Stephen Ocko (1934 - 2000) was an American documentary filmmaker, educationalist, and inventor. In the late 1970s, Ocko was employed by the Milton Bradley Company as a Senior Game Designer. Here, based on an idea from his son Peter, he developed Big Trak: one of the first and, at the time, most advanced mass-produced programmable electronic vehicle toys. Big Trak takes the form of a sci-fi inspired army tank and can be 'driven' by inputting a sequence of up to 16 commands on a calculator like input-pad controlling forward and backward movements, turning and firing the 'laser' light cannon. It was one of the biggest selling toys in the USA when it was released in 1979, with estimated sales topping $40 million. Perhaps a marker of its cultural impact, the Soviet Union even produced a cloned version of Big Trak - the 'Elektronika IM-11'. The programming 'language' of Big Trak was very similar to that of Logo (the world's first computer programming language designed for learning) which would be important part of Ocko's later work in developing LEGO robotics and exploring its impact on learning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Notably, Big Trak was also used in a study on learning by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in the 1980s. In the mid-1980s, Ocko joined the MIT Media Lab. Here, alongside Mitchel Resnick and Seymour Papert and engineers from the LEGO Corporation, he was involved in creating a LEGO robotics controller (commercialised as Interface A), as well as motor, light and sensor systems that could be connected to LEGO technic bricks and programmed using Logo software. This kit, which was combined as LEGO TC Logo, was a commercial success and was used by thousands of teachers and students. Ocko went on to work for LEGO as a Senior Research Designer in the company's Futura product development department. In 1986, Ocko travelled to Australia for the first time to participate in the Australian Computer Education Conference. He returned in 1988 to conduct a LEGO/Logo course for teachers as part of the Sunrise School program coordinated by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). He remained involved in the Sunrise School program and returned in 1990, with his MIT colleague Mitchel Resnick. On this visit Ocko and Resnick worked with students and teachers at the Queensland Sunrise Centre (Coombabah State School) and the Methodist Ladies College Sunrise Centre. They also took students from these Sunrise Centres to showcase their work at a 'Logo and Robotics' workshop held in conjunction with the World Conference on Computers in Education held in Sydney. The Sunrise Collection at Melbourne Museum contains a range of items related to centering on the Sunrise School and Sunrise Centre programs, including a Big Trak and LEGO TC Logo robotics components. Select Sources Kestenbaum, D (2024) "Toy R Us", This American Life. Episode 827, 22 March 2024.

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