Take your pick with technology

I have never really been one for fast cars, my Honda CRV is doing just fine. However, after having had the privilege to be a passenger in a Tesla, I may have changed my mind.

On our way back from Taupo, we stopped at a charging station to make sure we had enough power in the Tesla to take us home. 45 minutes and a cuppa coffee later (we needed recharging too) we were ready to hit the road. 

During the trip the car was set to auto-pilot and I couldn’t help but feel nervous about handing the reins over to the computer. I did relax a bit after seeing that the driver had his hands on the steering wheel at all times. I believe smart features in vehicles should be treated as an assistive tool and that there should still be human decisions factoring into driving. Not all features have to be used, there’s a right place and right time for everything.

(Having said that, there were a few moments of “wow” and between you and me, I was impressed by the Tesla.) 

Just like with Kai’s Clan, we have analysed the market and took all the great features of robots and coding platforms to create an all-in-one STEAM toolbox. Going back to the Tesla as a previous example, you don’t have to use every single tool at the same time, instead, you choose which tool is best for the job.

If you are a primary school teacher, you may just want to look at the blockly code, junior lesson plans and the augmented reality to bring your code to live to engage your students. However, if you are in Intermediate School, you can introduce designing and creating your own robot avatars in Minecraft and Tinkercad or use ready-made ones from our Google Poly library. Again, our lesson plans cater for students of all ages between 7-15 years. Kai’s Clan is being used in Secondary Schools where students add the use of sensors and data visualisation to bring coding to the next level. 

To top it all off, all of this can also be done via distance learning. Kai’s Clan has a low floor and a high ceiling, you choose your tool and we will add the challenge and cater towards the right curriculum outcomes.

I trust Kai’s Clan is the next best technology outcome, my next challenge is to trust that cars and machines can take control and not pose a threat to society. 

Car photo created by teksomolika – www.freepik.com