Analysis of Children's Technology Competency

The lesson I chose to conduct, was showing three siblings how to use the Bee Bot educational technology tool. The lesson began with me introducing the Bee Bot to the children. The kindergartner was there, along with this three-year-old sister, and his one-and-a-half-year-old sister. All three of them seemed very intrigued as to what exactly we would be doing. I introduced the Bee Bot to them by telling them I had a fun robot I wanted to show them, and that I was going to let them use on their own. We gathered in a quiet room that had part carpet and part smooth hard floor. I showed the children the outside of the box, and they laughed at the friendly looking bumble bee on the outside. I told them what it was called; the kindergartner and the three-year-old both repeated the name out loud. We took it out of the box, and I showed them the black cord, telling them that this was what you used when the Bee Bot wasn't working and it needed more energy. I flipped over the Bee Bot and showed them the two buttons on the bottom of the bee. I told them one of the buttons turned it on, and the other button turned on sound. When I just flipped the on off button, and the children saw the eyes light up, the five-year-old requested I flip the sound button as well. I explained that the Bee Bot would do whatever you told it to do by pressing certain buttons in order. I demonstrated this by making the Bee Bot move forward several spaces by pressing the forward button and then the green 'go' button. I counted out loud and narrated what I was doing to help them understand.

I handed the Bee Bot over to the kindergartner who began pressing buttons at random, playing with the Bee Bot and laughing as it bumped into furniture and moved backwards. This would be a prime example of constructivism, where children learn primarily by doing and playing. This child was learning how to use the Bee Bot, something entirely unfamiliar to him, simply by trying it out himself. He learned far more this way, than had I only showed him by demonstration. Meanwhile, his three-year-old sister (who is very shy), sat nearby watching and laughing. The baby came over and sat on my lap, watching the bee very intently, and smiling. The Kindergartner proclaimed, motioning towards his baby sister, she "can't do it." I told him I would let her have a turn later. She was showing no interest at the time in using the Bee Bot. She was learning socially, by watching her older siblings control the robot. Once I could see that he was familiar with the basic mechanisms of the Bee Bot (I could see this because he was pressing combinations of arrows confidently and then pressing go quickly and watching it move with ease), I started the more formal instruction. We placed the Bee Bot at the edge of the hard floor, and I asked him if he could try and make the Bee Bot move all the way across the floor to the opposite side where there was a desk. He pressed forward many more times than was needed, pressed go, and we all watched it roll over to the desk. It hit the desk, which they all loved, and he said, "After that, let's try a different move." I showed them by pressing the arrows one at a time that you could make the Bee Bot move in a circle. He said "I'll try it now..." and after trying that (he didn't quite make it go in a circle, but had it spin in place and go forward), he said "what else is there?" I noticed that he seemed to repeatedly enjoy pressing the forward button as many times as he could. I had to remind him that you only needed to press it a couple of times to make it move forward to most of the objects in the room, maybe 10 or 15 times at most.

At this point in the lesson, we brought the Bee Bot over behind a bed that was in the room. I asked him if he could make the Bee Bot travel to the end of the bed, and around the corner. Here, I had to verbally, and with motions, explain that to make the Bee Bot turn, you pressed the right arrow, and THEN the forward arrows. This was a concept that seemed very difficult for him and his sister to understand. They fully understood that you could make it turn, but seeing that you needed to make it swivel to the right, and then go forward was hard to convey. I tried to show this to them by manually turning the Bee Bot while it was off and showing them the directions it would need to go in. I held it facing forward, slowly turned it to the right, and prompted him to tell me what it had to do next. As he was pressing buttons, I encouraged him to stop at appropriate times when it seemed like he was going to press the buttons far too many times. We hit the 'go' button, and watched as the Bee Bot rolled to the end of the bed, turned right about 6 inches past the bed, and went forward out of sight. We observed that while traveling on carpet, the Bee Bot seemed to veer to one side, and didn't go very easily.

After having completed the formal lesson, and having taken good data, we proceeded to play with the Bee Bot. We took it around the house to different floor surfaces and gave the Bee Bot instructions. I told them that this was called, "coding." He said, while pressing the different directional buttons, "I'm making it go in a circle." At this point, his sister expressed more interest. When she took command over the Bee Bot, the kindergartner ran off and became interested in other things. However, when the three-year-old began playing with it, the baby expressed a lot of interest! I asked the three-year-old some questions, but she just giggled in response and most of her attention was going to making the Bee Bot move across the now tiled floor that we were sitting on. I asked her which floor was easier for making the Bee Bot go, the tile, or the carpet. She pointed at the tiles. We did a fun little game where we said we were going to have the Bee Bot walk to the "edge of the road, and look right, then left, and then go forward." First, we pressed the forward buttons, then the left button, then right, then right again, then left, and then forward." She greatly enjoyed watching this and tried it herself. She did succeed in making the Bee Bot look in one direction before going forward across the tiles. I asked her to make the Bee Bot go in a circle. She pressed the back button and then the other arrows. The Bee Bot went backwards towards us, and then turned more to the right. Then, she told us she wanted to bring the Bee Bot, "into mama bear's room." We walked over to that room. It was there that the baby began joining us and playing with the Bee Bot. The five year old was around, and occasionally stopped his playing to watch, but didn't seem interested anymore. Instead, he was playing "Star Wars chess." At this point, I needed to facilitate turn taking between the three year old and the baby. The baby loved the Bee Bot, she would press arrows, and then the 'go' button, and smile and laugh as it moved. She snatched it from her sister, and began to cry when she realized her turn was over. She clearly understood the function and concept of the 'go' button, which surprised me. The three year old seemed to really enjoy making the Bee Bot go forward and then trying to stop it with her arm. I had to explain that that might hurt the Bee Bot and that once we pressed go, we had to just watch with our eyes.

