A Robot in Kindergaten
Maria João-Monteiro, Rosa Cristóvão-Morgado, Maria Bulas-Cruz, Leonel
Morgado
Universidade de
Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro
CIFOP – UTAD, R.
Manuel Cardona, 5000 Vila Real, Portugal
,
,
Abstract
These thought are the result of work in progress, started in 1999, within the scope of the Trás-os-Montes Digital/SCETAD, project (sub-project: ICEI – Computers in Early Childhood Education Contexts). The work took place in Portuguese kindergarten rooms, with children aged 3, 4, 5 and 6.
The ICEI sub-project aims to promote the use of ICT in a playful but pedagogical way, be it free or directed. This use is intended to occur within the scope of activities developed for the micro-spaces of the kindergarten activity room. Their main aims being: increased awareness of ICT among children; contributing for making children and teachers feel at ease with ICT; contribute for the identification of computer-usage and network-usage methodologies as teaching/learning tools.
We believe that ICT can help promote the use of basic skills for the child’s global development.
Within the several available ICT, we will just present here the work developed with the “Roamer” robot (Amethyst Consultancy Ltd., 2003).
Keywords
Roamer, robot, children programming, kindergarten, early childhood, Logo, abstraction
1.
Introduction
This paper reflects the work under
development at the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD), since
1999, within the scope of the project Trás-os-Montes Digital/SCETAD, subproject
ICEI (Informática em
Contextos de Educação de Infância, Computers in Early Childhood Contexts). This project has conducted
computer-related activities in Portuguese kindergarten rooms, with 3-, 4- and
5-year old children.
The ICEI subproject aims to promote
the use of New Information and Communication Technologies (NICT) in playful
educational ways, freely or assisted/conducted, integrating them with the
activities taking place within the micro-spaces of the kindergarten room. Its
main goals are to raise children awareness towards NICT; to promote the
acquaintance of both children and teachers with computers and communication
support; to cooperate on the identification of computer and network usage
methodologies, as teaching and learning tools.
We believe that technology can help
promote children basic skills towards their global development.
Within the several NICT available,
this paper will focus on the work developed with the Roamer robot (Amethyst Consultancy Ltd., 2003; CnotInfor,
2003). We’ll present
it, how it can be used, what we use it for, and what results have been
achieved.
2.
The Roamer robot and its use
The Roamer robot was created by
Professor Tom Stonier (Goodman, 1999) at the
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Figure 1 –Roamer robot in disguise: flower seller, firewoman and chef, for the “Professions” room project
The programming is performed on the
robot itself, with no need for external computer connections, by using the
several command and settings buttons available (figure 2).
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We basically used the movement
commands (forward, back, rotate clockwise, rotate counter-clockwise), with
the same meaning as the identical instructions from the Logo programming
language: FORWARD/FD, BACK/BK, RIGHT/RT, LEFT/LT (Logo Foundation, 2000). |
Figure 2 - List of keys used by the children |
3.
Child-Machine interaction
Children don’t have to be force-fed to learn; they are motivated by
their own desire to give sense to their own world.
Bringing the robot into a
kindergarten rooms is extremely easy. The empathy between it and the children
occurs immediately. We feel this is due to its nice looks, together with its
ease of use and the simplicity of its programming. Another good thing is that
it is easily customized – it can be disguised as whatever the children wish it
to be; this allows its integration within the several projects that arise in a
kindergarten room.
The robot is programmed in a direct
way, following cause-effect guidelines. It can receive just a single
instruction, or a short sequence (3 or 4 instructions in a row); however, for
pre-school children, we found out that this task had to be segmented. We
started by working out with the child which instructions were required to
achieve a goal; the child then conveys these instructions to the robot and
watches their effect, which is generally amusing. So, in a playful way, the
child starts to realize that the machine (object) can be acted upon, and that
such actions have direct consequences.
Children see the Roamer robot as a
toy that can be ordered around (just like a remote control car), it is the
child that decides and sets its destination. It is our role, as educators, to
promote these abilities, conferring them an educational intent (as with the
examples of activities, further ahead). It should be noted that children, upon
realizing that the wrong option was taken, don’t usually like to make such an
error be noticed. The robot lets them make errors without leaving traces. Its
patience in unmatched by any grown-up, and this turns it into a friend that is
always there, with whom the process of learning through trial and error is
essential for knowledge build-up. For instance, the robot can be ordered to
follow a path, only for later on to be realized that it was the wrong one, that
it wasn’t the fastest one, or that it reaches a dead end; on such a situation,
one can backtrack and repeat the process, and thus improving the child’s
response abilities. With the robot, the children can, in a playful way, turn
abstract concepts into reality. Example include: measuring; comparing lengths;
moving in a specific space, and drawing a path diagram; expressing these
concepts in words.
