First video of the primary school journey towards exploring the computer and its codes.

First discussion in a circle, taking apart an old computer, assembling the Kano educational computers.
The video was filmed in part with the video camera on a tripod, and in part directly by the researcher or by the teachers. It is technically the best video, both because of the type of videocamera used and of the filming technique: static or managed by an "assigned operator".

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.