Preferred Networks Enters the Education Business and Develops Its Own Programming Resource, Playgram
Preferred Networks(PFN) is involved in deep learning research and development of various robots. PFN announced on July 6 that it has launched a computer science education business Announced. The program will provide students with the logical and creative thinking skills that are essential in the future, when deep learning and other AI technologies are being put to practical use. The goal is to nurture human resources who can be active on a global level.
As the first step in its education business, the company has launched Playgram The company developed "PlayGram" (PlayGram). Partnered with Motivation Switch Group, a general education service provider, to launch "Playgram" in August 2020. Face-to-face classes at three classes in the Tokyo metropolitan area and online classes at home as a programming class package. The system will be introduced to classes in stages. The group aims to expand the program to 1,000 classrooms nationwide in the future.
Playgram is the U.S. computer science education guideline for K-12 This is a programming material based on the Computer Science Framework. Developed by the company's engineers. The learning experience of "learning while having fun" and "using your creativity to create" and the Motivation Switch Group. By combining the methods we have cultivated to motivate children, we are able to develop applications The goal is to develop skills that can be applied, problem-solving skills, and free creativity. In the future, the company will use Playgram as a programming tool that also incorporates AR, IoT, and AI technologies. The plan is to grow it into an educational platform.
Playgram features everything from visual programming to typing and programming Step-by-step programming, from the basics to text coding in Python This is the point where you can learn to In addition, the game uses 3D graphics to move robots, fly, and program the robot. It allows users to experience the fun of solving problems by making the most of their skills, and to develop their expressive and spatial awareness skills. In addition, it analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of each student from learning data and visualizes their learning status to create a realta It can be shared on the imm, which allows you to customize your learning to best suit your progress. Even instructors and parents with no programming experience can provide instruction.
Mr. Toru Nishikawa, the company's CEO, said, "Programming education is gaining momentum toward compulsory education. However, there is a shortage of people to teach them," he explained. And if teachers and parents are teaching as much as they can understand, they're limiting the scope of education. He also pointed out the problems. He said, "In the future, we're going to use deep learning, which is one of Preferred Networks' strengths, as a teaching tool. He said, "I want to include it in my work.
Mr. Yuki Nishizawa, an engineer in charge of the development of Playgram, said that Playgram and other programming On the difference between the materials and the "visual programming tools such as Scratch, which are Many of them are complete, and if you actually want to leave those tools to work on your programming, you can use a different tool," he explained. Also, as a point of differentiation from visual programming tools, the various instructions are executed Replace the program made up of blocks and replace each block with the Python language We introduced the point that it can be done. The ability to replace a block-coded program with a programming language is one of the many Visual programming tools have it, but Playgram allows you to use blocks and code in It's easy to visually compare the two. Currently it only supports Python, but there are plans to add more programming languages in the future.
