How to move forward on the road to subverting the education industry under the comprehensive impact of STEAM and Makeblock?

In May this year, at the Google IO 2016 Developer Conference, the appearance of Scratch Blocks, a children's programming tool, announced that Google officially entered the children's market. In the face of the comprehensive development of informatization, digitization, and technology, the education industry is no longer limited to the traditional offline. With the rise of smart hardware, various early education APP software has also emerged, once again setting off a wave of children's education. In order to ensure students' competitiveness in the future workplace and enable them to have basic abilities in science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics, a new educational concept "STEAM" was born.

With the increasing attention paid to STEAM education at home and abroad, the rise of maker culture, and the investment of technology giants in technology toys, Makeblock held the 2016 "More Than Imagination" Summer Conference in Shenzhen, China on June 28, solemnly announcing its official entry into domestic STEAM education, launching more STEAM educational toys, and launching the M Tribe online education station and offline experience store to meet the quality education needs of online and offline interactive STEAM education.

STEAM educational toys may break the single channel of education

In traditional domestic education, the classroom was initially the only channel, which was single and stereotyped. However, with the advancement of science and technology, more and more educational apps and smart TVs have been involved, and science and technology education has also shifted from offline to online.

Although the educational methods of APP software and intelligent educational concepts can indeed further improve the quality and level of education, the passive acceptance method has still become a drawback of early childhood education. The current situation of domestic education is not ideal, and students need to be cultivated to be passionate and creative.

On the other hand, traditional toys, as a tool for early childhood education, have always been highly praised by educators. However, even in the global toy market with a scale of more than 80 billion US dollars, there have always been problems such as "little interaction and no content". Many emerging robot education companies have seen this weakness in the traditional toy market and hope to improve the value of innovative quality education products through the STEM/STEAM education model.

Facing such a promising industry, Makeblock CEO Wang Jianjun believes that STEAM educational robots will definitely be able to better inspire children's creativity and make up for the shortcomings of traditional education in cultivating students' creativity. As a way to enhance hands-on ability and scientific and technological literacy, it fully breaks the single way of education and develops a new educational career with the concept of interactive creation.

Can novel educational methods bring about the expected results?

Although STEAM educational toys have a broad space for development, the differences in domestic and foreign educational environments are an obstacle to the development of new educational concepts. Although Makeblock and Lego educational toys can occupy a large share of the foreign market, they still have some difficulties under traditional domestic concepts. Even Lego only occupies a small part of the domestic market share.

In the seemingly difficult domestic market, Wang Jianjun believes that this is a challenge. At the press conference, Makeblock's STEAM educational robots mBot and mBot ranger also appeared in the exhibition area. Based on the high creativity of Lego toys, robot toys combined with technological elements also provide richer gameplay.

For example, the mBot patrol car will move along a black line when it is driving on the ground. But if you cover the black track with a piece of white paper, the mBot patrol car will continue to move in another direction. On the basis of improving children's hands-on ability, the interactive method can improve their acceptance of science and other aspects. After all, hands-on operation is always more effective and faster than listening and watching external reception.

At the same time, as a toy, while combining technological elements, it will not become a high-tech vase that is so complicated that even children cannot understand it. It truly achieves educational and innovation.

The model of education + technology has long become a trend. With the increasing attention paid to science and technology education at home and abroad, the rise of maker culture, and the investment of technology giants in technology toys, our next generation may no longer just learn basic education in the classroom. In the era of technology toys, the threshold of creation will be lowered, and the level and quality of education will be improved. Students will definitely learn more knowledge that helps improve their quality, form hands-on and practical skills, and truly realize their vision to provide better education for China and the world.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.