Is Agile still the best methodology to use in development today?

In a previous article, we covered some of the success stories from the tech industry in Canada. Canadian innovation and success stories aren’t to be taken lightly, especially when you consider big names like Shopify being included on the list.

For many of the mentioned companies, Agile methodology is among the reasons why they were able to develop market-fit products in a relatively short amount of time. The Agile workflow also allows for constant improvement, making their products and services better with every iteration.

Still, the many success stories around Agile as an approach to product (and business) development don’t make support for this method exceedingly high. In fact, there are those who question whether Agile is still the methodology to use today.

Understanding the Workflow

Before we can go any further, it is important to take a closer look at Agile as a methodology. Rather than using a linear project development method, Agile introduces cycles to the development process. Every iteration is a cycle and multiple cycles can be executed and maintained over a longer period of time. The sequential way of traditional methods – and the problems that come with it – is eliminated.

Since Agile no longer uses the sequential project management approach used by more traditional methods, it can be flexible and fluid. There are no big goals to achieve in a cycle, only smaller milestones. Long lead time and large project scopes can be eliminated entirely. The entire team can focus on short-term big wins instead.

That shift is among the benefits offered by this methodology. Collaboration becomes a necessity rather than an option. There are still handovers and PICs, but team members can keep up with the project from the beginning, even when they are not an active part of the process until the end of the cycle (such as for QA engineers).

How Agile Brings Efficiency

Agile as a methodology has its advantages, the biggest one being the transparency it brings to projects. Transparency becomes easier to achieve when tools like the Kanban board are implemented. In fact, Kanban boards facilitate the development of an Agile workflow.

Most teams use cloud-based Kanban boards to organize their projects. Kanbanize, a very popular tool in this segment, lets you create custom Kanban boards with phases and detailed cards. Once the board is up, tasks can be organized meticulously.

Since Kanban is visual by nature, the use of Kanban board for managing Agile workflow means the entire team can monitor the progress of a project in real-time and in a visual manner. The same visual nature of the Kanban board also makes anticipating issues easier.

Digital Kanban boards offer features like visualizing dependencies, which on its own allows for better problem-solving. Rather than waiting for delays and other issues to affect the entire project, team members can actually anticipate issues and potential delays by looking at how cards move along the board.

A Platform for Collaboration

Sticking with Kanban boards in Agile workflows, visualizing tasks as cards on the board also allows for better collaboration. Team members taking the initiative to assist with other tasks is not uncommon in teams that implement Agile methodology for project management. Team members also maintain the ability to control their workload.

The digital Kanban board becomes a suitable platform for encouraging wider collaboration. The engineering team can work alongside UX/UI team and other key stakeholders in bringing new iterations of products and services faster.

On a higher level, inputs from end-users are added to the board as insights for promoting shorter – and more targeted – development cycles. There is also the fact that explicit policies can be added to each part of the board for the purpose of ensuring consistency in project management. Clear policies eliminate confusion and allow team members to work together more seamlessly.

Adapting the Agile Methodology

Both Agile and Kanban are easy to adapt to different scenarios. Shopify, for instance, uses Agile for business development. This means the methodology – and the use of Kanban for project management – can bring similar benefits to other workflows in the organization. It also means processes can be optimized further.

Another good example is how Kanban and the same Agile cycle can be used to manage marketing campaigns. Each campaign is represented by a cycle. Details can be added to Kanban boards to make sure that every part of the marketing campaign runs smoothly and on target.

It used to be difficult to organize a complex marketing campaign with a lot of elements, but Kanban boards certainly make the process simpler. It is even possible to go a step further and customize the board to represent each marketing instrument used in the campaign. Instead of To-Do, Doing, and Done, the board could have Social Media, SEO, and other phases.

That brings us to the biggest benefit of implementing the Agile methodology: an increase in the organization’s ability to adapt. The flexibility of Agile and the benefits brought by Kanban methodology allow businesses to adapt to market changes faster. More importantly, they allow a business to adapt to changes in a more accurate way.

Is It for You?

