ISTE Conference Presentation 2012 School Readiness
NAEYC AC 2012: Cooperative and Collaborative Preschoolers Learning with Multi-Touch Tables
1. Cooperation and Collaboration
Among Preschoolers Using an
Interactive Multi-Touch Table
NAEYC Annual Conference Atlanta, GA : November 2012
Lilla Dale McManis, PhD Susan B. Gunnewig, MEd
Copyright 2012. All rights reserved.
2. Outline
• Social development in preschoolers
• Impact on school success
• Teachers need support
• Technology can promote social development
• Multi-touch technology environment
• Study results and discussion
• Q&A
3. Social Development in Preschoolers
Social Competence- an overall descriptor of a child's
social effectiveness
• Relationships
– Develop and keep
– High quality & satisfying to all/both
• Social skills and awareness influence
• Critical these develop in early childhood
(Ladd, 2000)
4. Unsociability’s Impact on Schooling
• Participate less often in classroom activities
• Less positive feedback
• Less accepted by peers and teachers
• Don’t like school
• Attend less
= Learn Less
(Ravner & Knitzer, 2002)
5. Getting Socially Competent
• Regular opportunities for social competence skills
related to long term outcomes
• In peer interactions
– assume different roles
– learn to take another person's perspective
– develop understanding of social rules and
conventions
(Boyd et al., 2005)
7. Teachers Need Support
• Many K teachers report large numbers of children have
problems transitioning to school due to lack of SED
competencies
• One result is child no longer welcome
in the classroom
• Teachers need guidance and
support in increasing positive
social skills and behaviors while
reducing behaviors that keep children from blossoming
(Rimm-Kaufman, Pianta, & Cox, 2000; Peth-Pierce, 2000; Gilliam, 2008;
Boyd, Barnett, Bodrova, et al., 2005; Ravner & Knitzer, 2002)
8. Activities for Social Relationships
Provide activities where:
• Learning takes place within a group setting
• Designed to be completed as a group
• Opportunities and situations are presented in which
children practice thinking about the viewpoints of
their peers
9. Capturing the Process
Essential in the social-emotional domain b/c:
• Fluid
• Dynamic
• Formative
• More susceptible to
inconsistency in
skill achievement
10. Cooperation & Collaboration
Be aware of designing and providing activities for:
• Taking turns
• Respecting others’ space
• Being friendly, polite, respectful
• Sharing
• Cooperating
• Compromising
• Responding to suggestions and actions of others
positively
• Expressing thoughts, feelings, and ideas through
appropriate language and gestures
11. NAEYC /Rogers Center Technology
Position Statement Guiding Principle
Effective uses of technology and media are:
• active
• hands-on
• engaging
• empowering
• give the child control
• provide adaptive scaffolds to ease task
accomplishment
• one of many options to support children’s learning
12. Technology Can Support SED
• Computer center in early childhood classrooms does
not disrupt ongoing play…
• Rather has been found to facilitate:
– extensive positive social interaction
– new friendships
– cooperation
– peer teaching
– helping behaviors
– praise & encouragement of peers
(McCarrick & Xiaoming, 2007; Clements & Sarama, 2003; Heft & Swaminathan, 2002)
13. Cooperation & Collaboration
• With computers, preschoolers:
– ask other children to join in
– seek help from one other
– look for approval and
acknowledgement from teacher
• Cooperative play at computer equal to amount in
block center
• Computers add a new participation dimension:
– children offer assistance to one another
– cooperate to solve problems and complete tasks
14. Language & Cognitive
• Language and cognitive skills improvement regularly
seen when children use technology
• Demonstrate increasing levels of spoken
communication and cooperation w/ IWBs
• Computer activity more effective
in stimulating vocalization in
preschoolers than many toys
15. Good Design
• Child development theory
• Content
• Child-friendliness
• Interactivity
(McManis & Gunnewig, 2012; McManis & Parks, 2011)
17. Driving Theories
• Bronfenbrenner—Ecological Systems Theory:
relationships at multiple environmental levels
• Bandura—Social Learning Theory:
observation, imitation, and modeling
• Erikson—Psychosocial Theory: stages of
personality development
18. Driving Theories
• Piaget—Cognitive Developmental Theory:
construct knowledge, interactions with peers
during play
• Vygotsky—Sociocultural Theory: Modeling and
language, play with peers and guided
interactions with adults
19. Content
• Aligned with standards
• Scaffolded, correct teaching paths
• Relevant
• Interesting
• Deep
20. Child-Friendliness
• Successful, independent use with guidance
• Simple, clear choices
• Awareness of reading and language limitations
• Not overly stimulating
• Supported instruction/use
• Constructive feedback
• Free from bias
21. Interactivity
• Enough activities with variety
• Responsive to child’s actions
• Activities match with attention span
• Appropriate & balanced use of rewards
22. Cooperation & Collaboration
Using technology has been found to be one of the
best ways to support cooperation and collaboration
among young children…
• Children like working with peers on computers
• See it as playing together and fun
