Tangible programming in early childhood: Revisiting developmental assumptions through new technologies

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The focus of this project is on computer programming and robotics in early elementary school, with an emphasis on kindergarten. The goal is to understand what is developmentally appropriate for young children in light of novel human-computer interaction techniques that provide more age-appropriate access to technology. At the heart of this proposal is the claim that, for a variety of reasons, modern graphical user interfaces (GUI) are ill-suited for use in early elementary school, especially for computer programming activities. This project proposes to build on emerging tangible user interface (TUI) technology to create a tangible programming language for young children. That is, rather than using a mouse or a keyboard to write programs to control robots, children will instead construct programs by connecting smart wooden blocks shaped like jigsaw puzzle pieces. In a similar spirit, the project proposes to re-envision robotics as an activity having less to do with constructing robots out of expensive and intricate parts (such as LEGOs) and more to do with constructing artistic creations out of arts and crafts goods and recycled materials. Over the course of three years, the project will build on existing research to develop novel technology and a complementary kindergarten robotics-based curriculum. In addition, it will develop a research protocol and experimental tasks in order to study children?s learning in this domain. The project will then evaluate the effectiveness of both the technology and the curriculum in four kindergarten classrooms.