Once upon a time, robots with personality existed only within the realm of science fiction. Over the course of such stories, the robotic characters in question became less machine and more personable. To this day, in fact, R2-D2 from Star Wars remains my personal favorite character because of its sassy personality. Since I was a little kid, I dreamed of having a robot friend. So, if I were still a kid today, I would have begged to get my hands on the Dash and Dot, the playful robots from Wonder Workshop that are revolutionizing the way introductory coding is taught.
The Dash and Dot are often sold in a pair, but we sadly didn’t have a Dot Robot on hand that I could open and play with myself (since they’re so popular, we didn’t think it would be a good idea to open one of our stock). I was still able to get a good idea of how the two robots play off of each other when I took the Dash out for a test drive during this week’s Eduporium Experiment.
The Wonder Workshop team advertises that the Dash and Dot come ready to play right out of the box, and they were right! Within minutes of unboxing I was able to hook the Dash up to the my iPad and, with a quick Bluetooth sync, I dove right into Wonder Workshop’s Wonder app (free in the app store). Wonder is the first app Dash’s Quick Start guide recommended I use with the robot, and I assume that is because it starts users off on the ground floor with a very simple program (aptly titled “Hello World”) where I programmed the Dash to say hello to me.
The interface of the Wonder app is also delightfully simple to use. It is advertised as “coding as easy as finger painting,” and I have to say that comparison is better than any I could come up with. I dragged and dropped programming nodes into place in the app’s programming field and connected them with a swipe of a finger. Loops and sequences were illustrated for me with fun art and responsive noises to make the experience extremely immersive.
Very quickly, I was programming the Dash to do much more complex things! One thing I really like about the structure of the Wonder app is that it guided me through the lessons by navigating a fantasy world, pretending the Dash and I were on a journey together. In one of my favorite lessons, the Dash and I traveled to a swamp. I got to program it to mimic the colors of the fireflies flying around us by making it turn, make noises of curiosity, and change the colors of its LEDs. Of course, there were no real fireflies in our techXplore room, but, with the Dash’s infectious personality, it was easy to suspend my disbelief.
The Dash is definitely one of the robots I imagined would be created back when I was a child watching Star Wars! It interacted with me every step of the way, chirping and dancing as I completed the programs, and egging me on with an encouraging ‘Woo hoo’ and ‘Yeah!’ My favorite discovery of this playful learning experience came from an exercise in which I programmed the Dash to respond in different ways when I pressed the buttons on its head. When I pressed one button, it let out a very realistic belch and shot backwards a couple of inches. It was so adorable. What can I say? I’m a sucker for that kind of humor.
Playing with the Dash, I could easily see how the Dot could be worked in to the play to further expand the things I could program the Dash to do. The Dot is advertised as the “brains” of a robot. It is smaller than the Dash and doesn’t move, but the two interact seamlessly to introduce kids to new coding concepts. An example of one such activity? Turn the Dot into a remote control to send the Dash on adventures! Kids can also play with the Dot Robot by itself, just as I was able to play with the Dash, by doing things like turning it into a hot potato for a game with friends.
I honestly can’t praise the Dash Robot highly enough. Even as someone who knows a bit about coding, I had a blast walking through the Dash’s first few sets of learning modules. I got more than a few giggles out of the Dash’s vibrant personality, and I finished up the experiment thinking that I could have definitely spent a whole day playing with my new robot friend. If you ask me, both the Dash and Dot are a must-have for any classroom with students who are excited to learn more about coding and robotics. Click below to buy some of your own from the Eduporium store!
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