Using the Internet for Communicative Learning Activities in Kindergarten: The Case of the “Shapes...

Fesakis, G., Sofroniou, C., & Mavroudi, E. (2010). Using the Internet for Communicative Learning

Activities in Kindergarten: The Case of the “Shapes Planet”. Early Childhood Education Journal, 38(5),

385-392. doi:10.1007/s10643-010-0422-0

1

Using Internet for Communicative Learning Activities in Kindergarten: The case of

the “Shapes planet”

Abstract

With the widespread of the Internet, more and more children get acquainted with its

various uses at a young age while an increasing number of teachers are designing

learning activities that utilize various internet services. Towards this direction, teachers

need practical examples of pedagogically verified learning activities. The paper presents

an experimental case study of a learning activity meant for teaching preschoolers

geometric concepts, which utilizes a couple of communication tools of the Internet. The

activity constitutes a developmentally appropriate adaptation of a successful model

known as “MonsterExchange”, to kindergarten. The paper presents the proposed

adaptation, the experimental findings regarding the errors children made and the

difficulties they encountered and finally, the drawings that children produced, with the

aim of evaluating the appropriateness and the learning value of the activity.

Keywords: Internet, Geometry education, Kindergarten, Educational Design, ICT

Introduction

With ICT and the internet becoming ubiquitous in contemporary world cultures,

children become exposed to new technologies at a more and more young age, both in

school and outside school. Original concerns as well as the effort to keep young children

away from ICT seem to have given way to an effort to determine exploitations of ICT

that are both useful and effective in the educational process (Clements, 1994), which -in

turn- has brought into forth the issue of designing learning activities towards this

direction. In contemporary educational literature this issue is referred to as “learning

design” and has aroused as one of the most significant evolutions of e-learning (Harper &



385-392. doi:10.1007/s10643-010-0422-0

2

Oliver, 2002; Laurillard, 2002)

Incorporating ICT into teaching practice requires approaches that, on one hand, are

validated within the specific framework of their application conditions and, on the other

hand, take into thorough consideration both the administration and implementation

actions required by teachers. Educators need simple and practical design models which

they, themselves are able to adapt. However, in order to lead to learning experiences that

are both effective and appealing to students, design models should emphasize not only on

students-content interaction but on the conversational aspects of learning as well. Various

activity models of this kind, such as webquests, learning projects, etc are surveyed in

Fessakis and Dimitrakopoulou (2009). For the special case of learning activities that

utilize internet, there are many interesting activity models (Grabe & Grabe, 1998; Harris

1998, 2009) that are not usually designed for preschoolers.

The present paper focuses on the experimental study of a specific learning activity

(adaptation of a more general model known as “MonsterExchange”) that puts emphasis

on the use of the internet as a communication tool -instead of just a huge information

recourse- and is developmentally appropriate for preschool age. In the followings, after a

short description of the activity, the developmental adaptation of the model to the pre-

school age is presented and the outcomes of an experimental application of the proposed

activity follow. The purpose of this paper is twofold, first, to inform teachers about this

specific category of activities and second -and most important- to provide experimental

pedagogical evaluation of a specific activity which takes advantage of the communication

potential of the internet.



385-392. doi:10.1007/s10643-010-0422-0

3

The Description of the Monster Exchange Activity and Its Developmental

Adaptation to Preschoolers

What is Monster Exchange?

John Thomson and Brian Maguire came up with the idea of Monster Exchange in

1995, during their participation in an educational project. It was basically intended to

develop writing skills and to cultivate children's imagination. The whole function of the

project is based on the http://www.monsterexchange.org site. The implementation of the

activity needs two groups, the students of first group design an imaginary monster, then

they write a description of their monster and send their description to the second group

via e-mail. The students of the second group are challenged to translate the written

description into a monster picture. The picture of the monster that the students of the

second group produce, is then sent back to the first group. Both the original and the

redrawn pictures of the monster, together with the written descriptions are -at this point-

published on the site by the first group. The two groups compare their drawings through

verbal descriptions. The game can go on with the two groups exchanging roles. Using the

pretext of monster exchanges, students practice their writing and reading comprehension

skills while at the same time they become familiar with various ICT applications and

communication services of the internet.

