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

该项目的重点是小学早期的计算机编程和机器人技术，重点是幼儿园。我们的目标是了解什么是适合幼儿的发展，根据新的人机交互技术，提供更适合年龄的技术。该提案的核心是声称，由于各种原因，现代图形用户界面（GUI）不适合在小学早期使用，特别是计算机编程活动。该项目建议建立在新兴的有形用户界面（TUI）技术的基础上，为幼儿创建一个有形的编程语言。也就是说，孩子们不会使用鼠标或键盘编写程序来控制机器人，而是通过连接形状像拼图的智能木块来构建程序。本着类似的精神，该项目建议重新设想机器人技术作为一种活动，与用昂贵和复杂的部件（如LEADON）建造机器人无关，而更多地与用工艺品和回收材料建造艺术作品有关。在三年的时间里，该项目将在现有研究的基础上开发新技术和补充的幼儿园机器人课程。此外，它将制定一个研究协议和实验任务，以研究儿童？在这个领域的学习。然后，该项目将评估四个幼儿园教室的技术和课程的有效性。

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.