Being able to code—or at least understanding the basics of how programming actually works—is an important 21st century skill that is only getting more crucial. The problem is that code is about as abstract as things get, which is why Google's hopping into the world of "tangible programming" with its new Project Bloks.

There are two kinds of bloks, first there are the "Base Boards," little square blocks that pair with "pucks." The pucks are simple, self-evident little things like dials or switches that can take input from a programmer, and the Base Boards they are on translate this input into code. Then, each setup will also have a "Brain Board" which compiles all the input from the various pucks and their Base Boards, and communicates it to whatever the whole system is controlling, whether it's a light, or a remote control toy, or a speaker, or who knows what else.

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Premise sound familiar? It is. Google is in no way the first to do something like this. Project Bloks clearly has some influence from littleBits and other toys and games that teach children how to code by making it physical, like the board game Robot Turtles. What Google brings to the recipe is awareness—everybody knows—and a huge developer network.

Google's Project Bloks is an open-source shindig, so developers everywhere can come up with their own pucks and Brain Boards and devices that will work with them. While other, smaller companies might be hard-pressed to get developers on board, Google shouldn't too much trouble getting this off the ground.

Project Bloks is a work in progress. According to Google's site on the whole thing:

Project Bloks is still in active research. To further inform the development of the project, we'll be conducting more research over the course of the summer into the opportunities for tangible programming and the Bloks platform.

Still, there's no doubt that Google will help bring more attention to the growing trend of physical computing toys and, most importantly, introduce tons of children to the challenge and joy of programming computers before they are old enough to even conceive of a line of code, much less write one. That can only be a good thing.

Source: Google

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