Educational Robotics and the Gender Perspective

In this paper we explore the role of stereotypes in educational choices. Data on secondary school enrollments show that girls are abandoning STEM subjects. There are many reasons for this, including social and family expectations, but also the perception that jobs and careers in technical and scientific sectors will make it hard to take care of a family. This is an important theme for the future. The number of jobs in ICT will increase, and the low quantities of women in these sectors will have a strong impact on the availability of skilled workers, as well as increasing the gender gap. What is the role of school in this context? What activities can get more girls interested in science? We focus, in particular, on how innovative approaches such as educational robotics can help girls engage with STEM subjects, as happened with the “Roberta” project, whose results will be illustrated in this work.

European Recommendations on Robotics and Related Issues in Education in Different Countries

This short paper describes the preliminary phase in an innovative line of research comparing educational robotics in Italy and other countries, from the perspective of media education, and based on the European Parliament recommendations to the Commission on civil law rules on robotics. More specifically, all decision processes that affect digital citizenship should have the support of children and teenagers. For these reasons, this paper looks at the work of a group of Italian high school students in the fifth year of upper secondary school, who formulated a SWOT analysis to highlight their attitudes to robotics issues in relation to the European Union recommendations. This research started in 2018 and will be repeated this academic year with Italian and Congolese students—from the Institut Supérieur des Techniques Appliquées—with a qualitative analysis to establish student attitudes to robotics issues. Qualitative analysis was selected because the SWOT analysis is already divided into information categories, revealing a variety of concepts that are grouped together from the collected data. These results will be compared with any obtained in future years in Italy and other countries, to find further potential patterns.

Growing Deeper Learners. How to Assess Robotics, Coding, Making and Tinkering Activities for Significant Learning

As more and more unstructured project-based activities fill the learning time of students, there is a growing need for assessment models for educational robotics, tinkering, making and coding activities. On one hand, there is a poor understanding or an underestimation of the need for evaluation, and its ability to improve systems and learning outcomes, while on the other, it is difficult to identify or devise suitable assessment frameworks. Examples from the international context are discussed more for their potential to raise awareness than as definitive answers.

Ten years of Educational Robotics in a Primary School

Many researchers and teachers agree that the inclusion of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in early education provides strong motivation and greatly improves the speed of learning. Most primary school curricula include a number of concepts that cover science and mathematics, but less effort is placed in teaching problem-solving, computer science, technology and robotics. The use of robotic systems and the introduction of robotics as a curriculum subject educates children in the basics of technology, and gives them additional human and organizational values. This paper presents a new program introduced in an Italian primary school, thanks to a collaboration with National Instruments and Università Politecnica delle Marche. Specifically, the project’s curricular aim was to improve logic, creativity, and the ability to focus, all of which are lacking in today’s generation of students. The subject of robotics will be part of the primary school’s curriculum for all five years. The program has delivered training to the teachers, and a complete program in which children have demonstrated great learning abilities, not only in technology, but also in collaboration and teamwork.

Study and Development of Robust Control Systems for Educational Drones

This paper considers the problem of attitude and altitude control of quadrotors using the sliding mode control theory. The mathematical model of the quadrotor is derived using the Euler-Newton formalism. The sliding-mode is applied to the Parrot Mambo minidrone, which is a strong example of bringing educational robotics to formal (MATLAB, Python, JavaScript), non-formal (Tynker, Blockly, Swift Playground) and informal education. The control considered shows good performance and enhanced robustness.

From Classroom to Learning Environment

The concept of “space as the third teacher” suggests that the learning environment is as important as the teacher in the learning process. A constructivist pedagogical paradigm requires student-centered learning processes and learners to be autonomous and active. Therefore, more and more stakeholders and policy makers interested in school innovation put school buildings and learning environments at the top of their agendas. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the European Commission and many universities all over the world are observing case studies and promoting guidelines to implement new ways to design and furnish schools. Indire is leading a research project on educational architectures, which promotes a support framework, entitled “1 + 4 Learning Spaces for a New Generation of Schools.” It is aimed at architects, municipalities, school principals and other stakeholders involved in the design, development and use of innovative learning environments.

Chesscards: Making a Paper Chess Game with Primary School Students, a Cooperative Approach

The game of chess can be too theoretical for children and can even be quite a challenge for teachers and chess masters. It is hard to make it approachable and, at the same time, technically correct. The Chesscards educational project arose from these observations, and is intended to be a way to translate chess theory actively, by tinkering with paper and colors. This delightful experience was conducted from 2015 to 2019 with 10-year-olds in a primary school in Rome, Italy, and enabled children to develop good chess skills by cooperating in making. Small groups of children aged 7–10 created playing cards and a paper chessboard along the lines of some of the most famous games. The initiative’s huge success, and the reason it was repeated in these last years, lies in its strictly constructionist approach to making: Chesscards became an original way to learn, and an easy social game that any child can play.

Learning Platforms in the Context of the Digitization of Education: A Strong Methodological Innovation. The Experience of Latvia

The modernization of the education system, the digitalization of the educational environment and learning management systems (LMS), where one of the solutions is learning platforms, are the most urgent directions today’s pedagogical work is taking to reap the benefits of the digital environment. Education quality can be improved in different ways: by changing the content of learning, forms of learning, learning methods and teaching aids; promoting the use of learning platforms in schools; introducing programming and robotics; using learning management systems and other systems. Technologies and digital solutions are transforming the educational landscape in technology-enhanced learning environments. On one hand, there are many possible solutions that provide technology-enhanced learning; while on the other, there is a need to transform educational processes, to transform competence in teaching, to analyze learning outcomes so that technology-enhanced environments can support knowledge construction. The authors of this paper analyze the results of research on learning platforms, in which several research methods were used: systematic literature analyses; development of learning platform evaluation tools; analyses of learning platforms; and surveys on teachers’ attitudes to learning platforms. Altogether 705 teachers expressed their opinion on using learning platforms as a tool for enhancing knowledge construction, providing feedback and analyzing students’ learning results. In this paper, the authors will discuss the results of analyses on nine learning platforms developed in Latvia, conducted using an evaluation tool with 22 criteria and 43 sub-criteria.

Multipurpose Learning Environments for Flexible Didactics

This paper investigates some of the issues and good practices in which 21st-century educational requirements are met by innovative design solutions for learning spaces, and their implications for education.

A New Graphic User Interface Design for 3D Modeling Software for Children

Digital technologies have become a central part of the everyday experience the younger generation children and young people, born and raised in the ITC era, are known as digital natives. At school, this generation prefers active learning instead of being passive recipients of knowledge. This research proposes a new graphic user interface concept for a 3D modeling software program, designed for preschool and early primary school children. The interface of SugarCad Kids was improved to be more understandable, friendly, intuitive and enjoyable to use, in keeping with the principles of human-centered design.