Lego

those darn little plastic bricks

Donald Clark: Toy manufacturers need to sell toys to children and it helps of they can convince parents of their education worth. With LEGO you have to suspend belief in green policy, sustainability and evidence-based education to buy into their claims, which are clearly part of a clever marketing strategy. Let’s be clear, this is the insidious side of privatization in education, fooling parents and bribing teachers into shifting product. Hooking parents and kids into buying over-priced plastic on the wrong assumption that it’s ‘educational’.

the right way to design them for girls

Robot kids

• Lego Mind Storms
• Lego Wedo http://scratched.gse.harvard.edu/stories/wedo-redo
  • targeted at school-classroom market
  • but can buy as parent $245 ASIN:B00NBHXW9U
    • and this doesn't even include the intro software which costs another $100! ASIN:B00Y4Z514W
  • http://brianhanifin.com/2013/06/mindstorms-vs-wedo/
  • after outgrowing base software, can use Scratch