Will you be able to use other extensions like the LittleBits extension with mBlock?
Third party extensions
jackbrown
#2
If the littlebits extension you want to use provides an arduino IDE library, you should be able to call it and compile it in your sketch.
shaiss
#3
I use ardublock and tried scratchx pluggin without much success. Ardublock worked well for teaching my 6yr old.
I haven’t tried mblkcock yet
I don’t know of any little bits arduino library.
jackbrown
#4
Really looking forward to introducing my five-year-old to coding, via Ardublock, pretty soon.
I feel like I have to get competent with Arduino’s version of “C” first, and then of course learn to use Ardublock myself, before I start him out on it. He’s not really reading yet…
How has your experience been with your kid? Do you feel like 6 is still pretty young, or is it doable, @shaiss? Are the concepts graspable?
shaiss
#5
I sat with my 6yr old this weekend and Ardublock and the LittleBits Arduino module. We did a simple loop with an LED on pin 90. It was
- pin on
- delay
- pin off
- delay
He got it and liked the idea, but I think he will get it better when Ardublock can make his starter robot move around, or the arm do something. They respond better when it’s something physical.
We started off with “Help Your Kids with Computer Coding” @ http://amzn.to/1N6mW7j which helped him get started with block based programming in Scratch. He also has a few scratch like games on the iPad.
I agree that if you learn arduino first, then ardublock, you can better explain to your kid.
http://www.virtronics.com.au/Simulator-for-Arduino.html might help you learn the arduino code quicker as you can step through and debug. A board like the Arduino Esplora or the SparkFun Sandbox help you get quickly started as you have a physical device with all the sensors/outputs onboard.
Here is the link to the LittleBits community forum. (you may have to have an account to view it?) http://discuss.littlebits.cc/t/connecting-littlebits-to-scratch-2-0/981
…Also thank you for your input. I am so excited to see others trying to mix and match all these things designed for kiddos. I get so tired of having to teach yet another visual programing platform with each new robot. The reason I backed this project over some of the other low cost bots is because mBot started from the ground up using Scratch. Everyone else we looked at sort of added extensions as an afterthought. I could tell they were really thinking of the educational environment and putting teachers and kiddos first.