2-17-10

This week I have been thinking a lot about educational play. The PicoCrickets really sparked me to think about educational play. I had a really fun time working with the PicoCrickets in class last week. The energy in the classroom changed instantly as everyone began exploring the new technology and starting to create. Thinking back to my grade school and middle school classrooms, even high school classrooms, I can remember how the mood in the classroom would really change when we got to explore, create, and play. It was no different with our class and the PicoCrickets. I would much rather have a classroom in which everyone was excited about what they are doing. I think that the PicoCrickets are something that I would love to incorporate in my classroom in the future because they are not only fun but they are extremely educational. They merge art and technology in a really cool way. It is a really cool way for kids to learn about programming. I especially liked Krissy's introduction with the other toys. I think that starting by looking at more simple programs like the duck would be helpful because it shows a simple cause and effect program. Moving on to more complicated programs would be good as well because it forces students to think even more about how the toy works. You could even have kids bring in their own toys and explain how they think they work. Allowing students to build their own programmed toys after would be the best way for them to learn because they are really experiencing the creation process so they would truly understand how it works. I think that kids would love to just dive in and explore how to make the different sensors work. I really like that the kids are able to actually create something they can hold and move instead of just making a program that stays on the computer. I think that too often when people think of play in the classroom they don't see how it can be incorporated in extremely educational ways. I definitely feel like using the PicoCrickets felt like playing and I would love to incorporate these and other types of technologies into my classroom one day.