Developmental Adaptation of the MonsterExchange Activity to Preschoolers

From the description of the MonsterExchange activity it becomes obvious that

participating students have at least basic written language skills. This makes the activity

developmentally inappropriate for most preschoolers. Furthermore, allowing free

drawing of monsters runs the risk of ending up to descriptions that are rather complex, a

http://www.monsterexchange.org/



385-392. doi:10.1007/s10643-010-0422-0

4

fact that might lead to activities that are particularly difficult for younger children and

thus less engaging. Therefore, in order to be able to apply the activity to younger

children, a developmentally appropriate adaptation is required. The developmental

adaptation of the activity is described here below.

The written language issue: The basic point of the adaptation is the substitution

of the written descriptions by oral, recorded ones. That is, after they have drawn a

monster -instead of writing- students of the first group record their description,

while students of the partnered class are asked to follow the recorded instructions

in order to reproduce the drawing. An audio-recording software or device,

suitable for preschoolers, is necessary for the implementation of the activity.

The complex descriptions issue: What constitutes another issue, is the

production of descriptions that are both short and relatively clear. A proposal to

address this issue is to restrict the drawing of monsters to synthesis of basic

geometric shapes. Furthermore, the description of monsters may be structured so

as to include the basic parts of a body only: head, neck, main body, arms and legs.

In addition to limiting the length of the descriptions, the use of geometric shapes

adds mathematical content to the activity, making it compatible with common

curricula and the international standards (National Council of Teachers of

Mathematics, 2000) for preschoolers.

Other issues of developmental adaptation: Another issue is the use of the

various internet services. Teachers are supposed to use e-mail, webpages

browsing, uploading facilities (to upload both the recorded descriptions and the

drawings) in ways that foster children’s involvement. Finally, in order to have an



385-392. doi:10.1007/s10643-010-0422-0

5

authentic activity that remains attractive throughout the whole process, it is

proposed that the activity is situated in a story which would present it in a game-

like form and would thus facilitate the involvement of the children in a long

lasting and multiple steps process.

Following the above principles, we have designed an activity named “The

ShapesPlanet” which is shortly described in table 1.

==> Insert Table 1 about here <==

The Design Documentation From the Didactics of Mathematics Perspective

According to the international NCTM standards for geometry (NTCM 2000;

Clements & Sarama, 2000a), children in the PreK-2 should be able to recognize, name,

build, draw, compare and sort two- and three-dimensional shapes. The proposed activity

aims to help young children get acquainted with the names of the basic geometric shapes

and to foster both the mental process of geometric concepts and the development of a

dialogue around shapes.

The Development of the Geometric Knowledge

From the psychology of learning in geometry perspective, preschoolers have

acquired the 1st and -to a small extend- the 2

nd van Hiele level (van Hiele, 1986). More

specifically, children at first level (visualization) are able to recognize shapes by their

overall appearance only and often compare them with a known prototype. For example,

they may state that a shape is rectangular because it looks like a door (Clements &

Sarama, 2000b). Shapes properties cannot be perceived. At the same time, students at

second level, (Analysis) perceive shapes holistically while they start recognizing basic

properties of shapes. During the description of an object, a student at this level, may



385-392. doi:10.1007/s10643-010-0422-0

6

mention all the properties of a shape that he/she happens to know but he/she is not able to

tell the properties that define a specific shape.

Clements and Sarama (2000b) on the other hand, have conducted studies with

preschoolers and propose the following three levels with regard to geometry learning: 1)

Prerecognition stage: Children at this age perceive shapes but have difficulties in

recognizing shapes or distinguishing among many shapes. They usually draw the same

irregular curve whether they draw a circle or square or triangle. 2) Visual stage: Children

at this age -as in van Hiele level 1- recognize shapes as figures. 3) Descriptive stage:

Children at this stage are able to recognize and describe shapes based on the shapes'

properties. For example, a child may think of a square as a figure which is made out of

two pairs of equal sides and all right angles. Children experience greater problems with

shapes that are “similar”, such as squares and rectangles (Clements & Sarama, 2000b). It

is important to mention that the path through these stages depends on the education and

does not simply evolve as a result of age maturing (Clements & Sarama, 2000b).