It is hard not to acknowledge the fact that Agile isn’t a methodology for everyone. That said, the approach is universal and flexible enough to adopt in different situations. It is a methodology that brings tangible benefits to different workflows across the company.

Is Agile still the methodology to use in today’s product development? Yes. There are other methods to experiment with, but Agile is one methodology that has been proven to be effective in solving challenges in product development. The way Agile is now used in marketing and other functions is a testament to that flexibility and reliability.

Adopting Agile methodology is also a simple process. You have tools like the aforementioned Kanbanize helping you convert tasks into Kanban cards. Once your projects are migrated to a cloud Kanban board, you have more options to explore, including the ability to automate certain tasks and to use features like Gantt charts to further improve business processes.

The post Keeping it Agile appeared first on Tech Trends.

By Katherine Lutz

Technology has become integral to pretty much every industry at this point, whether it be technology, medicine, law, farming, education or anything in between. This means that computer science and other tech skills are more vital to possess than ever before.

Even if a student has no interest in going into computer science as a career field, coding can be immensely beneficial in their development. Here are three reasons why:

1 – Promoting Useful Skills

One of the best and most useful things about coding is that it comes with a number of other useful skills as well.

The nature of coding project requires a great deal of creativity and problem-solving. Creating code for things like games or web pages is a lot like putting together a puzzle or structuring sentences in a language, so it stretches the creativity muscles quite a bit.

Additionally, the project-based nature of coding promotes a great deal of discipline and dedication. Finishing a coding project is a lot like mastering a song on the piano or successfully completing an essay in a foreign language: a lot of patience and determination is needed, but it feels incredibly rewarding.

For projects that may require more than one individual to complete efficiently, teamwork and communication can also be built up.

Lastly, coding really helps students learn how to think critically and more outside of the box. Just like how coding develops creativity and problem-solving, it pushes students to explore dynamic solutions to the things they come across. While this skill will obviously help them develop higher level coding skills as they go along, the ability to think critically will absolutely spread to other areas of their life and help them in pretty much any subject they encounter in the future.

2 – Aiding Motivation

It can be hard to find motivation at any age, but students often have particular difficulty since they are still developing good habits and figuring out how to productively harness their energy. For instance, if a student feels that their surroundings (teachers, the school system, negative home life, etc.) are responsible for the outcomes of their efforts, it is much more likely for them to struggle to maintain motivation.

Alternatively, if they feel more in control of the way things turn out (practice leading to more successful soccer games, studying resulting in better test grades, etc.), they will feel more motivated to bring about those positive results.

One of the ways to bring about motivation after knowing this is to give them more access to project-based activities instead of tedious, smaller assignments and responsibilities. If a student is tackling a project, they are pushed to be more organized and in charge of the way the project and goals are broken up. If students are exposed to these long-term assignments that require more dedication and investment earlier on, they are more likely to secure solid and regular motivational skills that can help them later in life in just about any area.

2 – Helping Build a Successful Career

For students who are interested in computer science (or those who are still searching for a career path), it’s great to realize just how secure jobs in that field can be. By 2020, there will be an anticipated one million positions open in the U.S. tech industry. Even outside of the tech industry, computer science and coding skills are needed across the board in every industry from medicine, education, farming, law, business and everything in between.

As of 2017, the median annual salary of software developers was around $103,000. In terms of hourly pay, the median rested around $50/hr.

“The upcoming generations are some of the most competitive that we have ever seen. Luckily, it’s no longer a secret that technology and the skills that come along with it are more needed than ever, giving an easy way to give students an edge when entering the job market. Solid computer science skills make for the easiest path to a middle or upper-class lifestyle, and starting students as soon as possible is critical,” says David Dodge, CEO of Codakid,

It’s easy for any parent, teacher or even students themselves to feel anxiety about the approaching job hunt. Whether that search is years away or just on the horizon, it’s best to make sure they are as prepared as they can be to chase and develop a fulfilling and fruitful career when the time comes. Though coding may not even be on the list of skills you want to develop in your students, it’s absolutely something to look into. While it seems like a niche skill that only older students might even find interest in, it is excellent for the promotion of basic useful skills, motivation and the foundation of a successful career for all age groups.

