Shanghai Tech WriterTechnical Writing, Technology, WordPress, Web 2.0, National Instruments, LabVIEW, Shanghai, China

I just watched a video from one of NI Week 2008 keynote presentations about a new product called LEGO WeDo that will be available beginning January 1, 2009. Similar to LEGO Mindstorms NXT, LEGO WeDo is a robot powered by LabVIEW, made specifically for primary school students.

From NI’s product page:

LEGO Education WeDo – powered by LabVIEW, redefines classroom robotics, making it possible for primary school students 7–11 years of age to build and program their own solutions. LEGO Education WeDo provides a hands-on learning experience that actively engages children’s creative thinking, teamwork, and problem-solving skills. LEGO WeDo is programmed with simple, drag-and-drop software created in LabVIEW! Now, engineers of all ages can experience the power and ease of use of LabVIEW. WeDo will be available in January 2009.

In this video, an 8-year old girl programs a robot she built by using a simple drag-and-drop software created in LabVIEW.

Here’s another video about Lego WeDo on YouTube.

Both LEGO Mindstorms NXT and Lego WeDo combine both the actual building of a robot with the programming aspect, creating a fun and interactive learning environment for young kids to learn about science and technology.

Before I was a technical writer, I taught computer/technology at a school in Shanghai. I started an after-school program introducing computer programming to elementary school students. The school had limited resources so fancy robots like Mindstorms and Wedo were out of the school budget.  Instead, I found an open-source programming language called Squeak.

Squeak is an object-based programming language, similar to LabVIEW! I didn’t know anything about LabVIEW or programming back then, but I thought the concept of drag-and-drop programming was fantastic! Squeak was very easy to learn. I taught my students to program in Squeak, and they were able to program games like Pong, Frogger, car racing, pinball, etc… It was exciting to see my students thoroughly engaged in programming and creating their own programs/games. They were only about 9-10 years old.

For more information about using Squeak in the classroom, visit Squeakland.

Back to LEGO WeDo, here’s a picture of NI / LEGO WeDo promotion in Time Squares.