• Opportunities for
children to face and solve
conflicts among themselves
23. Multi-Touch Tables
• Multi-touch tables are a new technology that allow
several children to work and play together
• Unlike other kinds of touch technology, many children
can touch the surface at the same time
• These features make them
ideal for the early childhood
environment
25. Multi-touch Table Research
• Research in its infancy
• Especially true for formal studies on collaborative
capabilities in learning environments
• Potential to positively impact
learning outcomes
(Higgins, et al., 2011)
26. Elementary Age Children
• More talk about task w/ multi-touch
compared to single-touch where more
turn-taking talk (Harris, Rick, Bonnett, et al. 2009)
• Tablet compared to paper showed faster mutual
understanding and more elaboration and negotiation
conversation (Higgins, Mercier, Burd, & Joyce-
Gibbons, 2011)
• Multi-touch tables for storytelling found children
inspired by stories and process ideas of peers (Helmes
et al., 2009; Russell 2010)
27. Some Studies Find Competition Increases
• Marshall et al., 2009 found evidence of children (7-8
year old males) being somewhat more likely to show
overt bodily control behaviors when on an interactive
table surface than paper
• Higgins et al.’s lit review (2011) notes this is the case
in some instances as well and may be related to not
enough “assets”
– Icons
– Too many children at a time
28. Preschool Age Children
• Studies with preschool children virtually non-existent
• One study found, w/ children 2½ -5 (Mansor, De Angeli
& Bruijn, 2008)
• Mainly about usability-researchers noted main issue
children having difficulty capturing and moving objects
• Major constraint use of a style of table
• Children had to stand on a mat with feet
in a specific position for touches to register
- could not move off that small mat
• Opportunity for much cooperation and
collaboration therefore very limited
29. Current Study
• To determine whether small groups of preschoolers
could and would exhibit
– cooperation and collaboration
– when using an all-in-one multi-touch table
– allowing free movement
– with interactive games
– designed specifically to elicit
these behaviors
30. Background for Current Study
• Collaboration higher order skill
builds on cooperation
• Not seen nor expected to be at
the same level as cooperation for preschoolers
• However, appropriate and important for children to
have opportunities to learn and practice both
• Additionally, because usability of multi-touch tables
not well understood with this age group, data
collected
31. Multi-Touch Table: WePlaySmart
• A multi-touch table with pre-loaded interactive child-
directed games designed to elicit and teach social-
emotional skills
• Up to four children can
play at a time
• Table can process over
100 touches
simultaneously
32. Focus
• Full set of games is extensive (several hundred)
• Four areas are represented: social
competence, behavioral, emotional, executive
function
• Six game types: Uncover, Sort, Find, Turns, and
Connect, and Vote
• Current study to better
understand social competence
– Cooperation
– Collaboration
33. Sample
• Study took place in the children’s child care center
• Children who had parental permission eligible to
participate
• 10 games
• 8 children
– 5 Boys, 3 Girls
– 3 African American, 5 Caucasian
• Average age 4.6 years
– Range 4.0-5.2 years
34. Procedures
• Introduction to the system
• Playing games and working together
• Log in
• Moving objects
• Tutorial
• Teacher facilitator
• Videotaped children at play
35. Definitions…
• Cooperative occurrences indicate
child is playing alongside
others, as opposed to working for
a common goal
• Collaborative occurrences can have same elements of cooperative
but child is working with another or others toward a common
goal, as opposed to working more individually or alongside
• Competitive occurrences are those opposite of cooperative and
collaborative and indicate child is dominating the space and/or
highlighting their accomplishments in relation to peers
36. Coding Categories
• VCoop=verbal cooperative: I found one; I know what to do
• VColl=verbal collaborative: We found one; We have to do it like this
• VComp=verbal competitive: I found that one and that and that; You’re doing it
all wrong- do it this way
• BCoop=body cooperative: Moving objects that are close by their space or if
reaching into another’s doing so without asserting strongly; jumping up and
down when an object they moved snaps in
• BColl=body collaborative: Moving an object closer to a peer so they can reach;
giving a high five after the whole activity has finished
• BComp=body competitive: Reaching in -pushing Go button for another child;
folding arms together -pouting
46. Usability
• All children understood basic nature touchscreen
• Evidenced by using fingers to move
objects and touching ‘hot-spots’
• Variability in initial success at capturing an
object sufficiently
– slightly steeper learning curve for younger children
– Improvement for all seen within just a few
attempts
• All children could reach the majority of the objects
– Younger and/or shorter children could not reach as
far and needed to move around the table
47. Conclusions
• Children excited at their first interaction-
jumping, clapping, saying “Wow!”
