'Coding Jam' uses musical blocks to teach kids programming concepts
Kids can tap the kit's blocks to make a musical series similar to programming sequences.
Last year, Osmo expanded its iPad-based children's learning system with a program that teaches kids to code by linking tangible tiles with on-screen commands. Now the company's expanded its platform with Coding Jam, an add-on that assigns musical tones to a new set of blocks, allowing young learners to tap out tunes in a sequence just like a series of code elements.
Like the main Osmo system, Coding Jam uses a mirror peripheral over the user's docked iPad so its camera can track kids interacting with the music tiles. These correlate with particular tones, and snapping modifiers (like "loop" or "play twice") on them introduces concepts analogous to coding instructions.
Kids can layer these elements to create musical sequences, as well as watch the jams other Osmo users make through the app. The Coding Jam expansion kit costs $60 and requires the full Osmo base set to build off of.
