Subject:
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IEEE: Lego's Kierstein on "New Era" in 2005
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.mediawatch
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Date:
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Tue, 24 Feb 2004 04:22:46 GMT
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Viewed:
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1901 times
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This month's IEEE Spectrum, "Dream Jobs 2004" interviews Lau Kofoed Kierstein
who designs electronics for Lego and *plays with toys*. Spectrum says Kierstein
is technical lead "on a project of great strategic importance.. it will be a new
era for Lego" when it comes out in 2005. The only other thing he tells about it
is that it is kid-tested every week.
(Since this article was probably written before the end of year results, I
wonder.)
Kierstein's first project at Lego was on Galidor: "We need a $50 item. Do
something interesting." Kierstein built the Kek Powerizer (whoa, tough crowd
here tonight.) Kierstein hints that the acoustic communications system will show
up in other toys. As far as the toy's success, he says it made some 6-8 year
olds happy, which is what confirms its worth for him.
Separately, IEEE Computer published a controlled study of kids playing with a
talking Arthur doll with remote PC interaction. Those kids who started with the
PC game component only spent little time playing with the talking doll add-on,
mostly treating it like a wireless aardvark-shaped speaker. Those who started
with the talking doll only, did a lot more with it, and spent even more time
playing with the doll after being given the PC game.
One hypothesis I would make is that kids who play with just ordinary Lego will
continue to play with it when given a computerized platform such as Mindstorms
or LDRAW. While starting with software only would not create a desire to work
with the physical component extensively. Just a hypothesis. The study did not
find that the kids in either group spent less time "interacting with the natural
world."
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