Google Engineer Designs Workbook Teaching Early Readers To Code, Screen-Free
Image via Little Hackers
Kids are learning to code younger and younger, and it’s almost a given when considering the rapid rise in technology.
However, parents may be concerned about the health implications of a pair of young eyes glued to a screen for more hours in a day than they already might be.
Brandon Tory, an engineer at Google, has devised a solution. This will be teaching the future generation of developers this new skill with what seems like a relic from the distant past at this point: a book.
Image via Little Hackers
Little Hackers is an effort born of Tory struggling to find resources on learning to code that were aimed at children below the age of nine. At the time, his son was just six years old, but he realized that he was able to explain some of the basics with just pen and some graph paper, no screen required.
The workbook is catered towards being able to read and interpret code, not writing it—that can come later. At the very least, the younger audience of the book will be able to decipher what process the computer has been tasked with when given instructions via the code.
Image via Little Hackers
Written at second-grade reading level, the book has “lowered the barrier for kids to enter the world of STEM,” per Tory’s Kickstarter campaign. It’s written loosely based on Python, a common coding language that remains relatively accessible.
A digital experience is also available to enhance learning, and this will leverage augmented reality (AR). Kids will be able to check out 3D-animated characters and some hidden answers to the problems in the workbook just by scanning a QR code with any smartphone.
Image via Little Hackers
But because the book was designed to reduce time spent on devices in the first place, this isn’t totally necessary in order to be able to enjoy the book.
Tory, who is Black, has also designed the characters in the book to be more representative of the community. He states that when doing research on alternative kid-friendly resources, close to none of the material he found featured children who looked similar to him or his son.
It has been stated that an underwhelming minority of the leaders in the tech industry today are Black, and this lack of representation indicates an invisible barrier for children of color to “see themselves in technology,” Tory writes on the campaign page.
“We want to help address this problem by inspiring a future generation of leaders,” he states. “Through Little Hackers we aim to help lower the barrier to entry for learning coding fundamentals, and create reflections of authentic and diverse stories in tech.”
Tory’s campaign has surpassed its initial goal of US$10,000, and currently stands at just over US$11,000 at the time of writing, with more than a month to go.
Image via Little Hackers
Little Hackers, an AR powered book I developed that teaches coding to kids aged 6+ and reflects authentic diverse stories in tech, has just been selected as as a Kickstarter #ProjectWeLove and raised over $7,709 in 7 hours. Let's go! https://t.co/j3CGdflWrj pic.twitter.com/DjqgPHK1u5
— brandontory (@brandontory) September 28, 2021
[via Fast Company, images via Little Hackers]
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