The post 3 Reasons Students Should Learn to Code appeared first on Tech Trends.

If ever there was an example that to me encapsulates how one individual, empowered by knowledge and technology, can make a real difference to the lives of so many others, it’s the company founded by my friend Müjde Esin, who I first met in London just after she graduated from her MA and had set up KizCode in 2015.

KizCode is a social enterprise that seeks to empower girls and young women in ethnic minority groups and disadvantaged communities using digital education technologies and pedagogies that involve making and playing.

The project, Müjde explains, also crucially addresses the wellbeing and mental health of those girls, something which she feels is often overlooked, but is key in a addressing the issue of gender equality and access to opportunities for women in tech.

KizCode has so far received several awards: in 2016 it was recognised by the UK Home Office in England for its contribution to Social Enterprise. Müjde was awarded the 2018 the Women Social Entrepreneur of the year in Turkey and she also received Microsoft’s Women Leaders of Technology award as the most successful Woman Educator in 2017. KizCode is currently collaborating with Koc Holding and Arcelik in Turkey to empower girls in underprivileged communities.

Müjde Esin from @kizcode is one of the finalists for the ninth annual FDM everywoman in Technology Awards @everywomanUK #ewTechAwards #womendotech #techshecan
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Adding to that, Müjde herself has just been nominated as one of the finalists for the ninth annual FDM everywoman in Technology Awards. The International Inspiration Award is given to an individual in recognition of their active commitment to encouraging, advancing, sponsoring or championing the progress of women working in technology. The winners will be announced at a ceremony in London on March 6^th.

The judges @everywomanUK Awards were united in their admiration and respect for the achievement of this year’s finalists. Congratulations to @mujdesin
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Taking place to celebrate International Women’s Day, the awards are a timely reminder that only 15% of people working in STEM roles in the UK are female and just 5% of leadership positions in the tech industry are held by women. The 2019 awards programme’s rally cry is “Achieve, Elevate and Inspire” and this year’s finalists, whilst diverse in many ways, all have something in common – they do just that.

“The judges were united in their admiration and respect for the achievement of this year’s finalists,” says Maxine Benson MBE, Co-Founder of everywoman. Without question, each of them has the ability to inspire more women and girls into a career in technology. Research by PWC shows that there could be a £180billion boost to UK GDP just by increasing female employment rates. This shows just how valuable female talent is and why this programme is so important in ensuring that more women enter the industry.

@mujdesin collaborates with companies in Turkey and the UK, as well as Turkey’s Education Minister, to deliver computer-coding workshops to girls
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“I grew up in a patriarchal and conservative society and have experienced the reality of girls being discouraged from learning and in engaging in creative practice. While I learned technology skills by myself mostly while I was at university – and with some help from friends – I realised how other girls and young women in a similar situation would benefit from being taught such skills. Technology is at the heart of future developments in society, the economy and international relations. For me it has been an amazing journey to be in Tech as I can say that what I have achieved has been directly as a result of my interest in technology and coding.”

This is what spurred her on to set up her social enterprise to address the issue of gender imbalance in the technology sector by providing training to girls and young women in underprivileged communities in Turkey and Africa.

“I collaborate with companies in Turkey and the UK, as well as Turkey’s Education Minister, to deliver computer-coding workshops to girls and young women. The workshops – which over the past three years have reached over 2000 girls – aim to give them the skills they need to gain financial independence,” she explains. “I am very proud of our workshops participants. Two girls from an underprivileged community in Turkey, after completing my KizCode workshops, were inspired to continue working on their own projects, which they won a prize for. Both are now pursuing a career in the tech industry.”

Her work focuses on diversity and girls’ education, addressing culture from an internal perspective in migrant and minority group communities, and she also provides consultancy services leveraging that expertise to companies looking to address such issues internally.

KizCode is a social enterprise that seeks to empower girls and young women in ethnic minority groups and disadvantaged communities using digital education technologies
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So what’s next for Müjde and KizCode?

