ToonTalk in Kindergartens: Field Notes

Leonel Morgado (1) , Maria Gabriel Bulas Cruz (1) , Ken Kahn (1)

1 Department of Engenharias [Vila Real]

The emergence of a fully graphical, animated programming language, such as ToonTalk, prompted the question: is computer programming a viable educational activity with kindergarten-aged children? Since May 2000, we have been conducting ToonTalk sessions with 3- to 5-year old children, trying to determine what approaches are more successful, what activities are viable, what issues may arise in the process. From November 2001 to February 2002, the sessions took place regularly in a normal kindergarten room, where during each session 2 children would be playing with ToonTalk, the others would be conducting other kindergarten activities. This paper aims to present the experience acquired during these sessions.

Keywords: children programming; LOGO; Toontalk; kindergartens

Domains: Technology for Human Learning

Leonel Morgado, Maria Gabriel Bulas Cruz, Ken Kahn. ToonTalk in Kindergartens: Field Notes. International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies in Education (ICTE2002), 2003, Badajoz, Spain. ⟨hal-00190133⟩