The baby and the three-year old's attention was held for so long by the Bee Bot. While I felt the kindergartner got bored rather quickly, and mastered it quicker, the three-year-old could've played with it and watched it for hours. The baby almost couldn't handle how exciting it was. I did conclude however, that even the kindergartner had a difficult time understanding that what you were pressing now was connected with the future movements of the Bee Bot. That's not to say that he didn't understand that pressing buttons made it go forward. But it seemed like it was hard for him to calculate precisely ahead of time which way he would be making it go. I think repeated practice would have helped. Fewer distractions also might have helped. Both his parents, and his two siblings as well as one other adult were in the room talking. There were other toys around as well. I think more opportunities for trial and error as well as reminders to slow down would have helped him were this lesson to be repeated. One of the major problems we encountered was as soon as he got a hold of the Bee Bot, he would just press the forward button as many times as he could, which I felt limited what he was doing. That seemed to be very captivating for him, and I wanted to allow him to explore it on his own, just occasionally reminding him to slow down or prompting him to try something else.  He interacted very little verbally with his sisters, but focused on talking to me and looking at the Bee Bot.

Throughout the lesson, the ISTE standards were met successfully.  The children did use simulations to figure out how to use the Bee Bot (1.C.). They both interacted with peers and adults throughout the lesson and play time as they used this new piece of technology. I scaffolded the language throughout and helped them accomplish the tasks. (2.A.). The kindergartner in particular was forced to use different perspectives to try and complete the desired outcomes. By this I mean that when he didn't initially succeed in making the Bee Bot do what he was aiming for, he had to try a different combination of buttons. (4.C.). And finally, it was clear that he had to "troubleshoot systems and applications," (6.C.) in order to learn how to use this new piece of technology. This piece of educational technology was new to him.
There were many theories of learning as applied to educational technology that were exemplified in this lesson. Constructivism was evident in that the children involved in the activity learned primarily through "direct encounters with the environment," (taken from ECE 512 handout, Theories of Learning as Applied to Educational Technology) and were able to work somewhat independently in the context I provided for them. Vygotsky's Socio-cultural Theory was also manifested here, when the children, who held lower zones of proximal development, were able to understand the material more quickly through the instructor's scaffolding. Socio-cognitive theories were demonstrated here, as conflicts of ideas arose between the siblings who had come to understand the technology wanted to perform different tasks with it at the same time. Social Learning by Bandura was evident here as well, saw the children first watched the instructor move the Bee Bot, remembered the steps, and then tried it out themselves. When what they tried worked out successfully, they were motivated to try it again. 

This technology, used within the classroom, has the potential to be an excellent way to teach children about basic coding techniques and technological robotic movements. We concluded during the lesson that the Bee Bot couldn't truly travel in a circle, because his movements were too straight. This would be an excellent classroom tool in the early childhood classroom. It is one that would not only help children become familiar with the connection between buttons and movements, but it would also help them learn to look ahead to what was coming rather than only focus on current actions. It requires the children to make predictions and try a variety of different button combinations. It is also fun for children. The appearance of the Bee Bot is friendly, brightly colored, and familiar. Most if not all children are familiar with bumble bees, and enjoy happy looking animal toys. In this way, it is a subject that is on their level, and appealing to their senses. There are many opportunities for the adults in the room to span the zone of proximal development and help the children understand more about the Bee Bot than they would by themselves. The adults can show them the various buttons, show them that the "x" button erases their work, and the pause button makes the Bee Bot stop what he is doing temporarily. Older children, say first or second grade children, would probably be able to get the Bee Bot to do an even greater amount of movements, especially with their more developed cognitive skills and ability to read, as well as their higher level of exposure to educational technology.

Overall, I felt this lesson went well, and the children not only learned, but had a lot of fun playing. Upon reflection with the Early Childhood Education Technology Evaluation Took Kit, this lesson scored a 93.  There was a focus on learning, the children enjoyed the lesson which was age appropriate, and the content standards were met. Because play time is one of the most crucial ways in which children learn, I was happy to provide them with mostly play time versus formal instruction. I was able to observe the content standards being met by a variety of ages. At one point, a ten-year-old came into the room, and I could see that he was far beyond the age during which this activity would be difficult. He easily commanded it to move around my binder and grasped the concept at once without any of my formal explanation. I thought the lesson taught me a lot about how to teach technology in the early childhood classroom, but I'm sure there's a lot more for me to learn. Technology is a very important educational tool that teachers must take advantage of.