“I would like to see gender balance in the technology sector and make education facilities and technologies more accessible to girls in underprivileged societies,” she tells me, adding that KizCode has managed to become a ‘bridge’ between England and Turkey. “We are going to start a new project in Istanbul in collaboration with the Mayor; the project is called ‘KizCode Digital Skills Institute’ and it aims to give high technology skills to young women and improve diversity in the tech industry.”

I know without a shadow of a doubt that Müjde has the grit and determination to achieve all this and much more in the coming years, and look forward to cheering her on as she does.

There’s some serious ROI from investing in the future generation’s digital skills, and enabling entrepreneurs that make a real difference
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The best mentorships are the ones where you become lifelong friends, and also where the mentor learns at least as much (if not more) than what she teaches. Both are true of my relationship with Müjde, and I wish her many more well deserved awards and recognition, as well as a big fat load of investment at some point that will allow her to scale like crazy. Because there’s some serious ROI – in every sense – from investing in the future generation’s digital skills, and in enabling entrepreneurs that make a real difference.

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies our VR Consultancy service offers comprehensive support in strategic deployment of Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Tech Making the World a Better Place appeared first on Tech Trends.

These cool goodie boxes are a fun way for children to learn digital skills and have fun in the process.

Teaching children the skills they need to understand – and make – tech products (as opposed to just using them) is something I’m very passionate about. Even for kids who don’t go on to become programmers or anything along those lines, the knowledge of what goes on “under the hood” is always going to be valuable, as are the concepts of applied logic, persistence, and collaboration which come with building things with code.

The kits are developed so that you don’t need any previous coding experience of any sort to keep up
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Which is why I was keen for my niece and nephew to try Bitsbox, a subscription service which sends you everything needed to get the little ones started with cool coding projects.

Even for kids who don’t go on to become programmers or anything along those lines, the knowledge of what goes on “under the hood” is always going to be valuable
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Unlike platforms such as Scratch or code.org which they had already been using, Bitbox uses “real” coding. By which I mean that you have to get stuck into some proper typing rather than dragging and dropping blocks that visually represent the code. Both approaches have their own merits I find, and actually complement each other. The kits are developed so that you don’t need any previous coding experience of any sort to keep up though.

You have to do proper typing rather than dragging and dropping blocks
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After some predictable frustration when things didn’t initially work, they got the hang of it
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When you miss something out from your code, the platform gives you helpful debugging tips that hint at where the error is hiding
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One, called “Run Dodo Run” was particularly fun, as they could make said Dodo jump frantically higher and higher at ridiculous supersonic speeds. There is a playfulness to all these activities, and that helps sugar coat the hard work of paying attention to whether you remembered to close a bracket properly or add a comma in the right place.

“We got this for my 9 y.o. son’s birthday, we laminated the intro cards and his first actual box arrived yesterday. He loved the binder and has been coding constantly since it arrived. He said he felt “accomplished” when he coded his first game tonight. He has thanked me 2 dozen times and I saw him admiring his cards. Happy to see his screen time put to use with practice keyboarding and brainstorming!” Liz O’Neill Rich, Iowa

The kit is meant to appeal to a broad age range, and indeed the materials lived up to that promise. My seven-year-old guinea pig got stuck into a paint-by-stickers book (the concept is really the same as coding, in that you are following instructions to build up a bigger picture using blocks (much like they do in code.org or scratch) while my nephew, who’s 12, started creating an original app without using the activity cards.

With Bitsbox, children learn to program by creating fun apps that work on computers and gadgets like iPads and Android tablets
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The kit is meant to appeal to a broad age range, and indeed the materials lived up to that promise
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The Bitsbox platform has a large number of template assets you can use
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Bitsbox is a successful start-up that has been getting a lot of traction and attention (they were recently featured in Shark Tank) and it is a really well-thought-out concept and product which feels solid both from a pedagogical and entertainment perspective. It’s one of those things that makes me wish I was a kid again.

