Educational robotics and computational thinking in early childhood and the home: a study in the digital press

Abstract

The way we access information has changed radically. The digital press, despite having a short history, has managed to consolidate itself in the communicative panorama, allowing society to be informed quickly, continuously and directly. The objective of this work is to discover and know the vision, as well as the benefits and disadvantages, that the main Spanish digital newspapers pour on educational robotics and computational thinking in early childhood and at home. In this research carried out with a qualitative methodology, under an ethnographic-narrative approach, the content of the news on this subject, published in the 20 main Spanish digital newspapers (natives and migrants) has been analyzed through the ATLAS.ti software., during the last 8 months. The main findings show that the insertion of educational robotics in all areas of life is increasing, presenting it as an effective resource to work in all areas, especially STEAM, from early childhood. Similarly, working on computational thinking facilitates the acquisition of skills for personal and professional development. These results show that it is a topic of social interest, although there is little information related to an adequate and effective methodology for the use of these resources with early childhood.