The description of the levels reveals that the proposed learning activity helps

children practice at the 1st van Hiele level or the 2

nd Clements and Sarama stage.

Gradually, children may start working at the 2nd

van Hiele level or the 3rd

Clements and

Sarama stage, in case -for example- in their verbal descriptions, shapes are not referred to

by their explicit names but are described through their properties.

Computers and Geometry

There are numerous studies dealing with the utilization of computers in geometry

learning, the majority of which focus on the use of special dynamic geometric shapes

design software (Clements & Sarama, 2000b) or on the use of logo-like environments.



385-392. doi:10.1007/s10643-010-0422-0

7

Most studies yield positive results about the learning value of software in geometry.

Since the proposed activity does not use/require any special software about geometry and

besides, it puts emphasis on the communication aspects of ICT, a detailed review of these

studies goes beyond the scope of the present work.

Experimental Application

Aiming to confirm the pedagogical value of the activity and test the hypotheses made

during the design phase, an experimental application of the activity has been tried out and

is described here below. At first, the objectives and the methodology of the research

approach are explained, then the data collection methods used in the study are described

and finally, the research findings are presented and analyzed.

Objectives and Research Questions

The main objectives of the experimental application of the activity were: to obtain a

pedagogical validation of the activity, to document its learning value, to highlight

problems not foreseen at the design phase, to record difficulties encountered during the

application of the activity in a real setting and last, to detect possible expansions as well

as improvements of the activity. The basic questions posed, are:

1. Is the proposed activity, applicable and appropriate for preschoolers?

2. Is the activity worthwhile with respect to learning outcomes? More precisely,

does it give the chance for (i) detection of the children’s van Hiele level, (ii) the

development of dialogue around geometric shapes, and (iii) the evolution of

children's level in geometry?

3. Are children able to verbally describe shapes' syntheses and vice versa, to redraw

a synthesis based on recorded descriptions made by others.



385-392. doi:10.1007/s10643-010-0422-0

8

4. Does the proposed activity constitute an authentic and attractive challenge that

can actively engage children?

Methodology

To address the research questions, the method of case study has been selected. Case

studies provide the opportunity for a short-term and an in-depth analysis of one aspect of

a problem (Bell, 1997). What is of primary concern within the framework of a case

study, is the interaction between factors and events and, as Nisbet and Watt (1980) point

out, “sometimes it is only by taking a practical instance that we can obtain a full picture

of this interaction”. Therefore, case study research is considered an appropriate method

for the present work.

Research Conditions

The study took place on April and May 2009. Two dyads coming from different

classes participated in the study (table 2). Children have been selected by their normal

teacher so they have typical mathematical ability and are referred to by pseudonyms.


Three types of sources have been used for research data collection: 1) Video of

children’s interaction (on-screen users' actions, expressions and dialogues during the

activity, captured by the camera and the microphone of the system) recorded via a

recording software (Techsmith Camtasia StudioTM

), 2) Children 's drawings and 3)

Children’s recorded descriptions of the drawings.

Research data analysis

This section presents the main findings from the research data analysis. First, the

recorded actions of the children are analyzed. More precisely, the errors as well as the



385-392. doi:10.1007/s10643-010-0422-0

9

difficulties that children encountered are presented and their drawings are analyzed. The

phases appearing in the analysis of the research data correspond to the different stages of

the experimental application of the activity.

Children’s Errors

Table 3 shows children’s errors grouped per group and phase of the activity.


From data on table 3, it can be observed that:

1. Errors show up with different frequencies. Most frequent errors include the

confusion of shapes and they are in accordance with Clements and Sarama's

findings, mentioned in a previous section. What constitutes a typical error is the

confusion of shapes that are hierarchically related: parallelogram, rectangular,

rhombus, square. The least frequent errors include the confusion of colors and the

wrong attribution of the number of the appearance of some features.