“I purchased this for my 7 year old who loves creating the apps from the codes supplied. It is a great way to introduce children to the world of coding and getting them to think about interactivity. I would recommend this to individuals and schools to use as part of the curriculum. In particular as coding has been placed on the national curriculum in the UK. This would be a great way to introduce this subject to children and assist teachers no doubt!” Gafin Morgan, UK

Parents wanting to try it out can subscribe to the service (monthly prices range from $16.95 for the digital-only version to $37.95 for a Deluxe version with extra goodies. You can also just buy a one-off kit with multiple units as a gift.

It is a great way to introduce children to the world of coding and getting them to think about interactivity
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With Bitsbox, children learn to program by creating fun apps that work on computers and gadgets like iPads and Android tablets. The Bitsbox.com website provides each child with a virtual tablet and a place to type their code.

The Bitsbox.com website provides each child with a virtual tablet and a place to type their code
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“So far we love it. I have a 7 year old daughter who wants to grow up and be a computer nerd. Thanks for helping make her dream come true!” Allison

The experience starts with lots of guidance, first showing learners exactly what to type, then quickly encouraging them to modify and expand their apps by typing in new commands.

“Wanted to give a big bouquet to you all for the excitement and enjoyment my 9 year old daughter got when she received her first Bitsbox yesterday in Middle Earth (New Zealand). Fantastic job with the design, love the recycled packaging, and the first impressions of the coding experience is thumbs up. Only problem now is that the 7 year old younger sister might have to be signed up too, to avoid WW3. Cheers!” Hassan Wong, New Zealand

Tech Trends readers can use the Promo Code TRENDY to get $20 off any 3 or 12 month subscription

• Kids look through the materials and pick an app.
• Every box comes with a mix of coding projects, ranging from simple to more advanced.
• Kids type the app into the Bitsbox website.
• Kids start with the code from the materials, then change it to make it their own.
• Kids use and share their apps on any mobile device.
• Bitsbox apps run on any computer, tablet, or phone with a web browser
• A new coding concept every month
• Perfect for curious kids 6 to 12 years old
• Kids’ apps work on real phones and tablets
• Unlimited email help with any subscription
• Free separate coding accounts for siblings

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Product Review: Bitsbox Coding Kits appeared first on Tech Trends.

How a coding coach in Idaho is helping to plug the digital skills gap, one knowledge token at a time.

Newton Antoniuk describes himself primarily as a coach (he goes by “Coach Newton” in fact) but his official title is Technology Education Ambassador. We met recently during a week-long summer class he was delivering at my local library in Boise, Idaho, to which I brought my nephew Logan (12) and niece Roxie (7).

When looking at the massive scale of the digital skills gap problem, it is easy to forget that the success or failure of such initiatives comes down to whether or not you manage to engage students
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While Logan had previously done various coding and programming activities, Roxie hadn’t, so she was quite unsure of herself as we walked into a room full of strangers and laptops. Yet within less than half an hour I watched her go from clinging onto me and mumbling that she “didn’t want to do this” to asking me with a beaming smile whether we could come back the next day, “and always.” Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that Coach Newton strictly enforced dancing breaks every twenty minutes, but whatever it was, it certainly did the trick. She was hooked.

When looking at the massive scale of the digital skills gap problem, it is easy to forget that the success or failure of such initiatives comes down to whether or not you manage to engage students. In this case, attending the camp was not necessarily about how much coding knowledge the children could cram in a week (although it turned out to be quite a lot) but rather about showing kids like Roxie that this is something they can do – that learning coding is  fun and something they can be really proud of.

Learning that flexes a person’s creative muscles while engaging them in a fun, playful way delivers a lifelong benefit, independent of career choice
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And the peripheral skills they learn in the process are arguably just as important in this equation: The approach encourages them to navigate through problems using logic and persistence, to work as a team in helping others – or asking for help – and to enjoy the process of continuous learning. These are all invaluable life skills, whether or not they choose to become “coders” in the future.

