Learning Early

A strong command of technology has quickly become one of the more essential but newer skills for young people to grasp, encompassing everything from calculus to painting. Similar to learning a second language, fluency in technology — whether that be computer programming, artificial intelligence, or robotics — rounds out children’s literacy and, looking towards the future, possibly provides more sound career options. Just as Collegiate teachers are making sure their students can read and write, there are teachers that ensure the students are familiar with the ever-advancing technologies of our time. 

Technology is often seen, by adults and children alike, as some vaporous cloud, a nebulous entity we rely on constantly but don’t understand; we press a button and magic happens. Ellen Wright and Melanie Gregory, the Lower School Technology Integrators, work to make the abstract idea of technology a practical tool students understand and work with daily. It begins as early as Junior Kindergarten, when students, spongelike in their absorption of new ideas, begin learning to code and playing with robots. 

It is both an astonishing and sensible fact that students are introduced to coding practices as young as their JK year at Collegiate. Yet, similar to learning a language, complex concepts are more comprehensible when learned at a young age, especially when introduced in an easily digestible, age-appropriate way. In JK, for example, students learn the concept of logical sequencing — if this happens, then this happens — without looking at a computer, but the practice follows the same principles as code. “Basic coding is sequencing and putting together tools like color blocks,” Gregory explains. “It’s a sequence of steps that conditions students to think in a certain way. It’s repeating patterns in a loop to create some kind of reaction.” 

Throughout each grade in the Lower School, students work with robots and other technologies to understand these sequencing practices. Spread out on the carpeted floor of a classroom, students arrange flat squares of colors into particular lines. In order for a robot to move down this path of colored squares, the colors need to be arranged in a particular order. “They don’t even totally realize what it is they’re learning, but they begin to understand this algorithmic sequencing and this type of thought process,” Wright says of the Lower School’s technology integration. “Making sure a larger, more abstract idea comes to life for them is really important in helping them learn about how technology works. Just getting them thinking about coding in any way at a young age is a strong first building block to technology they will be using throughout Collegiate.” With strong integration practices, working with technology for Lower Schoolers becomes as natural as learning to write an essay. 

As students progress through the division, they interact with technology frequently across all subjects. In art classes, students use an application that allows them to animate elements of paintings; in history and English, students will use robots to help them dictate the historical arc of a particular event. The ubiquity of its uses, introduced at an early age, makes technology feel like an everyday tool for students. “They build foundational technology skills when they’re introduced to these new concepts,” Gregory says. “They have such a mind for curiosity and making connections at this age. They are very eager, and they can easily work with one robot or system and see some sort of pattern between other technologies and disciplines. It’s the concepts generally that, introduced in the Lower School, become more practical as they move through the divisions.”