One must emphasize the positive
reinforcement, at the social and emotional level, promoted by the robot, both
at the level of personal gains, and at the level of each child’s interaction
with play partners. There some activities
that a child can’t do on her own, but that may be achievable if someone explains them to her, demonstrating how to do it. This
possibility of changing a person’s performance, due to the interference of
someone else, is fundamental under Vygotsky (Craidy, 2001), who emphasizes the importance of toys and
child play in child development. It is the educator’s role, as well as the role
of older children, to make the child progress in its understanding of the
world, building upon consolidated knowledge, having later phases as a goal. The
educator and older children act within Vygostky’s Zone
of Proximal Development, originating progress that wouldn’t occur on its own.
4.
Activity examples - paths
According to Duhalde
and Cuberes (1998), paths are spatial experiences connected to the motion of the individual
in space, that allow the child to understand the difference between near space
and remote space. Their execution and representation is beneficial, for
instance, to acquire notions of orientation (right/left, forward/back); of
distance (near/far) and of rotation. By being executed or recounted, a path
implies an action sequence; the motion of an object gives the child notions
regarding its orientation within reference points; the distance between those
points and the action sequence form the “path”. The resolution of o path
requires, for instance, a child to understand that direction changes upon
reaching a corner; the exploration of distinct rotations is an exercise for the
help child reach the concept of angle.
The graphical record on paper
sheets, where the reference points are located and represented, is an exercise
allowing the child to move from its spatial existence to the field of space
representation. By verbalizing the performed actions, employing their assigned
names, the child is being assisted to acquire concepts. The resolution of
problem situations, by responding to what is demanded of the child,
progressively develops skills where strategy, reason and critical thinking are
present.
The children acquire many concepts
during informal activities, that don’t need any systematic introduction. An
educator must promote the application of concepts in a variety of everyday
activities. In this sense, working with the Roamer allows an approach of all
three content areas defined by the Portuguese Ministry of Education (Ministério da Educação, 1997): Personal and Social Education;
Knowledge of the World; Expression and Communication (see also “Other kinds of
activities”).
We believe that a major aspect is
that the child shouldn’t learn a concept by repeating drills, where memorizing
replaces reasoning. The educator should spur the child into using her intuitive
knowledge, as a method to approach more formal learning. The educator should
also seek and identify the situation’s troubling aspects, creating the
potential for the child to find solution proposals.
Within the several experiences that
are set for a child, finding the solution to a particular problem isn’t the
most important thing. What really matters is the reasoning process used for the
proposed solutions to a given problem. This reasoning will provide the support
upon which the child will build her global development. So, there is a possibility that the child does a
significant learning, defined as a process through which connections can be
made between new information and some pre-existing aspect of the cognitive
structure. (Ausubel, 1983).
Ausubel further defines this significant learning, by matching it against repetition-based [learning],
and emphasizes that only significant
learning allows the development of the cognitive skills of human beings (Bassedas, 1999).
The goal for the curriculum
developed throughout a school year is that it is based on projects emerging
from the children group, thus exploring children’s natural curiosity. The
Roamer robot is a valuable resource to achieve this goal. With it, children
learn how to interact with each other, developing their relationship skills;
they can reproduce real of fictitious situations; propose solutions, testing
whether they are adequate to the problem in hands; they take initiatives; they
express their opinion; they act both alone or as part of a group; they can use
symbols, make choices, determine relations and manipulate physical materials;
they can place themselves spatially, move through space, and position
themselves in relation to objects; they can make representations of paths;
distinguish between front, side, far, near, above, below, ahead, behind, left
and right.
5.
Activity examples – further activities with paths…
5.1.
Little Red Riding Hood’s Path –
Retell
The children listened to the story
of Little Red Riding Hood (expression and communication areas); the major – from
the children’s viewpoint – events of the story were recorded, performing hand
drawings, as shown on figure 3 (plastic expression domain). Afterwards, the
robot was disguised as Little Red Riding Hood, result is shown on figure 4
(plastic expression and drama domains).
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Figure 3 - Drawing the story |
Figure 4 - Little Red Riding Hood |
With this setting, Little Red Riding
Hood (the Roamer robot) should take the path from its home to grandma’s (math
domain), going through the story events. During the retelling experience (drama
and music domains: the children that wanted to watch a child operating the
robot had to sing the Little Red Riding Hood song), by operating the robot, the
children had to employ the notions of left/right, direction (forward/back), and
quantity, to mention a few. In doing so, they were also developing a strategy
to reach their goal (figure 5).
Figure 5 - Children operating the robot
5.2.