“Any learning that flexes a person’s creative muscles while engaging them in a fun, playful way delivers a lifelong benefit, independent of a specific career choice,” agrees Newton, pointing to academic research that demonstrates how courses that provide an introduction to computer science have broad-reaching benefits such as building reasoning skills via lessons that teach computational thinking. This is also backed up by his own experience working in the consumer electronics industry:

“I was privileged to work with extremely bright and motivated people from many disciplines, not just engineering. My career exposure helped me to glean some of the fundamental traits that empowered these successful people and I found the elements of computational thinking to be foundational.”

After a decades-long Silicon Valley tech career, Newton started exploring ways to combine his expertise and passions with serving the local community, and in the fall of 2013, he came across code.org as Hadi Partovi and his team launched their first Hour of Code event.

My career exposure helped me to glean some of the fundamental traits that empowered successful people and I found the elements of computational thinking to be foundational
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After decades in Silicon Valley , Newton started exploring ways to combine his expertise and passions with serving the local community
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“As a technology geek, I was pleasantly surprised to find that almost all of the young learners, both girls and boys, embraced this great learning tool,” he explains. Working with Scratch – a visual programming language that uses a simple gamified, block-like interface to create flexible online projects – made him realize that the type of exposure to coding that he had only got once he was in college was now potentially within reach of all elementary, middle and high school learners – if only there was someone to show them.

Newton then quit his job earlier this year to launch Panucation, an Idaho-based non-profit that promotes STEM learning. He explains how worldwide – but specially in the U.S.) code.org and others have been enabling the scalable deployment of teacher training using a viral approach that empowers educators and spreads from state-to-state, school-to-school, right down to the individual student level. Panucation’s strategy is to leverage the grassroots power of the platform to impact many more students.

Coach Newton is committed to building Panucation as a non-profit, and is starting a pilot program in the fall with elementary schools in the Boise to complete the entire code.org curricula over the course of the next academic year
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It was interesting to see how diverse in terms of age, gender and ethnicity our coding group was. There are many worthy initiatives out there which encourage kids to engage with technology and coding in a hands-on way, but the advantage of this sort of program is that – as long as we keep funding places like libraries – they remain accessible to everyone. Everything we needed was provided during the session, which is a great equalizer, putting every attending student on an equal footing regardless of their background or economic status.

“Building a person’s confidence in learning technology at a young age has the ability to break down future barriers since their own vision of their capabilities can be transformed. Making these courses available to as many youth as possible helps to address the need for their success in the work place of the future,” adds Newton.

He’s now committed to building Panucation as a non-profit, and is starting a pilot program in the fall with two elementary schools in the Boise to complete the entire code.org curricula over the course of the next academic year. Yet their future focus is also going to be on building a range of government and commercial partnerships that will ensure the long-term sustainability of the program and allow it to reach a great many more students.

Building a person’s confidence in learning technology at a young age has the ability to break down future barriers
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The way that Coach Newton was able to teach students across a broad age range, with such different grades and level of coding proficiency, demonstrates how this can indeed be a scalable solution. A key part of this is the code.org curriculum, which gives the students a common platform which is customizable to their level and on which they can practice both during classes and at home.

The way that Coach Newton was able to teach students across a broad age range, with such different grades and level of coding proficiency, demonstrates how this can indeed be a scalable solution
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Giving girls (and boys) REAL career choices means making sure they get the chance to try out a range of skills in safe, comfortable and fun settings
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As I watched my niece speed through the modules (first thing she’d do in the evenings as we came home was ask for her pi-top so she could do extra exercises) and add to her growing pile of knowledge tokens, I thought about how easy it is to “call BS” on people such as James Damore, who insist there is an inescapable biological reason why we don’t see as many women as men working in tech.

Seeing her flutter between extremes of confidence and insecurity reminded me that giving girls (and boys) real future career choices means making sure they get the chance to try out a range of skills in safe, comfortable and fun settings. Only then can they truly decide which path suits them best. In the meantime, however, they can also have a whole lot of fun.

This article was originally published on IDG Connect

How a grassroots approach can tackle the digital skills gap, by @alicebonasio from @CIOonline https://t.co/ANea4BrhJW

— IDG Contributor Network (@IDGCN) July 30, 2018

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Dancing About Programming appeared first on Tech Trends.

