EV3 Mindstorms Basic (text language, compatible with EV3G)
EV3 Mindstorms Python (text language, compatible with EV3G)
Micro Python code using ev3dev and Micropython (ev3dev+LEGO)
pro: highly advanced functionality
con: steep learning curve, hard to get a jumpstart for many

Cloud enabled Multi-user immerse experience

Code can be exported/imported either on local drive or can be stored in the cloud hosted by LEGO
Personal accounts storing personal projects
Projects can be private, restricted or public
Users can invite other users for collaborating on a specific project – User – project relation can be either owner or collaborator.
Collaborative editing of projects must happen simultaneously – similarly to prezi.com or office365.com or google docs – seeing the other user(s) focus, all changes visible instantly, with chat window

Image result for google document collaborative user editing"

Anonymous access, start coding without registration

Version control from the starting point, immediately

Program versions must be visible over time – username, date, optional comment for changes
Named versions, checkpoints
Difference between any two versions must be easily visible
To b evaluated: Branching, merging

Conclusion

In my dreams, there is a tool that is available for all students, educators, wannabe programmers, kids moving towards more complex programs such as FTC and finally all interested grannies.

Thanks for reading through my initial ideas about this dream. Could you somehow join, contribute, drive, connect and finally – who knows what we could achieve?

Could you help us bring this idea to LEGO Education? Do you have any ideas you would share, add or even contradict with?

I would be glad to hear your point! Sharing is caring, ideas are best when shared. We all work, compete, seek different challenges yet goals sometimes are quite similar and we do not know the answers but are keen to learn, collaborate and share.

You can comment here below or visit the facebook site of EV3 TreeVisualizer and leave your comment and ideas there.

Gracious professionalism as Woodie Flowers phrased this.

Footnotes

(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego
(2) I am aware of the new tool of created by LEGO for EV3, currently only available for Mac. Looking at the source code of the app it seems to be compatible both with EV3 and SPIKE, still lacking the ability to create data wires/local variables for EV3.

LEGO Digital Continuum and Learning System examples

Here you will find some preliminary examples for LEGO Digital Continuum and Learning System demonstrated on the FLL City Shaper Crane mission code with slight variations based on the level of the tool.