Different manipulative materials engage children in different types of thinking. According to an old saying: "Give a person a hammer, and the whole world looks like a nail." Similarly, give a child Cuisenaire Rods, and arithmetic relationships become more salient for the child. Give a child Pattern Blocks, and geometric relationships become more salient.
Our goal in designing new "digital manipulatives" is to make a new set of concepts salient for children. Our basic strategy is to embed computational and communications capabilities in 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 time, by endowing these toys with computational and communications capabilities, we hope to highlight a new set of ideas for children to think about.
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Programable Beads
One of these digital manipulatives is the programable bead. With traditional beads, children create colorful but static patterns. The Programable Beads are designed to engage children in creating dynamic patterns. Each Programable Bead has a built-in microprocessor and LED, and it communicates with it's neighboring beads by simple inductive coupling. String beads together in different ways and you get different dynamic patters of light. Some beads pass the light to the next bead along the string, other beads reflect the light back, still other "swallow"the light. Some beads pass the light with a particular probability. A slight change in the behavior or placement of one of the beads can lead to an entirely different pattern of activity in the overall collection.