2. The frequency of the errors decreases as the activity proceeds. The children made

quite a lot of errors at the beginning of the activity, despite the fact that the

activity took place at the end of the school year and the children had already been

engaged in geometry activities throughout the whole year. Thus, the decrease of

errors over the various phases of the activity is an indicative factor of the learning

value of the activity, which gives children a chance to use the names of some

shapes in an authentic and dialectic frame.

Difficulties Encountered by Children



385-392. doi:10.1007/s10643-010-0422-0

10

Table 4 shows children’s difficulties grouped per group and phase. From data on

this table, it can be observed that some difficulties concern the names of shapes while

most of them are related to user interface.


The names of shapes category include the use of informal names for shapes, e.g.

slanting for parallelogram, diamond for rhombus etc, as well as cases in which children

asked how a shape looked like or looked in the palette for a shape which they were

unable to locate. Difficulties related to software usage include the determination of the

fill and/or outline color of a shape, its dimensions scaling (by dragging the appropriate

tool) and the very interesting case of the creation of two identical shapes. From table 4,

it seems that, as the activity progress, while general difficulties decrease, difficulties

related to computer usage decrease at a higher rate.

Evaluation of Children's Drawings

In this section we focus on the drawings that children made during the activity. The

presentation is structured around the phases of the activity.

Phase 2: I Imagine and draw the playful girl monster. During the second phase

children are asked to draw the playful girl monster, first on paper each one by itself and

later on, using a software. The playful girl monster appears in figure 1a while children’s

drawings appear in figures 1b-1e.

====> Insert Figure 1 about here <====

Remarks upon the drawings of group A (figures 1b & 1c). Children’s drawings -as

of course they should- resemble each other. They have quite a few differences though.



385-392. doi:10.1007/s10643-010-0422-0

11

Starting from the head one may see that C1 put 3 horns instead of 2 and some triangles

as earrings, an element that was not part of the recorded description. While the direction

asked for square eyes, both children drew round eyes. This may be attributed to the fact

that natural eyes are round. Furthermore, the mouth looks more like a rectangle than a

trapezoid. Both children drew necks that looked more like ellipses than circles. As for

the main body, both children followed the instruction and tried to make a big yellow

triangle. The resulting drawing, nevertheless, resembled more the human body than a

triangle.

Remarks upon the drawings of group B (figures 1d & 1e). In this case, C2's

drawing does not have colors. C2 declared that he didn't want to use other colors

because black was the only color he liked. While trying to draw the neck -that he made

look more like an ellipse than a circle- C2 covered the mouth of the monster. For the

main body, C2 made the correct shape but put 3 instead of 7 dots. C1 drew a rectangular

instead of a triangle but he used the right color and the correct number of dots. He also

drew correct arms and one may see his clear effort to draw squares. C2, on the contrary,

made the hands look more like rectangles and physical.

Generally speaking, we may say that children successfully followed the directions

and that the difficulties they encountered were either common age-related difficulties in

drawing or, trends related to anthropomorphism. So it seems here, the difficulties that

young children face in drawing by hand, may interfere with the process of learning

geometry by “introducing noise” into the communication among participants. Software

that allows children to produce drawings by combining basic geometric shapes, at this

point, has a clear advantage over drawing by hand.



385-392. doi:10.1007/s10643-010-0422-0

12

Making the same drawings using a drawing software. Both groups went on to

make one drawing each, in drawing software, following the recorded directions and their

drawings on the paper as well. The creation of one drawing per group gives children the

opportunity to collaborate more intensively. Children’s drawings produced in this phase,

appear in figures 2a-2b.

====> Insert Figure 2 about here <====

The software provides users with ready-to-use shapes, which children used to build

up their drawings, thus avoiding to give anthropomorphic view to their overall work, as

they had done in their handmade drawings. Still, children of the first group drew

polygonal eyes instead of square ones and a square mouth instead of a trapezoid one.

The dots were missing from the body, not because the children had not understood this

specific direction, but just because they forgot to do so. Finally, there aren't any errors in

the legs as far as all the features -shape, color and numbers of legs- are concerned.

