KidBright helps young programmers
Kid Bright, a Thai-developed digital board, promises to awaken your child’s inner computer engineer
Tassagorn Sirisuwan, 12, first experienced a KidBright digital board when his father’s friends brought it to the workshop for kids at his home a few months ago. Since then, the boy has always worked on the board, designing simple computer programs to control home appliances. “It’s a simple software programming tool,” he said, while clicking a mouse and dragging commands on his tablet to show how the program can operate the board.
With KidBright, a variety of functions triggered by sensors can be freely designed by users. In Tassagorn’s case, he chose to make it perform music.
“I enjoy it even though the version that I play has a very small number of music notes,” he said.
Starting from a simple design for music notes, the boy later created a program to turn an LED on and off. After having programmed the board for a few months, Tassagorn then decided to develop a special application for his mother, automating her home by making the board operate her home appliances (à la Internet of Things, or IoT).
In 2016, a research team at the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (Nectec) developed KidBright as a tool for Thai children to easily learn about computers without having to import or depend on technology from abroad. The team has also tested the board with a group of children aged between seven and 13 years.
The first version of KidBright has given enjoyment and inspiration to the children and fed their eagerness to learn computer programming.
“The kids train their problem-solving skills while managing the image boxes on their smartphone, tablet or computer. Using the KidBright board allows them to learn programming faster than before and they can command the board to do whatever they want,” said Sarun Sumriddetchkajorn, Nectec director.
Panutat Tejasen, aka Dr Jimmy, is a software developer with a keen interest in how hardware has become the hot topic of the IoT. He said he was interested in KidBright not because of the technology itself, but because he deems it an opportunity for a country which does not have many like it.
In the past, Nectec had facilitated initiatives like School Net and University Net to introduce the future workforce to information technology at a young age. Such efforts made way to Thailand’s contribution to the “One Laptop Per Child” initiative which was then turned into an ultimately unsuccessful tablet project.
This project’s failure came down to both hardware and software shortcomings. Insufficiencies in the procurement process of materials lead to poor quality hardware and the limited software contents of the tablet made for unsatisfactory usability.
“We don’t know yet how the KidBright project will turn out, but at least the government has been supporting the hardware for schools with good quality chips featuring leading technology (ESP32). Nectec announced that its software will be open source, that’s good. The content is easily accessible by children as it is content of the community and I believe in the power of the community. KidBright will push the kids to play and learn, to think and to try,” Dr Jimmy posted on his Facebook page.
“I believe that the community will easily break constraints of hardware. The question is how to let the kids apply their imagination. This may not be the best board or the best ecosystem. But with future collaboration between makers, I am confident that we will see a vital opportunity for participatory education.”
On the manufacturing side, Gravitech, a Thai-owned US-based electronic firm, produces the boards and prototypes for makers at the Science Park in Rangsit.
Sharnon Tulabadi, founder of Gravitech, was part of the first wave of the American maker movement in 2006 and is now trying to drive the maker movement in Thailand.
“Someone may think that KidBright is not the best hardware, the best software, or the best platform, but we can be proud that it was created by Thais, manufactured by Thais and for Thai kids. Most importantly, it’s the beginning for Thai youth to learn programming and acquire the skills that might perhaps make them a maker in the future,” said Sharnon.
KidBright is also expected to deliver to the global market in the near future.
The Science and Technology Ministry recently introduced the “Coding at School” and “Fabrication Lab at School” projects, which cultivate problem-solving, analysis-thinking and innovation skills among Thai youth. The projects offered learning activities for students and teachers who have a background in engineering and submitted their program applications.
At the corresponding event, several project pieces created by students who tested programming with KidBright were showcased. Students from Chitjaichuen School, Prachin Buri, used the board to develop a smart farming application by making sensors on the board take care of a mushroom farm.
Next month, some 200,000 boards by KidBright will be distributed to around 1,000 schools nationwide, with around 500 teachers joining a “train the trainers” session.
Suvit Maesincee, minister of Science and Technology, said the coding projects establish a learning community of students, teachers and makers (who also develop the website, www.kid-bright.org).
Every school has to submit at least three items and more than 3,000 schools nationwide are expected to participate. The final competition will be held in October.
“The project will encourage more than 1.5 million students to playfully learn and build skills in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics,” said the minister.
IT’S THE BEGINNING FOR THAI YOUTH TO LEARN PROGRAMMING