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Stops 7–8 · Capture, share and play · 18–24 minThe screen is a doorway, not the room.Documentation and play that grow the same ideas
Two things happen after a Dilon lesson. Children capture their own learning and take it home to their families, and other moments of play, like Beebots, keep building digital citizenship and early AI literacy.
Children document. Families see it.
Our latest change is in how technology documents learning. Children can choose what to capture with photos, short videos or drawings, using a safe grip, mount or adult help that works for them. Then the documentation goes offline: printed pictures they can hold, sequence and explain later. And the part they love most is sharing it with their parents.
The idea grew from a workshop I attended, Dr Nair Cordoso’s Beyond the Screen: Strategic Frameworks for Balancing Sensory Pedagogy and EdTech: the device captures the moment, and the thinking happens with people.
Children’s own photographs are also a long-standing way of listening to under-fives, including children with communication difficulties or who are learning English (Clark & Moss, 2001).
- Snapchild-ledChildren choose what to capture, and ask before photographing a friend.
- PrintofflineA few photos come off the screen and onto the carpet.
- Talk backwith people“What were you doing? What happened next? What would you change?”
- Sharewith familiesChildren show their parents, in their own words.
- Choosemy picture, my say“Is this picture okay to share?” Faces stay off anything that leaves the room.
- What were you doing here?
- What happened next?
- What would you change?
- Who would you like to show?
- Is this picture okay to share?
- Wait at least five seconds. Silence is thinking.
- Pointing, gesture and acting it out are complete answers.
- Write the child’s words exactly, in any language.
- Follow your media consent for anything that goes home.
Send a question with the photo: “Can you show me what you made? How did you do it?” Families get a window into learning, and children practise telling the story of their own work.
Family resourcesFrom screen to Beebot
A Dilon episode said there are many ways to explore technology and encouraged children to try. Later, classrooms received Beebot sets. This time, children knew they could take what the screen had shown them and use it, without hesitation, in the real world.
They played, learned simple sequencing and built their own paths for their bees. More than any animated lesson, this is the goal, and the first place I saw the impact with my own eyes.
In a small pilot, 5- and 6-year-olds who took part in 13 Bee-Bot sessions improved on working memory and inhibition, though without a control group it can’t show the robots caused it (Di Lieto et al., 2017).
On screenDilon invites children to try.
In handBeebots arrive in class.
Their ownChildren design paths.Rosie’s Walk, with a Beebot
Before the Beebots, a lesson explored what robots are, themed on Pat Hutchins’ Rosie’s Walk: a hen strolls around the farmyard, never noticing the fox behind her. Children lay out her farm and program a Beebot to retrace her walk in story order.
- Lay the six farm tiles edge to edge. The hen house is START.
- One Beebot press = one 15 cm tile. A turn is a quarter turn on the spot.
- Press CLEAR before every new program.
Move a pretend bee by hand, or program the Beebot one step from the hen house. Count together.
Retell the walk in story order with arrow cards, then program it.
Move a tile and write a program for a partner. Can they debug it?
Film it with two gentle hands, then ask: “How did it know where to go? Who told it?” People programmed it: the seed of “people made it”.
Tiles and arrow cards (table kit)Where digital citizenship and AI literacy overlap with play
The same loop works from Nest to Year 2: story, play, capture, talk back, home. What changes is who holds the device and how much children explain.
| Moment | Nest & Nursery · 2–3 | Reception · 4–5 | Year 1 · 5–6 | Year 2 · 6–7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Story | A two-minute Dilon clip on the carpet. | “Remember when?” What did Dilon ask us? | A story where a character uses an app. | A story we credit: whose idea was it? |
| Play | Battery-free pretend tech in role play. | Beebots on a story mat; a pretend smart speaker. | Beebot routes for a partner to debug. | A maze with written instructions for another team. |
| Capture | The adult holds the iPad; the child points. | Children capture a path with adapted support. | A short “how we did it” clip. | Ask before filming a friend; add a caption. |
| Talk back | One printed photo: “What were you doing?” | Sequence three prints: first, then, last. | “What would you change?” | Photo plus their own words, shared at pick-up. |
| Home | Return things to Dilon or a grown-up. | Charging-cabinet helpers; “not sure? grab a grown-up”. | An “apps we use” wall. | A class agreement for devices. |
