Some of my happiest childhood memories are of building Lego, particularly the Space and Castle themes. Back then the bricks were rather simple, though Technic could offer some interesting builds and there were already Lego train sets (where you had to build the tracks - a lot more work than today’s track system!).

In 2003 I started work in a brand new IB school in southern Norway. One of my initial jobs was to teach technology (alongside Maths and PE). As part of this the school had bought several Lego Mindstorm sets - and these were used to teach basic programming. This was most effective when we entered the First Lego League challenge that year. Students had to come up with solutions to improve disabled access in our school and then build and programme a robot to overcome ten challenges that a disabled person might come across - though the only one that I remember is the basketball challenge. The kids had a lot of fun, but needed a lot of help too - it was worth it to get the custom built Lego trophies!

It was another 15 years before I had a chance to play with a Lego robot. This came when I bought my daughter the Lego BOOST Creative toolbox - https://www.lego.com/en-gb/product/boost-creative-toolbox-17101. This is a set that makes 5 different programmable things - a robot, a cat, a guitar, etc. Each build comes with simple programming challenges using the simple BOOST drag and drop system on a tablet/phone/laptop. These keep the builder interested as the design comes together.

Needless to say being able to program a cat with a range of farting noises when you tip it upside down gave my daughter hours of fun.

In May 2022, I was lucky enough to attend the InnovateEDU event in Cape Town. While the other three sessions were interesting, it was the Lego one that stood out. Why?

Teaching Technology effectively requires educators to realise that tech is a tool. Like any tool students will only learn to use it effectively by actually designing and completing a final product. You do not learn how to use a hammer by hammering a thousand nails, but by using that skill to build something.

Too often we teach IT skills as a stand alone business - I have seen IT lessons where students have been taught word-processing skills by modifying a piece written by someone else. Who can think of anything more boring - or less likely to develop carry over skills? We learn best when we have an active need for a skill that we have a real and immediate use for.

What made this session stand out? I had just attended a similar session using a Raspberry Pi style device to programme LED’s to represent traffic lights via a breadboard. It was a good session, given by two brilliant and passionate educators. It covered the same coding concepts as the Lego session, but lacked the fun and the creativity. This meant the coding took a lot longer to learn and without the fun of a physical end product (LED’s do not count!) it was nowhere near as effective. However, the materials used were a tenth of the cost of the LEGO package.

The Lego session on the other hand, was full of genuine creativity and collaboration (something hard on a fiddly breadboard) and 20 teachers learned to code effectively within 90 minutes. The classroom was full of children’s robots that had been designed for all sorts of challenges and tricks - including a soda dispenser. This shows what problem solving can be.

Lego is an expensive investment - but the payback is in the speed and effectiveness of the learning experiences. The fact that it is an established brand with a long history makes it a sensible choice, and makes it an easy tool for many children who have had experience. The fact that it links with ‘normal’ Lego bricks means that the design choices are literally endless. There is no other product on the market that covers design, engineering, programming and electronics anywhere near as well.