On the TechTO stage ×1
First seen on the TechTO stage in 2017. Every talk is searchable — ask the archive about Mark ↗
In their words
If you want your kid to get this essential literacy skill, then you need to do it in a way that engages them as a kid.
As they're starting to define that character and develop that character, they're imbuing it with qualities that they either want to see in themselves or qualities that they see in other people.
Quick answers
What are Little Robot Friends?
Palm-sized robots with touch, light and sound sensors that children name, give a personality to, and program through a drag-and-drop app. Argo's argument on the TechTO stage was that coding is now a core literacy, and that teaching it to a seven-year-old only works if it is genuinely fun.
What is Aesthetec Studio?
The Toronto interaction-design studio Argo founded in 2008 for museum and science-centre work, including exhibits for Telus Spark in Calgary and the Royal Ontario Museum's mining hall. Little Robot Friends came out of it.
What does Mark Argo do now?
He is an assistant professor in New Media at Toronto Metropolitan University, where his faculty page describes the same body of interactive and exhibit work.