What are the best programming languages to learn? This quick guide takes you through the essentials.

Digital skills and coding are becoming increasingly essential, but with so many different programming languages out there, which are the most useful to learn? What are their unique selling points and disadvantages? The infographic below takes you through some of the main ones out there, to help you decide how to best prepare yourself for the future.

Digital skills and coding are becoming increasingly essential
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Future Proof Your Development Skills, courtesy of Amsource Technology

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Infographic: Futureproofing Your Programming Skills appeared first on Tech Trends.

When I was about ten, I desperately wanted one of the cute alien robots from Batteries Not Included * but in those days, the most you could hope to find under the Christmas tree was a toy that looked a bit like a robot and made some obliging beeping noises.

The best I could hope for under the Christmas tree when I was a child was a toy that looked like a robot
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Fast-forward to last Christmas, however, and my dream of owning a fully-fledged cute robot finally came true. After watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens for the sixth time I decided to ‘treat my husband’ to a BB-8. And while the dogs were distinctively unimpressed, we sure had a blast spinning the little guy around.

Yet when I got sent a SPRK+ to test (I DO love this job) I didn’t’ immediately realize that it came from the same people as made the BB-8. As it turns out, Sphero has been making little round robots for quite a while, ever since they graduated from the Techstars accelerator in Boulder, CO, back in 2010.

Sphero has been making little round robots for quite a while
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Like BB-8, Sphero’s latest ball-bot is on an important mission: Teaching kids to code. The company sold over a million robots in 80 countries so far, but the SPRK+ is designed to be their most tinker-friendly and hardwearing robot yet, with a scratch-resistant, waterproof outer shell, it can take a good bouncing.

While it’s not exactly cheap – the SPRK+ retails at around $130 – the fact that you can buy and program your own robot for less than it costs to buy a fancy pair of shoes is a testament to how far technology has come since my own childhood.

What I love about it – as someone with admittedly limited technical skills – is that you can casually start playing around straight away. Tap the ball to your phone and the app syncs the devices automatically. The transparent outer shell lets you see what’s going on inside the robot, and you can drag and drop modular puzzle elements in different sequences to make it do simple things like change colour or roll in different directions.

you can casually start playing around straight away. Tap the ball to your phone and the app syncs the devices automatically
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As well as over 150 learning activities, you can tap into a host of programmable features like sound effects, LED lights, sensors, accelerometer and gyroscope
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For those who want to dig deeper though, the sky is the limit. As well as over 150 learning activities, you can tap into a host of programmable features like sound effects, LED lights, sensors, accelerometer and gyroscope. There is a healthy global community of users that collaborate on projects through the Lightning Lab app which works across iOS, Android and Amazon Fire devices. It lets you easily share programs – using Sphero’s own programming language called OVAL – much as you would on GitHub, which is great for building up real-world programming skills.

Users can share their Sphero coding projects much like on GitHub
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SPRK teaches all sorts of valuable 21st century skills, disguised as play
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David Millage, General Manager of Education at Sphero, says that the beauty of SPRK is that it teaches all sorts of valuable 21^st century skills, cleverly disguised as play: “Learning is evolving and we are seeing a transition from consumption to creation in the classroom. Our robots are being used to teach everything from art to physics in a fun and hands-on way that engages students on a new level.”

Who wouldn’t want to build their own Solar System?
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I never tire of preaching the gospel of coding, because as much as not everybody can be good at it, we all should learn as much as possible about the technology that makes the world go around. If nothing else, it’s great exercise for your brain, and with things like Sphero, it’s also fantastic fun. After all, who wouldn’t want to build their own Solar System? And BB-8 also enjoyed meeting his new friend:

Like BB-8, Sphero’s latest ball-bot is on an important mission: Teaching kids to code
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*Classic 80s feel-good film, look it up if somehow you’ve managed to grow up without seeing it.

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post How Robots Make the World Go Round appeared first on Tech Trends.

