FARMINGTON – After pressing play, a team of preschoolers worked together to pop as many bubbles as possible by touching porcupines found randomly floating on a large, table-like computer screen.
Their task, using an interactive, multi-touch PC table, is the latest in education technology for three- and four-year-olds currently undergoing testing as part of the University of Maine at Farmington’s Early Childhood Program.
The Kaplan Early Learning Company’s newly developed Engage-2 multi-touch table was provided for use and research in the Sweatt-Winter classroom at UMF, which serves as a lab school for college students in teacher education.
The table and programming were sent to UMF’s Education Center in the spring to give time for the teachers to understand how it works and then last month was introduced for the first time to the preschoolers, said Donna Karno, assistant professor of early childhood program at UMF.
“The role of the teacher its to facilitate its use,” she said of the new interactive computer screen table. As the youngest students use the new technology, UMF students and their professors in the Early Education Program this fall semester will be observing their interactions. The resulting research will help teachers learn how the new technology can support learning in their classrooms.
The interactive tablet comes pre-loaded with various apps Kaplan developed especially for preschoolers that includes math, science, reading and more. On Tuesday morning, the bubbles that were popped by the porcupines students found among the other animals and touched on the screen are counted up for early number recognition.
Karno stressed the computer program won’t replace the traditional educational programs offered at the preschool, but, instead, is to be used as an extension of it.
The computer programming can be integrated into the lesson themes. Karno said, for instance, as the students learn about autumn- its leaves, pumpkins and the acorn-loving squirrels- the program can reinforce it with similar-themed tasks like grouping images of fall together and counting them.
The new programming and table screen has yet to be tested for classroom use.
“No one’s done research on it before,” Karno said. Even though the young students have just started using the table, there are interesting developments already in evidence.
Although the computer program offers gender-neutral educational tasks, boys have been observed using the table more than girls. Karno said she doesn’t know why. In addition, the collaborative aspect of the computer programming, in which several children work together to complete a task, offers a unique window into the earliest moments of group dynamics.
“It’s important for children to be exposed appropriately,” Karno said of the early computer use, which will become an essential skill throughout the students’ lives.
UMF and Kaplan Early Learning Company will be co-presenting the preliminary results at an international conference next spring in Savannah, Georgia.
