Going hand in hand with the Maker Movement is an initiative by the MIT Design Lab developing Digital Manipulatives. These "tech" versions of Froebel's Gifts allow students to engage in different types of thinking. The basic strategy is to embed computational and communications capabilities into traditional children's toys. By using traditional toys as a starting point, we hope to take advantage of children's deep familiarity with (and deep passion for) these objects. At the same tme, by endowing these toys with computational and communications capabilities, they hope to highlight a new set of ideas for children to think about.
MIT Design Lab Digital Manipulatives
Introduction
AWalk into any kindergarten, and you are likely to see a diverse collection of "manipulative materials." You might see a set of Cuisenaire Rods: brightly colored wooden rods of varying lengths. The colors and lengths of the rods are carefully chosen to engage children in explorations of arithmetic concepts and relationships. Children discover that each brown rod is the same length as two purples -- or four reds. On the next table, you might see a set of Pattern Blocks. Children can use these polygon-shaped tiles to create mosaic-like patterns -- and, in the process, learn important geometric concepts.
As children build and experiment with these manipulative materials, they develop richer ways of thinking about mathematical concepts such as number, size, and shape. But there are many important concepts that are very difficult (if not impossible) to explore with these traditional manipulative materials. In particular, traditional manipulatives generally do not help children learn concepts related to dynamics and systems. Usually, these concepts are taught through more formal methods -- involving manipulation of abstract symbols, not physical objects. As a result, these concepts are accessible only to older students, with more mathematical expertise.
This paper discusses a new breed of manipulative materials that we call "digital manipulatives." These new manipulatives -- with computational power embedded inside -- are designed to expand the range of concepts that children can explore through direct manipulation, enabling children to learn concepts that were previously considered "too advanced" for children. The paper begins with a brief history of the educational uses of manipulative materials, then discusses several digital manipulatives that our research group has developed.
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