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Jewelbots – A Friendship Bracelet You Can Code

jewelbots.com

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Re: Jewelbots – A Friendship Bracelet You Can Code

#61

Post by subroutine »

untog wrote: post #15
kdamken wrote: post #8

Holy moly that website does a bad job of describing what they actually do. Apparently you can program the lights and vibrations? I looked up a YouTube video, apparently they can be programmed for notifications from your phone? Marketing team really dropped the ball on this one.

I disagree. "When Nyla got Jewelbots for her birthday she gave the second one to Wenhao, a girl in her class." "Nyla and Wenhao's Jewelbots light up blue when they are together (Blue is Wenhao's favorite color)" "They make a secret language just for their Jewelbots. Sending one buzz means "look behind you!"." "Using the power of STEM, Nyla and her friends make games and custom friend animations by writing code and up…

"Step 2 To begin coding your Jewelbot, you will need to download the Arduino IDE."

Re: Jewelbots – A Friendship Bracelet You Can Code

#62

Post by rtpg »

sudosteph wrote: post #57
sarajo wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi! We talked to over 200 girls when making this product, rest assured that every design decision was made with their feedback in mind. Boys also love playing with Jewelbots, but there are already a lot of coding toys aimed at boys!!! Our market primarily identifies as female, but we'll broaden down the road.

I think this is where we disagree a little. I don't think most coding toys actually are mostly aimed at boys. How would that even work? Do they require a Y chromosome to operate or something? They're just marketed to boys (and parents of boys), and parents and children alike buy in. The toy market today is highly segregated in marketing to boys vs girls, and toys that were not specifically "gendered" in the past are…

I think you're both actually agreeing. The other coding toys are marketed towards boys ("aimed at boys").

That means that it's less likely for girls to get exposed to them overall, because media aimed at them is different, teacher's behavior towards them is different, even their own parents' behavior towards them is different.

I get that marketing "for girls" might give credence to the "for boys" marketing... but if you look at the jewelbots page, the only point that is explicitly "girls" is the fact that the kids in the pictures are girls.

Everything else has been brought in by us. The "jewel = girls" aspect, the "friendship bracelet = girls" aspect... though some other media is even more pointed at that. Bit mixed feelings about it. I feel like it's trying to operate within the weird gender divide that exists in our society

Re: Jewelbots – A Friendship Bracelet You Can Code

#63

Post by [deleted] »

scrumper wrote: post #41
sarajo wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks so much for your feedback! Sounds like we have some things to add to the FAQ! Jewelbots can be programmed just like an Arduino using C++. Real code! Because we believe that kids are super smart (Also, I starting writing C++ at 11).

My knee jerk reaction was pretty negative, but on only a few seconds’ reflection I think this is great. Absolutely no reason why kids can’t start with C++; it doesn’t have to be template meta programming insanity from the get-go. Motivated kids have infinite capacity for learning and a lot of time for exploration. Kudos for not patronizing them with some awful imitation of flow programming or some neutered scripting…

[deleted]

Re: Jewelbots – A Friendship Bracelet You Can Code

#64

Post by stonemetal »

sudosteph wrote: post #57
sarajo wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi! We talked to over 200 girls when making this product, rest assured that every design decision was made with their feedback in mind. Boys also love playing with Jewelbots, but there are already a lot of coding toys aimed at boys!!! Our market primarily identifies as female, but we'll broaden down the road.

I think this is where we disagree a little. I don't think most coding toys actually are mostly aimed at boys. How would that even work? Do they require a Y chromosome to operate or something? They're just marketed to boys (and parents of boys), and parents and children alike buy in. The toy market today is highly segregated in marketing to boys vs girls, and toys that were not specifically "gendered" in the past are…

> mostly aimed at boys.

>They're just marketed to boys.

To me that is the definition of aimed at. Designed for stereotypical boy activities, marketed to boys. What does it mean to you?

Re: Jewelbots – A Friendship Bracelet You Can Code

#65

Post by sarajo »

sudosteph wrote: post #57
sarajo wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi! We talked to over 200 girls when making this product, rest assured that every design decision was made with their feedback in mind. Boys also love playing with Jewelbots, but there are already a lot of coding toys aimed at boys!!! Our market primarily identifies as female, but we'll broaden down the road.

I think this is where we disagree a little. I don't think most coding toys actually are mostly aimed at boys. How would that even work? Do they require a Y chromosome to operate or something? They're just marketed to boys (and parents of boys), and parents and children alike buy in. The toy market today is highly segregated in marketing to boys vs girls, and toys that were not specifically "gendered" in the past are…

Far be it for me to be prescriptive about what girls and boys should like. Truly, we think of ourselves as more "feminine" in design. Some boys like things that are feminine, there are many people that identify as feminine.

We are here to change the number of coders that identify as female. In order to do that, we talked to a lot (over 200!) of kids that identify as female and built what they asked us to build.

You can read more about our reasoning here: https://medium.com/jewelbots-weblog/what-if-we-could-build-m...

and my view on femininity here: https://medium.com/thelist/papas-please-let-your-babies-grow...

Thank you for your feedback and thoughts, these conversations are super important if we are going to change the number of women in computer science.

Re: Jewelbots – A Friendship Bracelet You Can Code

#66

Post by substack »

sarajo wrote: post #21
kdamken wrote: post #8

Holy moly that website does a bad job of describing what they actually do. Apparently you can program the lights and vibrations? I looked up a YouTube video, apparently they can be programmed for notifications from your phone? Marketing team really dropped the ball on this one.

