Sphero announced a new rolling robot based on the educational platform launched last year. The robo-ball called SPRK+ can pain, swim, paint, and teach kids programming.
According to the Verge, Sphero released the first edition of its Spark robot little less than a year ago. The robot is in fact a rolling ball that can be controled with a mobile app.
The product has been adopted since then as a tool for teaching kids about computer programming and robotics in over 1,000 schools across Canada and the US. Now, Sphero is announcing the second edition of the robot, called the Sphero SPRK+.
Sphero SPRK+ comes with a more advanced version of Bluetooth called Smart and a tougher, scratch-resistant skin. Aside from these two improvements, the new Spark robot is basically identical to its predecessor in price, capability, size, and battery life.
The robo-ball can teach coding through play and it works with the Lightning Lab app. Like the recently released mobile app from Hopscotch and Apple's new Swift Playgrounds, the Lightning Lab allows users to use drag-and-drop commands in order to program sequences of action.
The updated app Lightning Labs feature now 150 additional learning activities focused on arts, engineering, science, technology, and math topics. Kids can also share the little programs that they code on the Lab with other SPRK+ users.
At $129, the Spark+ is incredibly simple to control, durable and even water-resistant. The latest edition of the Sphero robot does not come with anything revolutionary, but is certainly useful to help kids developing apps at a very early age.
According to SlashGear, researchers, analysts and even governments estimate that by 2020 IT jobs will still be in great demand. The number of students capable of filling these openings will be lower than the jobs offered. For this reason, many educational programs and companies are trying to introduce kids to the world of computers and robotics.