• High level of cooperation, moderate level of
collaboration, some competition
• Tolerant of each other reaching around and across the
table:
– overlapping arms
– coming very close to ‘personal space’
– moving toward the same object but physically
following an implicit ‘first there it’s yours’ rule
48. Discussion
• Majority of play cooperative in line
with Parten’s Stages of Play
• Collaborative play, which is advanced, is present
represents good support system promoting these
behaviors
• Competition present but not excessively
– New/highly valued
– Individual differences
• Teacher’s role important, especially at beginning
49. Integration and Progress Monitoring
• Represents all 4
areas of SED
• Uses audio clips
• Teachers listen and
rate as often as they
like
• Snapshot 3 x year
• Multiple report levels
• Beyond the Table
51. Connections!
• www.hatchearlychildhood/blog and Expert Webinars
• dmcmanis@hatchearlychildhood.com
• LinkedIn: Lilla Dale McManis, Hatch Early Childhood, Early
Childhood Technology Network
• Twitter: LillaDaleMcManis@DrLDMcManis &
HatchEarlyLearning@hatchearlychild
#ecetechchat Weds. nights 9 EST,
• Facebook & YouTube HatchEarlyChildhood
• Join us for a Meet & Greet w/ Dr. Sue Bredekamp today 12:30-1:00
@ Hatch Internet Lounge
• Stop by the Poster Session if you are interested in learning about
our efficacy study on math & literacy w/computer-assisted
instruction
Editor's Notes
Ability to develop and keep relationships that are of high quality and satisfying to all members of the relationship; as well as being able to avoid negative treatment or victimization. Key characteristics that influence the level of children’s social competence are their social skills and awareness. The need for children to become socially competent in early childhood is critical.Research shows that children must achieve basic social competence by around age 6 to avoid a high chance of negative outcomes in adulthood (Ladd, 2000).
Young children who behave unsociably do not participate as often in classroom activities and are less accepted by peers and teachers.In preschool these children are provided less instruction and positive feedback from their teachers, they do not like school as much, they learn less, and they come to school less often. Academic performance in first grade, over and above cognitive skills and family backgrounds, is predicted by young children’s competence in the emotional, social, and behavioral realms (such as higher levels of self-control and lower levels of acting out) (Ravner & Knitzer, 2002).
Regular opportunities to develop, strengthen, and maintain social competence skills for young children related to long term outcomes -social, emotional, academic, and cognitive in nature (Boyd et al., 2005). In the context of peer interactions, young children assume different roles, learn to take another person's perspective, and develop an understanding of the social rules and conventions.
Many kindergarten teachers report that half or more of their students have a number of problems transitioning to school that are related to a basic lack of social and emotional competencies (Rimm-Kaufman, Pianta, & Cox, 2000). These include not being able to follow directions (46% of K teachers report this as a problem), work independently (34%) or in a group (30%), nor communicate well with peers and teachers (20%). Yet again, these challenges for educators begin earlier. Preschool teachers are faced with a considerable number of young children (between 16 and 32 percent) who exhibit emotional and behavioral problems that compromise early school success (Peth-Pierce, 2000; Ravner & Knitzer, 2002). It appears that one result is simply that a child is no longer welcome in the classroom. In a study of nearly 4,000 randomly selected state-funded prekindergarten classes, 10% of teachers reported at least one expulsion during the past 12 months. A rate of almost 7 expulsions per 1,000 preschoolers was reported; which is three times greater than the national rate of expulsion for K-12 (Gilliam, 2008). This indicates clearly that teachers and providers are likely to find that while some children are doing very well, other children are struggling with a range of emotional and behavioral difficulties that make attending preschool very challenging for both themselves and their teachers (Boyd, Barnett, Bodrova, et al., 2005).
abundant opportunities for interaction with peers and the teacher - discussion and collaboration as children work, play, and explore.
In explaining topics to peers, children’s own understanding is expanded. new occurrences and forms of collaboration including helping or instructingdiscussing and building upon one another’s ideas.
Bronfenbrenner—Ecological Systems Theory: Children develop within a system of relationships affected by multiple levels of their environment.Bandura—Social Learning Theory: Learning takes place in a social context through observation, imitation, and modeling.Erikson—Psychosocial Theory : Everyone potentially affects everyone else's experiences throughout the different stages of personality development.
Piaget—Cognitive Developmental Theory: Children actively construct knowledge, much through interactions with peers during sociodramatic play.Vygotsky—Sociocultural Theory: Modeling and language play pivotal roles in children’s learning, much through sociodramatic play with peers and guided interactions with adults.
Children were given a brief introduction to the system (defined as the table and the content/games). Explaining they would be playing games with their friends and working together on the computer table,How to log in (moving their pictures into a designated spot-an airplane; children log in to be connected with the progress monitoring component of the system),how to use their finger to move/slide objects around on the surface,to listen and watch the tutorial (each game has a visual and verbal set of directions for children so that they see and hear how to play that game).
Cooperative occurrences are those that indicate a child is playing alongside others (as opposed to working on or toward a common goal) in the shared space by being respectful of other’s space and materials, following the rules, taking turns, being friendly and polite, showing personal enthusiasm/accomplishment but not in judgmental relationship to others. Collaborative occurrences can have all of the same elements of cooperative but are seen when a child is working with another or others toward a common goal (as opposed to working more individually or alongside). Competitive occurrences are those that are opposite of cooperative and collaborative and indicate a child is dominating the space and materials by blocking, pushing, reaching into another’s space when the other does not wish them to; verbally admonishing or complaining of unfairness, and highlighting their accomplishments in relation to the lack of or lessening of those of peers.