Thanks so much for your feedback! Sounds like we have some things to add to the FAQ! Jewelbots can be programmed just like an Arduino using C++. Real code! Because we believe that kids are super smart (Also, I starting writing C++ at 11).

I think the real C++ part is so important because it respects the abilities and intelligence of children to participate in the adult world using a real (yet approachable) technology that is also used in industry. This also makes these skills earned poking around with a fun toy transferable to solving their own problems, doing coursework at university, and later on entering the technology labor market. Other programming toys aimed at kids like NXT graphical programming or scratch don't have the same transferability and I've noticed that kids see right through that.

Re: Jewelbots – A Friendship Bracelet You Can Code

#67

Post by dogruck »

sarajo wrote: post #22
sudosteph wrote: post #11

I want to be cynical because I hate the idea that a gadget has to have "jewel" in the name and be a fancy "friendship bracelet" to appeal to girls. But it's a neat little trinket that somebody worked hard on, and if it really was a young woman who designed it to enjoy with their friends, I can't really hold that against them. I don't think scaring away guys from it by saying it's "for girls" is doing them any favors…

Hi! We talked to over 200 girls when making this product, rest assured that every design decision was made with their feedback in mind. Boys also love playing with Jewelbots, but there are already a lot of coding toys aimed at boys!!! Our market primarily identifies as female, but we'll broaden down the road.

I was at a conference this weekend. A female grade school teacher, at a private school, tried to explain to me how "girls brains are wired differently from boys" and therefore "we need to teach girls to be more like boys."

I am open minded. I've met and worked with women who are just as strong or stronger than men.

I don't understand how we can simultaneously argue that men and women are fundamentally different but should also be made to be the same.

Back to the thread, why wouldn't a boy want to play with this new toy? Or wear pink?

Re: Jewelbots – A Friendship Bracelet You Can Code

#68

Post by sarajo »

dogruck wrote: post #67
sarajo wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi! We talked to over 200 girls when making this product, rest assured that every design decision was made with their feedback in mind. Boys also love playing with Jewelbots, but there are already a lot of coding toys aimed at boys!!! Our market primarily identifies as female, but we'll broaden down the road.

I was at a conference this weekend. A female grade school teacher, at a private school, tried to explain to me how "girls brains are wired differently from boys" and therefore "we need to teach girls to be more like boys." I am open minded. I've met and worked with women who are just as strong or stronger than men. I don't understand how we can simultaneously argue that men and women are fundamentally different but s…

Hi! That grade school teacher needs a few more science lessons.

We have lots of users that identify as male. Boys love Jewelbots, two weeks ago at an event a boy came up to me after to tell me "this was more fun than coding Minecraft". Best compliment in a while.

Re: Jewelbots – A Friendship Bracelet You Can Code

#69

Post by sarajo »

ringaroundthetx wrote: post #53
sudosteph wrote: post #11

I want to be cynical because I hate the idea that a gadget has to have "jewel" in the name and be a fancy "friendship bracelet" to appeal to girls. But it's a neat little trinket that somebody worked hard on, and if it really was a young woman who designed it to enjoy with their friends, I can't really hold that against them. I don't think scaring away guys from it by saying it's "for girls" is doing them any favors…

I actually like the idea that the gadget is positioned for "women in tech" without being about "women in tech". Last thing we need is another one of those panels, in lieu of what the individuals actually built or did.

lol, women in tech panels are the WORST.

Re: Jewelbots – A Friendship Bracelet You Can Code

#70

Post by sudosteph »

rtpg wrote: post #62
sudosteph wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is where we disagree a little. I don't think most coding toys actually are mostly aimed at boys. How would that even work? Do they require a Y chromosome to operate or something? They're just marketed to boys (and parents of boys), and parents and children alike buy in. The toy market today is highly segregated in marketing to boys vs girls, and toys that were not specifically "gendered" in the past are…

I think you're both actually agreeing. The other coding toys are marketed towards boys ("aimed at boys"). That means that it's less likely for girls to get exposed to them overall, because media aimed at them is different, teacher's behavior towards them is different, even their own parents' behavior towards them is different. I get that marketing "for girls" might give credence to the "for boys" marketing... but if…

Oh, I definitely think we're more in agreement than disagreement and am happy this product exists.

But you're right that the crux of my argument hangs on explicit "for girls" implying other toys as "for boys"

The reason I interpreted the "for girls" thing as explicit because: 1. When I first clicked the link, the HN title did say "for girls" in the title. It was edited by the time I had submitted my comment. 2. The GMA quote featured on the page advertises it as "One of the Smartest Gadgets for Girls" 3. The quote saying " Jewelbots serves girls. The future scientists, lawyers, mothers, doctors, and engineers of the world." at the bottom of the page. 4. The creator saying that other code toys were aimed at boys (which I agree could be a comment on the adverstising, but I took as a comment on the design of the toys).

Because I took "for girls" as an explicit design consideration for the reasons above, I also assumed that the "jewel" and "friendship bracelet" aspects were design choices to explicitly appeal to girls, rather than just parts of the toy that girls happen to like more than boys on average.

I would be happy to be wrong on this though. I just struggle to see how this changes the narrative of science/engineering toys for girls needing to be overtly feminine-themed while most functionally equivalent toys without those aspects are assumed to be for boys. Perhaps I'm not in tune with the market well enough, but I struggle to identify equivalently overtly-masculine themed coding toys from companies who say their mission is to help boys.

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