Eliza: The doll that teaches girls to code
elizadolls.comIs a lack of programmable dolls really the things that's keeping women out of the tech sector? I don't see how this will "fix the gender gap". I have a friend with daughters that hosts a LEGO league team and it sounds like they get just as much enjoyment out of it as the boys do.
On the surface I guess this is neat. But maybe instead of forcing dolls on girls and cars on boys we could do a bit better by, well, not being presumptuous.
Agreed so much that we should be working to eliminate the gender associations with specific toys and pursuits.
That said, maybe this is a workaround to parents with gendered toy expectations? Or to encouraging STEM interests in girls who have already been socially indoctrinated into gender norms?
Yeah after posting this comment I ended up discussing it with my SO. I don't think this product is a bad idea by any means, it just seems to learn way too much into hyperbole for something that is essentially an American Girl doll with a microcontroller implanted in its chest like Tony Stark. This alone can't "fix" anything.
Looks like Iron Man if they had embedded an Adafruit Playground Express in his suit instead of an arc reactor. I didn't see any technical details but from the screenshots it definitely looks like "MakeCode" which is sort of a block editor in the style of Scratch.
lol, that looks exactly what it is, stuffed into a doll and wrapped in 'pink' marketing and DEI.
I don't think it will work at all.
It might well sell.
Fathers (cue the space references, I guess) and perhaps mothers, might think it's a great idea.
But it won't do what it says; encourage girls to code.
I think one important way to do that is to make coding itself less solitary, and this doesn't seem to do that particularly, despite the pictures of girls playing together.
Another is to make coding more powerful. Eg, Scratch is great for both boys and girls, being able to put simple stories, animations and games together with fairly little and simple code. But it quickly gets to the point where it's just too much detailed coding to make even fairly simple things happen, let alone complex projects where you're also fighting Scratch's limitations (no functions, seriously?). As one of my code-club students explained, "I understand how to do it, I just don't have the patience to"
Given the founder's background, I'm surprised they are not using an LLM, 'vibe coding' etc, as the basis for this. That might also justify the $200 price tag.
Girls, in fact most kids, don't necessarily want to code (that more often comes from the parents). A small slither get hooked on coding itself. But most just want to make things to share with their friends.
This is fire seems like an iconic way to get young girls into coding - met her at YC AI SAS yesterday
This is fire seems like an iconic way to get young girls into coding - met her at YC AI SAS yesterday
This is actually a really cool idea and something worthwhile! I endorse!
It's a doll, a microbit (with MakeCode) and some double-sided tape.
Timely project