The focus of our second week in digital technologies was exploring and understanding the importance and influence of programmable toys in the classroom. Programmable toys can be used in a variety of lessons across the curriculum alongside many benefits. Throughout this session, I acknowledged that the use of programmable toys has a positive impact on young learners’ problem solving abilities and creativity skills, produces hands-on and interactive responsive learning and allows the learner control. It is believed that using programmable toys to aid child learning can “help with the development of skills such as a logical sequencing, measuring, comparing lengths, space orientation, and expressing concepts in words” (National centre for Technology in Education, 2012, p.1).
Using programmable toys as a source of learning began in the 1960s when Seymour Papert invented the programming language, ‘Logo’. This provided children with a chance to learn programming as they were able to control the movement of an online arrow resulting in lines being drawn on their screen.
During week 2 of this module, in particular, the use of ‘Bee Bots’ was focused on. Bee Bots are programmable toys which move when an individual presses directional arrows located on its back. Through personally experiencing and being assessed on this learning tool, for me, it was easy to see how beneficial this practical learning would be for children. Using Bee Bots can increase independence for pupils by passing over the control of their learning whilst challenging them. This tool also improves children’s team work skills and their ability to give others written or verbal instructions while simultaneously providing them with fun and enjoyment.
Whilst being assessed on our creation of a Bee Bot lesson, my group and I decided to focus on the Curriculum For Excellence outcome of:
“I can explore and experiment with digital technologies and can use what I learn to support and enhance my learning in different contexts. TCH-101a” (Scottish Government, 2008)
Within numeracy, my group and I aimed to provide a lesson to improve children’s multiplication of 3 skills and their understanding on compass points. We created a Bee Bot board based on a treasure hunt that consisted of a variety of 3 times table equations. Once pupils had correctly answered the multiplication their Bee Bot stopped on, a set of cards provided them with instructions for their next move, for example: “move west 1 place”.
By adding the initials of the compass points to our board in the correct positions (N for North, E for East, S for South and W for West), children would be able to visualise where each point was; helping them with their lesson and their ability to memorise the position of these compass points in future tasks.
I found this lesson very interesting and entertaining as I learned the benefits and various ways of using programmable toys in future classroom environments. I thoroughly enjoyed working with others to create a lesson with Bee Bots and being proud of our final result. This session helped me understand how children would gain so much from a similar lesson and how it is a unique way of allowing children to have fun while learning.
References
Beauchamp, G. (2012) ICT in the Primary Classroom: From Pedagogy to Practice. Pearson Education Limited.
Lydon, A. ( 2007) Let’s Go With Bee-Bot: Using your Bee-Bot across the curriculum. TTS Group Ltd.
ICTopus Article (2008) Sharing Good Practice: Robots in Early Education by Alison Lydon.
[Online] https://oponoa-programmeertalen.wikispaces.com/file/view/BeeBot_article.pdf
Janka, P. (2008) Using a Programmable Toy at Preschool Age: Why and How?
[Online] http://www.terecop.eu/downloads/simbar2008/pekarova.pdf
Scottish Government (2008) The Curriculum for Excellence [Online] http://www.education.gov.scot/Documents/all-experiences-and-outcomes.pdf