The second group made a square body instead of a triangle one, because they based

their work mainly on C1's handmade drawing. As soon as they noticed the difference

between their drawings, the two kids listened to the description once again and agreed

on drawing a triangle body, but afterwards they forgot to make the change.

It is, no doubt, easier to make a comparison between the drawings that children

produced with the help of the computer and the original drawing of the playful girl

monster, than between the handmade drawings of the children and the original drawing

of the playful girl monster. The comparison reveals that the children managed -to a large

extend- to comprehend the oral description. Furthermore, the oral description allows for



385-392. doi:10.1007/s10643-010-0422-0

13

multiple compatible versions of the drawings, thus promoting the mental manipulation

of shapes.

Drawings of phases 4 and 5. During phase 3, each group produced a synthesis

which they sent over to the other group for reproduction from the recorded description.

In phase 4 children were expected to reproduce these syntheses. Children produced

syntheses quite similar to the initial, giving strong evidence that they have successfully

completed the assigned task.

To summarize the analysis of children’s drawings, we must point out that, compared

to free drawing, the use of a computer helps children produce more realistic and

geometrically correct shapes. This strengthens their feeling of success and helps

maintain their interest in the activity. In addition, by removing any confusion produced

by the children's difficulties to draw by hand, the drawing software gives more precise

information about their ability to recognize shapes.

Discussion

Despite the widespread and the availability of the Internet and ICT both in school

and outside school, integrating these tools and taking advantage of their potential requires

further actions such as, the development of developmentally appropriate content, the

continuous training and support of teachers and the production of exemplary learning

activities. Teachers need examples of activities as well as material that are adaptable and

would help them smoothly introduce ICT and the Internet in real educational settings.

Taking the above into consideration, we have designed and tested the “Shapesplanet”

learning activity. The activity constitutes an adaptation of a general paradigm known as



385-392. doi:10.1007/s10643-010-0422-0

14

MonsterExchange. The learning content of the activity includes familiarization with ICT

skills, various Internet services and geometry.

From the research findings, the application of the activity may -in general- be

considered successful. The activity gave the children learning opportunities related to

reading, naming and building shapes, use of colors and the concept of number, within an

authentic and attractive communicative framework, which requires the use of the

Internet. With regard to the research questions posed earlier, we may report the

following:

1. Applicability and appropriateness of the proposed activity.

Children that took part in the experiential application of the activity managed to

accomplish all phases of the activity easily and eagerly. Besides, they seemed to

comprehend the activity scenario and -as it came out from the interaction and the

products of the children- they got involved in a quite rich learning activity. So the activity

may be considered fairly applicable and developmentally appropriate.

2. Learning value of the activity

The children errors in selecting the shapes that fit the descriptions as well as in

naming the shapes they wanted, provide rich diagnostic information to teachers and

researchers. During their collaboration, students developed an extended dialogue around

shapes and they also asked the teacher every time they could not find a solution

themselves. Furthermore, students had the chance to get acquainted with the synthesis of

geometric shapes with a computer, the directions recording process and the function of

basic internet services. The decrease, both in the errors that children made and in the



385-392. doi:10.1007/s10643-010-0422-0

15

difficulties they encountered as the activity progressed, constitutes a significant finding as

for the learning value of the activity.

3. Production and comprehension of recorded descriptions concerning shapes

syntheses

Preschoolers managed both to follow the recorded directions and redraw the

corresponding geometric syntheses and to record the descriptions of the syntheses they

had made, as well. The process of the descriptions recording was facilitated by the

splitting of the body into parts (head, neck, main body, arms and legs) as well as by the

restriction of the complexity through the use of basic geometric shapes. As for the

descriptions comprehension process, both the splitting of the body and the possibility of

reproducing the recorded sets of directions may times, proved to be very helpful.

Moreover, the splitting of the body, smoothed out the collaboration between the children,

since it made the division of labor possible.

