[ArtWomb]

>>> with this individualization I was flabbergasted a few times

Don't be! Kids are digital natives. And given programming tools designed specifically for K-12 they will produce useful programs. Operational applications beyond mere Roblox zombie shooters to manage their increasingly complex young lives ;)

I was working with AWS last summer with the goal of creating a cloud based IDE for ChromeOS. And I feel the current barrier is programming languages and paradigms as they exist today. Visual logic languages and blocks programming, dating back to Turtle Graphics and the original Logo designs from 1967 by Wally Feurzeig, Seymour Papert, and Cynthia Solomon have been used for generations. But I could see the next evolution as being voice based. In the era of Siri and Alexa, perhaps kids should be composing blocks as parameterized tasks spoken in natural human langauge. This is a big undertaking and more than I can handle at the moment, but I have been experimenting with a Google Nest Mini, and even simple trivia games or joke applications can amuse kids for hours. "Hey Google, what's the weather like on Mars today" opens a portal to infinite curiosity and exploration about the cosmos we live in.

The other era of promise I've seen is the engagement around simple physics games and simulations. Think of the level design mode in 2D collision games like "Crush the Castle" or "Angry Birds". With the amount of available energy kids have they are able to build epic structures and take delight in watching them fracture unpredictably.

Bottom line is these games and interfaces have to get much better. And that requires targeted investment as well as vision