EME INDEX: A TOOL FOR HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE DESIGN ASSESSMENT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

Abstract

This article presents and addresses a new tool that we call the EME index. It is a tool for assessing the design of hardware and software embodied in technological devices employed in the process of teaching robotics and programming to early childhood children. The EMEX index is critical since there is strong momentum in favour of incorporating the teaching of programming and robotics from the early years of schooling. The EME index is one that will rank the designs of technological devices in terms of the type of experience they promote and the appropriation of knowledge and uses they enable. Thus, it involves a kind of evaluation that refers to versatility, access to expansion possibilities, power sources, and assembly, assuming that these features materialize (or not) different learning experiences for the subjects that interact with such devices. The name EME refers to the dimensions of Assembly - Modification - Expansion -which works for evaluating designs.