Electronic whiteboard in kindergarten: opportunities and requirements

Whiteboards have proven valuable for informal note-taking and sketching. Different electronic and also interactive whiteboards are becoming available for children and their teachers at all school levels. We describe the first experiences of children at a day care centre when using an electronic whiteboard for creative letter recognition in small groups. Though the usability of the tool used in this task was not optimal for smooth drawing together, the constraints the tool posed for the children's group work were also a motive for fruitful dialogue and new learning opportunities. Based on our observations of the groups, we outline opportunities as well as requirements for interactive whiteboards to empower children's collaborative learning at the kindergarten level.

[1]  Jonathan Marsh,et al.  Designing the PenPal: blending hardware and software in a user-interface for children , 1995, CHI '95.

[2]  Thomas P. Moran,et al.  Tivoli: an electronic whiteboard for informal workgroup meetings , 1993, INTERCHI.

[3]  Justine Cassell,et al.  Computer support for children's collaborative fantasy play and storytelling , 1999, CSCL.

[4]  Allison Druin,et al.  Designing a Collaborative Finger Painting Application for Children , 2000 .

[5]  James D. Hollan,et al.  KidPad: a design collaboration between children, technologists, and educators , 1997, CHI.

[6]  Beryl Plimmer,et al.  Computer-Aided Sketching to Capture Preliminary Design , 2002, AUIC.

[7]  Kori Inkpen Quinn,et al.  This is fun! we're all best friends and we're all playing: supporting children's synchronous collaboration , 1999, CSCL.

[8]  Elizabeth D. Mynatt.  The Writing on the Wall , 1999, INTERACT.

[9]  B. Bederson,et al.  Children as our technology design partners , 1998 .

[10]  Jonathan Grudin,et al.  Integration of interpersonal space and shared workspace: ClearBoard design and experiments , 1993, TOIS.

[11]  Allison Druin,et al.  When two hands are better than one: enhancing collaboration using single display groupware , 1998, CHI Conference Summary.

[12]  Norbert A. Streitz,et al.  DOLPHIN: integrated meeting support across local and remote desktop environments and LiveBoards , 1994, CSCW '94.

[13]  John C. Tang,et al.  Videodraw: a video interface for collaborative drawing , 1991, TOIS.

[14]  Marja Kankaanranta,et al.  Information and Communication Technologies in Finnish Early Childhood Environments , 2003 .