4. Authenticity and attractiveness of the activity

Children participated actively in the experiment throughout the duration of the

activity. The expressions of their faces and their talk show that they found the activity

interesting and enjoyable. Quite often -until the last meeting when the truth was revealed-

some of the children seemed to doubt the existence of their extraterrestrial friends and

asked questions to the teacher that made her feel inconvenient. Our general feeling is that

-to a large extend- the activity has the potential to foster children's active participation

and that children will find it attractive. Some characteristic extracts of the dialogues

between children are presented here below:

1st day – Group B:

C2: Does this planet exist Alexander?



385-392. doi:10.1007/s10643-010-0422-0

16

C1: I don't know. It must be real, since it looks so nice, how couldn't it be?

C2: Have they really sent us a message?

Teacher: Yes, you will see it at the end!

Last day – Groups A and B:

Group B – C1: Ah...you two were sending things???? (laughing)

…

Group A – C1: I see many differences...we didn't want it orange!

Group B – C1: It wasn't like this...Now you have confused us (they listen to the directions

again.

To conclude with an overall evaluation of the performed activity, we would argue

that our findings strongly indicate that the activity can be applied to real classroom

settings, it is both effective -in terms of learning- and appealing to students and, it also

has the potential of emphasizing on the conversational aspects of learning as well as on

the use of the internet as a communication tool.

A possible future study of alternative applications of the activity could engage a

kindergarten class as a whole. The creation of a website that would provide support to the

interested schools would facilitate the implementation of the activity to a larger scale and

diachronically. The activity could also be applied to older students with the possibility of

working with more complex description of shapes which would be based on shapes

properties. For example, in such an application of the activity students might be asked to

produce a parallelogram as a combination of two triangles. Finally, the learning value of

the activity might be studied more systematically from a didactics of mathematics

perspective, by testing, for example, the initial cognitive state of a larger sample of

participating students and evaluating their learning progress in a more formal way.



385-392. doi:10.1007/s10643-010-0422-0

17

References

Clements, D. (1994). The uniqueness of the computer as a learning tool: Insights from

research and practice. In J. Wright & D. Shade (Eds.), Young children: Active learners

in a technological age (pp. 31-50). Washington, DC: NAEYC.

Clements, D., & Sarama, J. (2000a) The Earliest Geometry. Teaching Children

Mathematics 7(2), 82-87

Clements, D., & Sarama, J. (2000b) Young Children's Ideas about Geometric Shapes.

Teaching Children Mathematics 6(8), 482-491

Grabe, M., & Grabe, C. (1998). Learning with Internet tools: A primer. Boston:

Houghton Mifflin.

Fessakis, G, & Dimitrakopoulou, A. (2009). Learning Activities Design Models that

exploit ICT: A critical review. In A. Kontakos, & Kalabasis F. (Eds.), Instructional

Design Issues (Vol. 3 pp. 311-341). Atrapos. In Greek

Harper, B. & Oliver, R. (2002, December). Reusable Learning Designs: information and

communication; Technologies and their role in flexible learning. Presentation for the

“AUTC Reusable Learning Designs: opportunities and challenges Conference”, UTS,

Sydney. Retrieved January 10, 2010 from

http://www.learningdesigns.uow.edu.au/project/doc/AUTCICTProject.ppt .

Harris, J. (1998). Virtual Architecture: Designing and Directing Curriculum-Based

Telecomputing. ISTE Publications.

Harris, J. (2009). Virtual Architecture’s web home. Retrieved December 10, 2009, from

http://virtual-architecture.wm.edu/.

Bell, J. (1997). Doing your research project: A guide for first-time researchers in the

education and social science. Buckingham: Open University Press

Laurillard, D. (2002). Design Tools for E-learning. Retrieved February 21, 2010, from

http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/auckland02/proceedings/papers/

key_laurillard.pdf

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (2000). Principles and standards for

school mathematics. Reston, VA: Author

Nisbet, J. D., & Watt, J. (1980). Case Study. Rediguide 26, University of Nottingham

School of Education, UK.

van Hiele, P. M. (1986). Structure and insight: A theory of mathematics education.

