Here is the first meeting type,
done by creating a simple circle
and asking the children many questions
aimed to create a connection
between what they know about concrete life
and conceptions like memory, Google, computer, internet,
which have substantially smoothed over
... a sort of Russian salad.
At a certain point we took an old computer
which they were free to explore.
They got excited,. It was put on a table
and the pieces were disassembled and commented,
always using the same question-baseed approach.
Spontaneous groups were formed
with the aim to deepen certain aspects
After about an hour, the children were invited
to sit in a circle,
thing that they speedily did, with my great amazement
because they were really enthusiastic about what they were doing
and we suggested to make a survey.
They all volunteered to go to the blackboard.
Luckly, the teachers selected a few
because I wouldn't have known how to handle that.
The survey was about their habits, the video games
and computer they use, tablets, and so on.
In the following sequence, we see the second meeting type
where the children are offered the four computer kits
and theas well as four video cameras.
Children are divided into four groups of four
and the roles are well assigned:
one child records the video; one writes the story;
one draws and the last one works on
building the computer or operates on it eventually-
Then assembling process proceeds
and the role of the different parts is explained to the children.
The children build, write, document,
and as you can see, this is a slow approach.
We also suggest them to use the instruction manual
that they must try to follow.
The booklet is written in English but the illustrations are very clear.
This also allows us to discuss the meaning of some English words.
They get help if they ask for it
but always according to the principle of minimal intrusion,
simply showing them how to operate
but letting them complete the task
and actually do the work.
Always, or almost always, they achieved the goal,
and with great concentration, as can be seen with this little girl.
Collaboration is great too: hands helping one another,
not clashing,; collaboration between the different roles.
I can't deny I was deeply impressed
by the diligence of these children.
Nothing to do with the idea I got from the public discourse
about children bad manners, restlessness, superficiality.
I felt that if children are respected as persons
and if they are offered things related to their own reality,
they are also, to my mind, very, very disciplined.
Asconcerning the myth that digital natives refuse to use the instruction manual:
it depends. If they are put in a situation where they can take advantage from it, they will use it.
as, for instance, in rder to resolve the not easy task
of attaching correctly the delicate jack
of the audio speaker to the computer's board
a delicate operation.
Roles were managed naturally:
for instance, if a child got tired of making video recordings
and another -- like this little girl -- asked to take over,
we let them do it.
Once the computer was built, time was over, or almost over,
so it was time for reading the texts.
As it was late, I offered to disassemble the computers myself.
To my surprise, the children asked instead
if they could disassemble them themselves.
And they did it with an impressive accuracy.
I found some boxes -- they all put everything back
but some put all parts back
exactly as they found them, with all the wires coiled
and each part at the right place.
In the last part, the narrations were read
the drawings were shown.
The monitors got connected only during the following meeting.
Computers were built more quickly
because the children were already experts in that
and then the monitors got connected, and thus they were able to
start exploring them.
They immediately found a game, Minecraft,
with which they obviously started at once to play
and in that case we let them play freely
so that they could find a link with the world they know.