What is Bee-Bot?
Bee-Bot is a versatile programmable resource that can be used to engage children in a range of cross curricular learning activities (Fennel & Evan, 2011). This bee shaped robot is child-friendly making it easy to control with ‘four movement commands and three control commands’ moving Bee-Bot forward, backward, left and right (Williams, 2017). This helps reduces complexity and puts more focus on the practice of learning on how to problem solve and build students’ fluency (Sehnalova, 2014). In addition to problem solving, Bee-Bots can act as a starting point to teach not only computing and programming but also the development of creativity, cooperation and communication (Williams, 2017). Bee-Bot is a robotic toy can encourage an innovative mind and enthusiasm to ICT and to the many different domains of learning.
http://blogs.parkschoolcommunity.net/pie/2016/12/15/hour-of-code-beebots-in-the-prek-classroom/
How can Bee-Bot be used to foster creativity in education?
Bee-Bot can help develop creative and critical thinking skills (Williams, 2017). The way Bee-Bot functions allow teachers to use it as an open-ended resource to encourage and expose children to learning with a multitude of options. This is important as student learning is not restricted and further encourages them to become more creative by creating their own command sequence. Furthermore, creativity is also fostered when learning is meaningful and reflective (Davies, 2014). As students program Bee-Bot and observe, this visual process enables students to reflect and get feedback on their programming aurally and/or visually instantly.
Beghetto & Kaufman (2013) emphasised that creativity is frequently associated with enjoyment and engagement. Comparably, the nature of Bee-Bot encourages playful and continued engagement. The robot can be altered across different learning activities including role play and imaginative play. This helps increases ‘participation and dynamism’ in the classroom creating a more meaningful learning experience (Rachel, 2015).
The videos below show how Bee-Bot can be used
What are the pedagogical issues of Bee-Bot?
Bee-Bot provides for open ended thinking and encourages a reflective process in education. The difficulty of the activities can be improved to differentiate for certain individual and learning experiences. As students engage and attempt to solve problems with Bee-Bot their creativity are enhanced.
However, it is important to consider that Bee-Bot’s appeal does not sustain students’ motivation and attention for long (Jung & Won, 2018). This highlights that the Bee-Bot solely will not assure a meaningful learning experience. Similar to other toys, the simplistic design of the Bee-Bot can be unexciting after some time. Therefore, it is important to ensure that learning opportunities using Bee-Bots are new and challenging to students.
References
Beghetto, R. A., & Kaufman, J. C. (2013). Fundamentals of Creativity. Educational Leadership, 70(5), p. 10-15.
Davies. D., Jindal-Snape. D., Digby, Howe. R., Collier. A., & Hay. C. (2014). The roles and development needs of teachers to promote creativity: A systematic review of literature. Teaching and Teacher Education, 41(C), p. 34-41.
Fennel, S., & Evans, D. (2011). Robotics 3.0. Project Report 2011. Macquarie ICT Innovations Centre, p. 1-49.
Jung. S. E, & Won. E. S. (2018). Systematic Review of Research Trends in Robotics Education for Young Children. Sustainability, 10(4), p. 905.
Rachel. S. (2015). Role-Play and Student Engagement: Reflections from the Classroom. Teaching in Higher Education, 20(5), p. 481-492.
Sehnalova, V. (2014). USING ICT IN EDUCATION OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN. Journal of Technology and Information Education, 6(1), p. 4-18.
Williams, H. (2017). From No Fear Coding : Computational Thinking Across the Curriculum. International Society for Technology in Education.
Thi's EDUC362 Blog 
Thi,
Profoundly shows that beebot is an excellent resource for fostering creativity as it allows students to work on their directions without being restricted. This resource can be used in all key learning aspects creating an efficient resource which engages them into the learning experiences. She further explores the limitations of the resource as well as the benefits to our learning environment.
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Hi Thi,
What an insight into Bee-Bots! Through your blog, I can clearly see how Bee-Bots fosters creativity. I liked how you identified both positive and negative aspects of using Bee-Bots in the classroom. In my opinion, these will work really well in younger age groups but older age groups will need challenging tasks like you said. Maybe a challenging task can be finding the quickest route from the school to the shops by using maps. This can also be a competition if the students need motivation. I also liked how you provided multiples examples of how Bee-Bot can be used across the KLAs. It seems straightforward to integrate Bee-Bot in the classroom and does not need extensive instruction or direction. I will definitely be using this in my future classroom!!
Awesome work!
Candy 🙂
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