During this week’s session, we were looking at the potential that the use of programmable toys, in this case, Beebots had to offer. For us to fully understand the learning potential, in pairs, we constructed an activity that tied in with some curriculum areas.
The use of programmable toys in education has been around since the 1960s, when Seymour Papert became fascinated with using this as a way of learning, so he constructed the idea of Logo programming and Turtle robots. He wanted to try and encourage people to be active learners and accountable for their own knowledge and he felt programming was a way to make this happen. The turtle followed simple directions such as moving forward, backward, turn left or right through an angle as it drew as it moved with the number of steps being able to be inputted and was instructed by the Logo programming language. Looking at this design it is clear the similarities and where the idea of the Beebot came from.
Using Beebots as a learning and development experience and opportunity is an enjoyable and interactive way to incorporate and involve all children in the classroom. A benefit of Beebots are that 
not only do they encourage the learning of the activity given but also reinforce direction and planning and allow a range of transferable skills to be enhanced. These types of skills are particularly beneficial especially with STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths) becoming a more prominent factor in education.
In my Beebot lesson plan, my partner and I incorporated different curriculum areas such as mathematics and physical education. This was because these two curricular areas are often looked at as being completely at opposite ends of the scale and by being good in one of these areas it is more commonly thought that you will lack in the other area. Also, it has been thought by some that digital technology is based around sitting in front of a device, however, we wanted to show that this doesn’t have to be the case.
Our Beebot experience entailed different sums from which the children one at a time would choose from. The answer to the sum was 
one of the numbers on the mat. Once the child had worked out what the answer was it was their job to insert the directions into the Beebot. On the Beebots arrival to the correct answer, the child would lift up the answer to find underneath a picture of the exercise that had to be completed. For example, if the answer to the sum was 5, the child would have to do 5 sit ups. Therefore, working on the maths and physical skills at the same time. Although we targeted this activity at children of first level, we also felt that this activity would be easily adaptable depending on the age range as different maths could be used so if time was the area of maths the children were studying rather than the answer being the number they have to do, it could be the amount of time they have to do it for. There is even the opportunity to incorporate language into the activity so rather than counting the numbers in the English, they could count in the language that they are learning in class.
Experiences and outcomes we met through this activity were those such as:
- I can use addition and subtraction, multiplication and division
when solving problems, making best use of the mental strategies and written skills I have developed. (MNU 1-03a) - I understand that my body needs energy to function and that this comes from the food I eat. I am exploring how physical activity contributes to my health and wellbeing. (HWB 1-28a)
- I can explore and experiment with digital technologies and can use what I learn to support and enhance my learning in different contexts. (TCH 1-01a)
(Education.gov.scot, n.d.)
As Beebots can include lots of different curriculum experiences and outcomes, this is beneficial as it means that children will be developing more than one curriculum area at one time. Some other benefits of Beebot include developing problem-solving skills and independence. This is conveyed through further reading and research as it was stated that;
“[The children] gained independence faster than I anticipated. Twelve out of the 28 were able to use the Bee-Bot without any adult help after the initial instructions.” (Lydon, 2008, p.2)
This idea of that this develops children’s independence also allowed the idea to be brought forward of the children being given a curricular are and actually making their own mats based on that area. Therefore, allowing children to further develop their independence whilst being an active participant in their own learning and developing their creative and team-working skills.
Having reflected on my Beebot experience I thoroughly enjoyed the creativity that it enforced and seeing how easy it was to incorporate so many curricular areas and further development that could be used with it. However, I can see that without a strong ideas and connection in curricular areas, that the Beebots purpose and what it is intended for could be forgotten about and used as a play toy rather than a purpose. Therefore, when using it for different activities the activities must challenge and evoke concentration in the children to gain the most from the experience. I also did find that it could be looked at as being quite outdated so therefore again if used, the ideas would have to be strong enough to mask that.
References
- An open mind. (2019). Papert, turtles and creativity – An open mind. [online] Available at: http://milesberry.net/2015/01/papert-turtles-and-creativity/ [Accessed 16 Jan. 2019].
- Education.gov.scot. (n.d.). Curriculum For Excellence. [online] Available at: https://education.gov.scot/Documents/All-experiencesoutcomes18.pdf [Accessed 16 Jan. 2019].
- ICTopus Article (2008) Sharing Good Practice: Robots in Early Education by Alison Lydon. [Online] http://moodle1819.uws.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/39830/mod_resource/content/1/Reading Programmable Toys/ICTopus – Sharing Good Practice – Robots in Early Education .pdf [Accessed: 16 Jan. 2019]
- Papert, S. (1980). [online] Worrydream.com. Available at: http://worrydream.com/refs/Papert%20-%20Mindstorms%201st%20ed.pdf [Accessed 16 Jan. 2019].
