Application Of IoT Technology And Data Mining For 3~4 Years Old Children’s ’Give-N’ Games

“Give-N” is a popular math game in kindergarten;however,the current play material lacks playfulness as well as a feedback mechanism that cannot help achieve the educational purpose.This research uses the Internet of Things(Io T)to improve the playfulness of the “Give-N” toy and enhance the effectiveness of children’s exploration by designing feedback mechanisms and increasing children’s engagement in play.At the same time,by analyzing the data automatically collected throughout the play,this research provides practical experience in using Io T to evaluate children’s learning and development.The research process can be divided into three phases:Phase One: Exploring the implementation of Io T technology in “Give-N” toy designing and evaluating the playfulness of this toy.First,redesign the common-used“Given-N” toy in kindergarten—“little train toy” based on the RFID technology,to achieve three functions:(1)automatic collection of data throughout children’s play;(2)self-selection of play task,inspire children’s autonomous learning during the play;(3)feedback provided for children to inform “right” or “wrong” answers.Second,the researcher forms a research community with the kindergarten teachers and observes children’s play.Then the researcher uses statistical analysis to analyze the data collected from 20 3～4-year-old children when they play with the “little train toy” with and without feedback.The outcome indicates that the combination of Io T and toys can increase playfulness while remaining the realness of children’s play.Phase Two: Exploring the method to evaluate children’s “Give-N” ability through the behavioral data collected by RFID during their play and investigating the influence of feedback on the enhancement of “Give-N” ability.First,research uses187 3～4-year-old children as subjects.By collecting the procedure data during the play and using the ability level developed through the classical “Give-N” test as an indicator,this research carries out data mining on children’s “Give-N” ability.This research uses Python to construct a decision tree model,which divides children’s“Give-N” ability into six levels.And this model is proved to be effective.Second,this research investigates whether feedback can enhance children’s “Give-N” performance.This research uses 60 children age 3～4 with "Give-N" ability ranges from level 1-4 as subjects.Three parallel groups—group with feedback,group without feedback,and control group—participate in the “Give-N” game for 10 times,the change of their ability level during the process is examined.Research finds the change of ability levels significantly varies across three groups,which suggests that feedback can effectively improve children’s “Give-N” performance.Phase three: using the procedure data collected throughout the play,this research investigates whether children’s behavior in different “Give-N” game contexts can be used to predict their learning style.Research designs two different contexts--“single play” and “competitive play”,and uses 41 3～4-year-olds as subjects.Through data mining,the research constructs a regression model that reflects how children’s behavior can indicate their learning style.The results show that children’s differences in play behavior in different contexts can reflect the score of effortful control.The research suggests that the combination of data collected by Io T and appropriate toy design can help effectively extract children’s learning styles and improve the evaluation of children’s learning.In conclusion,this research applies Io T in redesigning the “Give-N” toy.On the one hand,using technology can enhance the playfulness and the educational function of a toy;on the other hand,technology can help with effective evaluation by automatically collecting procedure data of children’s play.The involvement of Io T can ensure the realism of play,and at the same time,enrich children’s learning experience,also reflects children’s autonomy in learning.More importantly,teachers and parents can better understand children’s learning process and development through the data,so that they can better support their growth.This research put up new directions for future research on how to use information technology to support young children’s learning and development.