It’s another improbably sunny day in Helsinki; I’m told by the locals it’s not usually like this, but so far in a country best known for its Winter Wonderland landscapes I’ve been getting a tan.

Mehackit teaches young people programming through robotics, music and visual arts
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Finns are hospitable people and they also feel the urge to soak up the sun while it shines, so we head out to have our chat at a charming local restaurant to make the most of it. My hosts are (Co-founder & Troublemaker) Pia Henrietta Kekäläinen and (Chief Communications Officer & Wizard) Reetta Heiskanen from Mehackit, a start-up that teaches young people programming through an engaging mix of robotics, music and visual arts.

We want to teach young people technological self-confidence and the attitude that they can learn anything
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I start off by asking Henrietta about the road that led her to becoming an entrepreneur. Anecdotally, my impression of the start-up sector in Finland is that it has a healthy dose of female representation at all levels, and I ask her if it might have something to do with the country’s progressive laws which, for example, allow either parent to take generous parental leave as they choose.

I don’t have any official figures around female entrepreneurship in Finland compared to other countries, but I feel it is getting better. The biggest issue is still around investment, because a lot of the investor networks were traditionally male-only clubs, which made it extremely difficult for female entrepreneurs to make the connections needed to fund their ideas.

That said, it seems like Finland is well-placed to lead the way in addressing that problem. Back in 1906, while they were still part of the Russian Empire, the Grand Duchy of Finland was the first country in Europe to grant universal suffrage, which meant that all women, without exception, were eligible to vote and run for office as equals. In 1907 they elected an unprecedented 19 female members to its parliament. Today, with 40% female representation in government, they stand only behind Sweden in that particular metric.

Finland was the first country in Europe to grant women universal suffrage
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Six years ago Henrietta also considered embarking upon a government career, as she has always been interested in diplomacy. She spent a very interesting few months working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, where she organised the media program for dignitary visits, such as that of Vladimir Putin.

I learned a lot and had a lot of fun, but in the end my boss advised me that he thought that I needed something more fast-paced. That’s when I got involved with the Aalto Entrepreneurship Society.

This was back in the early days of Startup Sauna, which began as an informal gathering and eventually gave rise to hugely successful initiatives like Slush and fostered the growth of a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem in Finland.

Henrietta also became involved in teaching digital skills through her involvement in Rail Girls, a non-profit organisation that equips women and girls with the tools and inspiration to engage with technology.

We're great at being consumers but we want students to get their hands dirty with wires, sensors, and syntax errors
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These experiences helped pave the way for co-founding Mehackit in 2014, which she describes as a one-stop shop for schools to jump into creative technology education. The format focuses on providing a human mentor to initiate youths into technology principles and spark their interest developing digital skills.

I think that we are great at being consumers, but there’s a huge paradox in making the products so easy to use you don’t need skills, and thus keeping many people away from the process of actually creating it. We want to take down that curtain of simplicity, so to say, and get people’s hands dirty with wires and sensors and live loops and syntax errors.

During the 7-week course, pupils advance at their own pace and build personal projects, which can be as diverse as they like. Local university students are recruited as instructors, but school teachers can also participate and learn without the pressure of being the “technology experts” that can often be daunting when teaching digital natives.

During the 7-week course, pupils advance at their own pace and build personal and diverse technology projects
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The education system in Finland is one of the most well-regarded in the world, but it is also one that’s not prone to rest on its laurels. This makes it a good environment to test out innovative technology-based solutions, and it often leads the way in educational policy. So much so that starting this year coding will become a mandatory part of the school curriculum.

Coding became part of the school curriculum in Finland in 2016
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Mehackit are now looking to expand from high school to upper secondary level, and is also gearing up for international roll-outs in other Nordic markets like Norway and Sweden before moving on to countries like the UK, where the government has acknowledged the seriousness of the digital skills gap problem.

We want to bring technological self-confidence to youth, and the “I can learn anything” attitude is what is going to be extremely important to progress us as a species as the world around us shifts to a more automated society.

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Teaching Programming with Creative Hacking appeared first on Tech Trends.