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Toys that think

To understand is to invent.

Piaget, J.

The constructionist theory of learning says that knowledge is actively constructed by the mind of the learner, and not simply passed from teacher to the student. Knowledge is constructed from experience and learning results from a personal interpretation of knowledge. Learning is viewed as an active process, in which meaning is developed on the basis of experience.

Vygotsky, as a social cognition theorists, further adds that learning should be situated in realistic settings and the testing should be integrated into the task.

Based on this theory, creating ``toys'', or ``manipulatives'' which have intelligence built into them might help children create new ideas and grasp concepts at an earlier age using external artifacts which the child manipulates and can share with others. Today Cuisenaire Rods and Pattern Blocks play a substantial role in children's development. Even though they have no ``intelligence'' built into them, they enable the child to explore concepts of shape, size and number through direct manipulation of physical objects.

From this, one expects that digital manipulatives (or toys that think), which have some ``intelligence'' built into them, might offer a more powerful teaching tool, enabling children to explore new concepts that previously have been considered ``too advanced.''

In the LEGO tradition of MIT's Media Lab and under influence from J. Pollacks 'Alphabet', I came up with a digital manipulative as my final project which might help a child gain insight into arithmatic expressions via manipulation of physical objects and external reflection. I choose to call it ``A Simple Calculator.''


next up previous
Next: The Concept of a Up: A Simple Calculator A Previous: A Simple Calculator A
Magnus Bjornsson
1998-12-11