I bought this for my kids about a year ago. The novelty wore off quickly, and they ended up only playing the demo game included with the app. The process of creating an image with the blox takes so long that the effort doesn't seem worth it. I've purchased a lot of these "get kids into tech" type toys over the years. I find that none of them have kept my kids interest nor have they really actually taught anything technical. Some were downright patronizing (I'm looking at you GoldieBlox).
If we want to get kids interested in technology, we should be teaching them about technology, not creating abstractions on top technology and then teaching them the abstractions. I learned about computers with Murphy's Laws of Dos and Dos 4 on a monochrome screen. I knew that what I was doing was the same thing that professionals did, and I knew that the knowledge I was acquiring would be applicable in many settings. Later I learned Basic and HTML, and again these were tools used by professionals.
We should stop lying to ourselves that these toys teach technology, and sit down with our kids and teach them how to build Pong with Pygame.
If we want to get kids interested in technology, we should be teaching them about technology, not creating abstractions on top technology and then teaching them the abstractions. I learned about computers with Murphy's Laws of Dos and Dos 4 on a monochrome screen. I knew that what I was doing was the same thing that professionals did, and I knew that the knowledge I was acquiring would be applicable in many settings. Later I learned Basic and HTML, and again these were tools used by professionals.
We should stop lying to ourselves that these toys teach technology, and sit down with our kids and teach them how to build Pong with Pygame.