Skip to main content

New product from LEGO Education

I'll let the press release speak for itself. This isn't out yet, but it does sound... very interesting. Given the target (the "One Laptop Per Child" program), I would suspect a low-cost solution, but at this point it's just speculation. The LEGO Press Release:

LEGO EDUCATION EXPLORING WAYS TO BRING CREATIVE LEARNING SOLUTIONS
TO DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Sao Paolo, BRAZIL (NOVEMBER 7, 2007) – LEGO Education, The LEGO Group’s educational division, today begins testing of creative curriculum solutions in three schools in Brazil to establish the best technology platform for bringing 21st Century skills to students ages seven and older in underserved and developing countries.

LEGO Education will provide selected classrooms with concept products that foster the hands-on, minds-on creative play for which the LEGO® brand is universally known. The company is building on 10 years of research, product development and success as a consumer robotics pioneer with LEGO MINDSTORMS®, harnessing technology to bridge the physical and virtual play worlds to provide advanced teaching methods that integrate science, math, engineering, language, social skills, and more. LEGO Education’s goal is to provide cost-effective, high-impact, versatile tools that foster creative exploration and learning for those schools and students who need it most to prepare for the future. In developing these solutions the company is once again collaborating closely with MIT Media Lab and Professor Mitchel Resnick.

“A global discussion is taking place right now about how to address the educational needs of children to best prepare them for the future and Nicholas Negroponte’s One Laptop per Child program has spotlighted much needed attention to the curriculum gaps in developing countries specifically,” says Jens Maibom, vice president, LEGO Education. “Our experience in both the consumer toy market and the educational environment uniquely prepares us to take a lead along with Negroponte and others in establishing affordable classroom solutions that challenge and inspire today’s children, the builders of tomorrow, to successfully meet the ever-changing demands of today’s global workforce. We are confident that the results of the curriculum test in Brazil will help us establish the best platform to meet this objective.”

Concept testing runs through the end of 2007, with additional development and product launch to a number of developing countries scheduled late 2008. Lars Nyengaard, Director of Innovation, LEGO Education is the lead for the project.

This new classroom concept further supports The LEGO Group’s recent announcement of its membership in the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, a group that has emerged as the leading advocacy organization focused on infusing 21st century skills like creativity and innovation into education. The organization brings together the business community, education leaders, and policymakers to define a powerful vision for 21st century education to ensure every child's success as citizens and workers in the 21st century. In his role as leader of LEGO Education Jens Maibom represents The LEGO Group, the only toy manufacturer on the Board, to champion the company’s commitment to preparing children for the future through creative play and learning activities.

# # #

About The LEGO Group
The LEGO Group (www.LEGO.com) is a privately held, family-owned company, based in Billund, Denmark. It was founded in 1932 and today the group is one of the world's leading manufacturers of play materials for children, employing approximately 4,500 people globally. The LEGO Group is committed to the development of children's creative and imaginative abilities through its products, which can be purchased in more than 130 countries.

LEGO, MINDSTORMS and their respective logos are trademarks of the LEGO Group. © 2007 The LEGO Group.

--
Brian Davis

Popular posts from this blog

Celebrating MINDSTORMS with a Remix - Part 3

The ROBOTMAK3RS continued their celebration of the 25th Anniversary of MINDSTORMS through these Fall and Winter remix projects. Each ROBOTMAK3R was tasked with selecting one LEGO set of their choice and combining it with a MINDSTORMS set. Below are the five amazing models they came up with. Braill3 by Jerry Nicholls Braill3 is an EV3-based LEGO Braille bricks reader. This robot uses its fingertip, made from three touch switches, to read messages written using the LEGO Braille bricks and will speak out what it detected. If it sees a simple maths problem it will attempt to solve it and give the answer as well. To learn more about the process of creating this machine, read Jerry's blog . Braill3 can be viewed here . Set Review: The Braille Bricks set is well thought out. The ratios of the letters is suitable for general use and the addition of some punctuation and arithmetic operators is excellent. There is a card showing what bricks there are and their quantities, but no form of sort...

Celebrating MINDSTORMS with a Remix - Part 2

The ROBOTMAK3RS continued their celebration of the 25th Anniversary of MINDSTORMS through these summer and fall remix projects. Each ROBOTMAK3R was tasked with selecting one LEGO set of their choice and combining it with a MINDSTORMS set. Below are the five amazing models they came up with. Remote controlled material handle r by Jozua van Ravenhorst (aka Mr Jo) This remix combines the LEGO Technic Material Handler (42144) with MINDSTORMS EV3 (31313) It uses the power of pneumatic cylinders to move objects around. By using a bluetooth remote control, very precise movements can be made with this model. Touch sensors in the base chassis prevent the turret twisting the cables that go through the turntable to much. The program has several protections to prevent over pressurizing the system for each of the 3 individual pumps and valves that control the 2 booms and claws. The real version of this machine is mostly used in waste material sites to bring the material to machines that sort and...

Celebrating 25 Years of MINDSTORMS

In celebration of the 25th Anniversary of MINDSTORMS, we take a trip through history. Please also visit ROBOTMAK3RS Community every week as we highlight different projects all through 2023 in celebration of the anniversary. Some of the early history is based on the content shared by  Coder Shah  in our  MINDSTORMS EV3 Community Group . Some of the text and links may have been edited from his original posts for consistency and clarity.  1984 - Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen watched a TV program called "Talking Turtle," where MIT professor Seymour Papert demonstrated how children could control robot "turtles" using LOGO, a programming language he developed. 1988 - The collaboration between MIT and LEGO resulted in LEGO TC Logo in 1988, which allowed students to control LEGO models using computer commands. The video shows Papert demonstrating TC Logo. 1990 - LEGO TC Logo was hampered since the robots you built had to be tethered to a personal computer. LEGO and MIT...