Just when we thought that LEGO has pushed the envelope in developing new educational approaches for their products, especially the ones most geared towards young children, they manage to surprise us again. Their latest partnership with none other than Amazon promises some new educational experiences through the Alexa smart speaker.
This week, LEGO has just introduced the LEGO Duplo Stories, a new skill for Amazon’s Alexa voice service that enables any Amazon Echo or Echo Dot device to tell interactive stories involving a range of sets on the early-age Duplo educational products. Duplo Stories has Alexa narrate adventures that toddlers could act out using corresponding Duplo sets.
For the moment, there are 10 individual Duplo Stories that can be installed on an Alexa speaker as an additional skill. Five involve Duplo animal sets; others, for vehicles. Once the skill is installed, a command like “Alexa, open LEGO Duplo Stories” starts voice prompts to select a particular tale.
While the children follow along the story with their LEGO Duplo sets, Alexa also gives them fun tasks and activities related to the tale, which builds up their cognitive and social skills, role playing, motor abilities and concepts like language and colors. This creative play approach puts fun in learning.
James Poulter, head of emerging platforms and partnerships for Lego, notes that not only the children but their parents and older minders can share the enjoyment of the combined physical play and interactive audio for a shared learning experience. LEGO Duplo Stories is now available for adding to Amazon Alexa on the US and UK.
