The Digital Adventures Blog

For parents, educators and students to discuss tech education for kids, best practices for teaching coding & engineering design to kids & emerging technology trends

2018 – Make the days, hours & minutes count

January 6, 2018

Happy New Year! For the past 2 weeks, my kids have been on holiday break from school. During this time, we have had an opportunity to spend a lot of time together as a family. From going to see movies out to teaching them about how economics work and even having them help out on a home renovation project, it’s been really awesome. As we kick-off 2018, the past 2 weeks have been a great reminder...


Future of Technology Predictions: 2028 Edition

December 30, 2017

As the end of 2017 concludes, it is often interesting to look ahead and think about what is to come. Oftentimes, around this time of the year, we get predictions for the subsequent year: 2018. However, at Digital Adventures, we thought it would be more interesting to look 10 years out when most of our students will begin to enter college or start their professional careers. So, without further ...


Practice is a key element of learning to build with technology

December 23, 2017

This week, I had the opportunity to attend my kid’s annual holiday sign at their school. During the performance, the audience was treated to songs with the band, orchestra and chorus. It was amazing! Both of my school-aged children are playing a new instrument this year. So, I want to rewind back to the beginning of the school year when they first received their instruments. At that point, it w...


Inventing the Next Big Thing

December 16, 2017

Over the last several decades, we have witnessed groundbreaking technological innovations that underpinned market leading companies. These companies were initially envisioned by teams of technologist who have a vision for the future along with the capabilities to make their vision a reality. What were the commonalities of these companies? Is there anything the next generation can learn from the...


The secret roadmap to asking your kids better questions

December 9, 2017

As a parent, you want to make sure that you're staying involved in your child's education, and that you're encouraging them to think deeply about the content that they're learning. Every parent has had the experience of helping their kids with homework, and wondering if they could be doing more. How great would it be to have a tool that supercharges these conversations with your kids? I want to...


The Parent’s Introductory Guide to Understanding Augmented & Virtual Reality

December 2, 2017

Recently Magic Leap, an augmented reality startup, received a $500 million dollar investment. This investment is in addition to the $1.4 billion dollars already received and includes participation from moonshot supporter Google. Another augmented reality company, Niantic, maker of Pokemon Go recently received a $200 million dollar investment to develop a Harry Potter title. 3 years ago, Faceboo...


5 Great Gift Ideas for STEM Loving Kids

November 25, 2017

It’s that time of year again! Frosty mornings, holiday traditions, and extravagant holiday super sales. With the plethora of marketing madness, it can be challenging to discern ripoffs from real deals, especially when it comes to tech gadgets for our kids. At Digital Adventures, we have the privilege to utilize many established and emerging products while we build amazing projects with our stud...


Meet Vicki...Your Kid's New Robot Employee

November 18, 2017

When I was a kid, one of my favorite shows to watch was “Small World”. In this show, Vicki was a robot created by the robotics engineer father to be part of a family. Vicki would help out around the house. But, sometimes things didn’t quite go right because of technological challenges (literal speech interpretations, etc..). Fast forward to today and we are witnessing amazing advances in techno...


The Introductory Parent’s Guide to Understanding Cryptocurrency

November 11, 2017

Over the last several weeks, there have been increasing amounts of attention paid to cryptocurrencies.  It’s hard to turn on the television or go onto social media without seeing some story or cute meme about cryptocurrency. This emerging technology has generated a ton of interest among techies, investors, and the general public. In fact, the two most popular cryptocurrencies – Bitcoin (BTC) an...


5 Reasons Why Parents Should (ALSO) Learn to Code

November 4, 2017

While much has been written about the necessity of teaching kids to code: Why every child should learn to code , More parents want children to learn to code, Why kids should learn to code and How and Why to Teach Your Kids to Code; we think it is also important that parents understand the basics of coding. This is not to suggest that parents should become developers-in-training and ultimately b...


A Bicycle for the Mind

October 28, 2017

Prior to the mass adoption of the personal computer, the co-founder of Apple – Steve Jobs, described his vision for the utility of a computer as being like a bicycle for the mind.  Steve Jobs was a great storyteller, he found ways to connect the dots between this new technology that would eventually become commonplace with a mode of transport that many have very fond memories of. I think one ...


Something important was MISSING at Parent-Teacher Conferences

October 21, 2017

This week, we had parent-teacher conferences at my children’s school. During parent-teacher conferences, we go through what is going well and what could be improved with my kid’s educational journey. Typically, at my kid’s school, there is a conference during the fall and spring. It’s always good to have 30-60 minutes to spend with my kid’s teachers.  Thankfully, both of my kids are doing well ...


Hey Ivanka, Here’s The Blueprint for Making a Maker

October 14, 2017

Recently, the administration led by Ivanka Trump announced that they would annually commit $200 million to increasing access to high quality STEM education. The primary goal of this funding is to better prepare students for the high-paying jobs of tomorrow. The main gap that this funding is trying to solve for is the lack of access to computer science coursework within schools along with the di...


Amazon Should Select Second City – Chicago – For 2nd HQ

October 7, 2017

Amazon recently announced that they are seeking a home for their second headquarters – HQ2. In the request for proposal (RFP) , Amazon plans to hire up to 50,000 employees with an average annual compensation of more than $100K within 10-15 years. From a capital expenditures standpoint, Amazon plans to spend $5B on this new headquarters. This means that the city Amazon picks as their next home w...


Coding Helps Democratize the Next Generation

September 29, 2017

In a recent Guardian article, Ben Tarnoff claims that the tech industry’s push to teach coding is driven mainly by the capitalist class trying to cut programmer wages. He makes some leaps to get there, and the logic doesn’t quite hold up.  To be fair, I would at least agree with Tarnoff that most of the arguments thrown around for teaching kids how to code revolve around economic success. Appea...