Orlando, FL: Academic Press



385-392. doi:10.1007/s10643-010-0422-0

18

Table 1. A brief description of the “Shapesplanet” activity

Phase 1: Getting informed about the “Shapesplanet”

The teachers of the two kindergartens set up two groups and inform children that an

unusual e-mail from a “Shapesplanet” has arrived in the mailbox. An electronic

presentation could help for the introduction (a sample can be found at

http://sximatoplanitis.pblogs.gr). In the presentation, the inhabitants of the

“Shapesplanet” introduce themselves by describing their appearance.

Phase 2: I imagine and draw the playful girl monster

One of the inhabitants, the “playful girl monster”, asks children to play a kind of hide-

and-seek. The children should listen to recorded descriptions of the parts of her body

and then try to translate these descriptions into a drawing of her. Finally children

compare their drawings to the original monster that shows up.

Phase 3: How would I look like on Shapesplanet?

Children are asked to draw “monsters” of themselves and to produce a recorded

description for each part of the body of their drawings. This task may be carried out

with the help of a software that supports both vector graphics and audio recording

(Kidspiration for example). At the end of this phase, teachers publish the files

containing the descriptions on a web site (e.g. a blog), or they just send the files over to

the partnered school via e-mail. Children are then asked to listen to these descriptions

and try to translate them into drawings.

Phase 4: How do our friends on Shapesplanet look like?

Children of both groups receive the recorded descriptions and go on trying to reproduce



385-392. doi:10.1007/s10643-010-0422-0

19

the original drawings.

Phase 5: Meeting our extraterrestrial friends

Both the original and redrawn monster pictures, together with the recorded descriptions

are uploaded to the Internet. The students can compare the original picture to the

redrawn one and try to locate differences, comment on the preciseness of their

descriptions etc. In this phase, if the children are not already aware of it, the teachers

reveal that there is no “Shapesplanet” but just another school.

Table 2. The sample

Group Nickname Age (yy:mm)

Group A C1: Konstantinos 06:03

C2: Irene 05:08

Group B C1: Alexander 06:02

C2: George 06:00

Table 3. Children’s errors per group and phase

Error Type Group A Group B TOTAL

Phase 2: I Imagine and draw the playful girl monster

Color 2 1 3

Number of elements 1 0 2

Circle instead of polygon 0 1 1

Rectangle instead of trapezoid 3 0 3

Rectangle instead of triangle 2 0 2

Parall. instead of rectangle 5 1 6

Parall. instead of trapezoid 0 1 1

Polygon instead of circle 1 0 1

Polygon instead of square 1 0 1

Square instead of rectangle 4 0 4

Square instead of polygon 0 2 2 Triangle instead of square 0 1 1

Total of phase 19 7 27


Circle instead of ellipse 1 0 1

Rectangle instead of triangle 1 0 1

Parall. instead of rectangle 0 2 2

Rhombus instead of polygon 1 0 1



385-392. doi:10.1007/s10643-010-0422-0

20

Square instead of rectangle 0 1 1

Trapezoid instead of rectangle 1 0 1



Rectangle instead of polygon 0 1 1

Parral. instead of polygon 0 2 2

Polygon instead of rhombus 1 0 1


Table 4. Difficulties encountered by children, grouped by group and phase

Difficulty in Group A Group B TOTAL

Phase 2: I Imagine and draw the playful girl-monster

Naming a shape 2 5 7

Recalling instructions 4 2 6

Filling a shape with color 2 1 3 Resizing a shape 2 2 4




Resizing a shape 3 0 3

Making shapes of equal size 1 2 3







385-392. doi:10.1007/s10643-010-0422-0

21

Fig. 1a The playful girl monster

Fig. 1b Playful girl monster Group A - C1

Fig. 1c Playful girl monster Group A - C2



385-392. doi:10.1007/s10643-010-0422-0

22

Fig. 1d Playful girl monster Group B - C1 Fig. 1e Playful girl monster Group B - C2

Fig. 2a 1st Group's drawing

Fig. 2b 2nd

Group's drawing

Using the Internet for Communicative Learning Activities in Kindergarten: The Case of the “Shapes...

Documents

Transcript of Using the Internet for Communicative Learning Activities in Kindergarten: The Case of the “Shapes...