Logic blocks
The work commonly developed with the
logic blocks in kindergartens was the starting point. Employing the computer
and the Paint program (figure 6), children built cards (figure 7) where
attributes from the logic blocks where symbolically combined.
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Figure 6 - Child drawing the cards at the
computer |
Figure 7 - Final cards |
The logic blocks’ pieces were
scattered over a grid carpet. The children had to interpret the cards’ meaning
– the attributes had been randomly sampled – and then command the robot,
programming it, until the matching piece was found (figure 8).
Figure 8 - Children commanding the robot
6.
Other kinds of activities
Using as starting point the
activities already taking place in the kindergarten room, the Roamer robot can
be used for: other stories, round-robin tales (created by the children
themselves); market/field trips (recording real trips, transposing them into a
grid built with the children’s participation); rigmaroles; songs; game of
goose; tic-tac-toe; etc.
7.
Abstraction and logical thinking
The period to which Piaget called “preoperational
stage” it the second major stage in cognition development. It includes children
between ages 2 and 7. In this period, children
become gradually more sophisticated regarding their use of symbolic thinking
(Papalia, 1975). Thus, the peak of intelligence results in balance between assimilation and
accommodation – since imitation prolongs the latter by itself – one can state
that child play is basically assimilation, ruling over accommodation (Negrine, 1994). The child plays according to its life
experiences. For instance, when playing “housewife”, the child does as she saw;
speaks in the same way, acts in the same manner, recreating moments that she
experienced or watched. This imitation (attitude pattern), is initially unique
and quite simple to match (by imitation) to the child’s model; but it
progressively assumes the character of interiorization of the social/behaviour
pattern, with well-defined values and guidelines.
From the very first years, children
spend most of their time playing. A
child’s natural job it to play, which to her is something very serious (Bredekamp, 1987) – something that is not always perceived
by adults.
While watching children’s behaviour
during play, we realize that is it a dynamic activity that places them in
situations with motion and action, in which children are active participants.
The entertaining activity of child
play, in fictitious situations, is a way to develop abstract thinking.
In this sense, Piaget warns that the child creates and develops her mental structures
through the various child-play activities (Negrine,
1994) with toys and games, for instance – and also imagination, therefore. In
doing so, children increase their conceptual skills. Cognitive development is therefore the result of interaction of
internal processes with the diverse encompassing contexts. Thus, the child goes
from dualism to the distinction between subject and object, from centralism to
decentralism, In this sense, a game is an activity from which innumerous
learning can result (Tavares, 1994).
For any child, it is essential that
the foundations of abstraction and logical thinking are stimulated from early
on. The robot is but one among other working tools that allow this. The child
is an active participant: acquiring knowledge of the robot’s features and
potential, using her will to operate the robot, building scenarios, disguising
the shell, laying group-defined rules for playing. The work thus developed
encourages the child towards being the actor of her own learning, in ever-more
complex challenges. The concept of what a number is (an abstract concept), is
rendered – for instance – as the number of “steps” that the robot must perform
when commanded by the child, and further on upon its execution.
This interaction with the robot
makes the child study her ideas, constructing a strategy by restructuring ideas
and making options, such as: “if I choose this/that path, I’ll take less/more
time”. By having to select from a set of options, the quality of the child’s
problem-solving answers is improved.
8.
Final remarks
The work with the Roamer robot is
naturally interdisciplinary and all-embracing, and so the content areas defined
in the Portuguese Ministry of Education Curriculum Guidelines (Ministério da Educação, 1997) can be approached (see, for instance,
the description of the Little Red Riding Hood activity).
By being an active participant, the
child builds her own process for learning and knowledge, and the child’s pace
can be respected.
The Roamer robot is a new way to
present and experiment with entertaining activities, and to introduce several
concepts, progressively, such as left/right distinction, spatial orientation,
counting. It is also an initiation to computer programming practice, since
usage rules must be respected and it renders easier to present abstract notions
in a concrete fashion. Allows for comprehension of mathematical knowledge
through exploration and problem solving; for the creation of learning
environments, in which the child learns by trial and error; for group work.
These experiences that the child enjoys,
by succeeding in her intent to do several things, and living the emotional
experience of joint action (Craidy, 2001), with
people to whom she is emotionally attached, contribute
to her safety and self-esteem. In this way, progress is made in the perceived
global development, not just in some of its capacities. This way of being
interactive is sometimes explained (…) through
the “scaffolding” metaphor (…) When
the site development is over, all scaffolding is removed, but the building
couldn’t have been built without it (Craidy, 2001).
9.
References
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Ensinar na Educação Infantil. Porto
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CnotInfor, 2003, Robot Roamer, CnotInfor,
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Geoffrey 1999, Tom Stonier, A man of
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