The on-screen "turtle" made famous by microcomputer Logos was originally just such a robot: a wheeled dome with a pen inside that you could program by giving commands written in Logo. Papert reasoned that you could get kids interested in programming by teaching them to use programs as a tool for something with which they are already familiar (drawing). The real turtles were expensive to procure in the 1960s and 1970s, so by the time the 80s came around and 8-bitters were becoming more affordable for homes and schools, the screen turtle was conceived as a substitute.
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The on-screen "turtle" made famous by microcomputer Logos was originally just such a robot: a wheeled dome with a pen inside that you could program by giving commands written in Logo. Papert reasoned that you could get kids interested in programming by teaching them to use programs as a tool for something with which they are already familiar (drawing). The real turtles were expensive to procure in the 1960s and 1970s, so by the time the 80s came around and 8-bitters were becoming more affordable for homes and schools, the screen turtle was conceived as a substitute.