Across the curriculum today, programmable toys are being more and more introduce as they are said to help young develop their knowledge and understanding of the world (Janka, 2008). Research shows that programmable toys allow for interactive responsive learning, developed problem solving skills and engage pupils in cross-curricular links such as literacy, numeracy and so on. Having only mentioned some of the benefits of programmable toys, it is these enjoyments that help our children become confident individuals, successful learners, effective contributors and responsible citizens (Lydon, 2008).
In 2006, the programmable toy “Bee-Bot” was awarded as the most remarkable hardware for lower level primary school (Janka, 2008). A simple design that is a yellow bee is anything but boring. It is a controlling floor robot that enables a child to instruct it to make a journey on a square Friday (Janka, 2008). With a few taps on four colourful buttons, the child enters a sequence of instructions for the Bee to move and rotate across the grid (Janka, 2008).
So how does this toy develop a child’s knowledge and understanding? To develop a child’s numeracy skills, “Bee-Bot” can be used to recognise coins where we could for example, set a task for children to move across a grid, collecting specific coins as they go. The same could be done with sorting and describing shapes where again, by asking the children to move “Bee-Bot” around the grid and landing on specific shapes, asking them to describe the shape and its properties. Directional language can be used by designing the grid to be a street map or shopping market, for example, and getting the pupil’s to instruct the robot to move around the map, using terms such as ‘forward’, ‘backward’, ‘reverse’, ‘left’, and ‘right’. With literacy, each square on the grid could be given to each child and their task could be to create a story, eventually joining the grid and forming a very fun and imaginative story. As well as forming stories, the “Bee-Bot” encourages children to give instructions, which benefit their literacy skills. Their artistic side is developed when asked to create and draw out the grid using their imagination to draw their stories for the “Bee-Bot” to go across.
The “Bee-Bot” is a very good digital activity to engage in children’s learning and develop their knowledge and understanding as well as their digital literacy skills. Of course, for the children to be able to fully engage and understand the concept, it is important to that their teacher is educated in the use of the programmable toy.
After today’s class on the programmable toy, I fully am aware of the abilities that “Bee-Bot” has, as well as the many ways that it can help in children’s learning and developing skills. Our learning criteria for the lesson was to be able to programme “Bee-Bot” to follow instructions and to use it to teach skills of literacy and maths, making links to the Curriculum for Excellence. Upon refection, I can confidently carry out all of the above criteria, having done further researched and participated in an assessment activity.
The assessment activity was to programme “Bee-Bot” to move around a map which we had to design, ensuring we made links to numeracy and the Curriculum for Excellence outcomes. We worked in groups and my group drew a map of a “The Bee-Bot Supermarket”, with three aisles, each consisting of three items of fruit, three dairy products and three confectionary items.Each product had a price tag and the object of the activity for our lesson was for the children to follow a shopping list and programme “Bee-Bot” to move around the supermarket to collect each item on the list. The final square on our grip was the check-out desk, where the pupil would have to present the correct amount of money required to purchase the items (Appendix 1).
The learning outcomes for our lesson were:
- TCH 0-09a: I am developing problem-solving strategies, navigation and co-ordination skills, as I play and learn with electronic games, remote control or programmable toys.
- MNU 0-09a: I am developing my awareness of how many is used and can recognise and use a range of coins.
- MTH 0-17a: In movement, games and using technology, I can use simple directions and describe directions (Appendix 2).
After further discussion, our group came up with further lesson plans, linking to the Curriculum for Excellence, for example, writing the shopping list’s items in French or Spanish.
Overall, my confidence is strengthening every week I come to digital technology. Being do unaware of the learning outcomes that programmable toys have, I would not have been interested in using them in lessons but now having read further research, being taught about them and physically using them, I am confident that I can incorporate them into my lesson plans and ensure my pupil’s will be one step closer to becoming confident individuals, responsible citizens, effective contributors and successful learners.
References
Janka, P. (2008) Using a Programmable Toy at Preschool Age: Why and How? [Online] http://www.terecop.eu/downloads/simbar2008/pekarova.pdf [Access: 16th January 2018]
Lydon, A. ( 2007) Let’s Go With Bee-Bot: Using your Bee-Bot across the curriculum. TTS Group Ltd.
Appendix
