Build Your Own Computer (!!) With This $130 Kit
What happens when a seven-year-old challenges you to make coding easy, accessible and fun for everyone? You get a project like Kano, which is changing everything you thought you knew about learning to code, building computers and what someone with no experience can accomplish. Whether you’re an aspiring coder, a parent looking for a cool toy for your kids or just an interested gal who wants to up your tech IQ while having fun, you should check this out.
We first noticed Kano when they were trying to snag funding on Kickstarter. $1.5 million later, Kano has finally shipped their long-awaited ($130, not including $23 shipping) computer kits. And while the bright orange boxes and multicolored components might make you think this is only a product for children, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Using Raspberry Pi computers, Bluetooth keyboards and connector cables, the kit walks you through making your very own computer. Once you’ve booted up and installed Kano’s software, you can begin to learn coding in the Linux environment, building games and exploring your new system.
Aspiring programmers aren’t just coding to create and play games. The linear approach to education allows them to change the very nature of a game once someone’s started playing it. For example, you can use JavaScript to change the look and feel of Snake or change the color of paddles in Pong.
Sure, this probably isn’t the computer you want to be using for your job or even for Facebook messaging, but if you’re looking for a fun and tech-savvy toy that will teach you a cool new skill, we think this could be the most entertaining option out there.
What do you think? Would you use Kano to learn to code? Tell us in the comments below!
