Robotics is one of the key learnings in a world where learners will interact with multiple robotic technologies and operating systems throughout their lives. However, school teachers, especially in ...the elementary and primary education stages, often have difficulties incorporating these tools in the classroom. Four elementary teachers in three schools in Catalonia were trained to introduce robotics in the classroom to seventy-five students. The main actions consisted in classroom accompaniment by a university-trained support teacher, curricular materials’ development, and assessment of the students’ and teachers’ learning. The designed contents and evaluation criteria took into account the potential of educational robotics to improve soft skills and to promote Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) interdisciplinary learning. Teachers perceived the training to be supportive and useful and ended the school year feeling confident with the used robotic platform (KIBO). The assessment of the students’ learning showed an average mark of 7.1–7.7 over 10 in the final evaluation criteria. Moreover, students’ learning was higher in the classes where the teachers had higher initial interest in the training. We present and analyse the actions carried out, with a critical and constructive look at extending the experience to other educational centers.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
The fast-paced evolution of technology has compelled the digitalization of education, requiring educators to interact with computers and develop digital competencies relevant to the teaching–learning ...process. This need has prompted various organizations to define frameworks for assessing digital competency emphasizing teachers’ interaction with computer technologies in education. Different authors have presented assessment methods for teachers’ digital competence based on the video analysis of recorded classes using sensors such as cameras, microphones, or electroencephalograms. The main limitation of these solutions is the large number of resources they require, making it difficult to assess large numbers of teachers in resource-constrained environments. This article proposes the automation of teachers’ digital competence evaluation process based on monitoring metrics obtained from teachers’ interaction with a Learning Management System (LMS). Based on the Digital Competence Framework for Educators (DigCompEdu), indicators were defined and extracted that allow automatic measurement of a teacher’s competency level. A tool was designed and implemented to conduct a successful proof of concept capable of automating the evaluation process of all university faculty, including 987 lecturers from different fields of knowledge. Results obtained allow for drawing conclusions on technological adoption according to the teacher’s profile and planning educational actions to improve these competencies.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
In the context of the science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics disciplines in education, subjects tend to use contextualized activities or projects. Educational robotics and ...computational thinking both have the potential to become subjects in their own right, though not all educational programs yet offer these. Despite the use of technology and programming platforms being widespread, it is not common practice to integrate computational thinking and educational robotics into the official curriculum in secondary education. That is why this paper continues an initial project of integrating computational thinking and educational robotics into a secondary school in Barcelona, Spain. This study presents a project-based learning approach where the main focus is the development of skills related to science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics and the acquisition of computational thinking knowledge in the second year of pupils' studies using a block-based programming environment. The study develops several sessions in the context of project-based learning, with students using the block-programming platform Scratch
. During these sessions and in small-group workshops, students will expand their knowledge of computational thinking and develop 21st-century skills. We demonstrate the superior improvement of these concepts and skills compared to other educational methodologies.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Collaborative work has emerged as a hot research topic in Virtual Learning Communities since it may considerably improve the knowledge quality and experience of students. However, this novel approach ...makes the assessment process challenging (i.e., interactions between virtual students, their achievements, and their profiles have to be properly addressed). The purpose of this paper is to propose a comprehensive Intelligent Tutoring System for Virtual Learning Communities that relies on artificial intelligence techniques which are able to manage the specificities of the collaborative working groups that arise in this domain. These specificities can be summarized in the following four goals: 1) conduct an individualized tracking of every student upon the collected data from his/her profile and daily work, 2) configure the classroom to maximize the performance of all its members, 3) automatically obtain the teacher's feedback about the class operation and possible anomalies, and 4) monitor the working groups behaviour and achievements automatically to redirect their operation when necessary. The framework of the proposed system is described, a proof of concept is presented, and a new virtual student profi le, named as bystander, is identifi ed in preliminary experimentations.
The expectations, attitudes, engagement, and motivation of students are key elements when designing learning activities. Several studies have been implemented and different strategies and activities ...have been analyzed to improve the aforesaid aspects of learning content. In the context of the New Learning Context (NLC), this paper presents the findings of two first day of class activities aimed at engaging engineering students in a business and management subject from the very first moment: an empirical study conducted by means of a survey answered by engineering students in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), followed by an interactive activity between students and instructors carried out through a reciprocal interview activity. The survey was performed with the objective of identifying what they ‘liked’ and ‘disliked’ on their first day of class of a business subject. The findings are presented and compared with previous studies and have proven to be mostly consistent with previous academic work. Finally, a reciprocal interview activity was chosen to potentially enhance the students’ engagement and motivation. According to the feedback received, this activity was positively valued by the students.
•An innovative pure competence evaluation method is proposed.•Introduction of Peer to Peer inter-group and Peer to Peer intra-group evaluation.•Information and Communications Technologies as the base ...of the effective implantation of Active Learning.•The integration of technology in the social context for enhancing learning.•Teacher training in new learning methods.
Teaching methods based on lectures often result in student passivity rather than pro-activity with the only goal of the student being to pass the final exam. Consequently, content retention is temporary and true learning is not achieved. Lack of student motivation can be solved by using Active Learning methodologies: serious games, Project-Based Learning (PBL), blended learning, etc. In addition, these methodologies enhance the development of the competences of students and provide a better evaluation of outcomes, provided adequate tools are used. However, apart from this, a more profound use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is needed to improve the effectiveness of learning and to create a learning system adapted to our current society. Learning Management Systems (LMS), social networks and blogs are indispensable for the efficient application of innovative learning methodologies. The Master in Teacher Training (MTT) provides an ideal case study as the most relevant features of Active Learning are present. The main contributions to this learning environment have been the incorporation of Active Learning methodologies (using real scenarios and project-based collaborative learning), an innovative method for assessing the Master and the impact of technology in learning. All of these have resulted in very positive results in relative to academic marks, surveys and entrepreneurship.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
Collaborative work has emerged as a hot research topic in Virtual Learning Communities since it may considerably improve the knowledge quality and experience of students. However, this novel approach ...makes the assessment process challenging (i.e., interactions between virtual students, their achievements, and their profiles have to be properly addressed). The purpose of this paper is to propose a comprehensive Intelligent Tutoring System for Virtual Learning Communities that relies on artificial intelligence techniques which are able to manage the specificities of the collaborative working groups that arise in this domain. These specificities can be summarized in the following four goals: 1) conduct an individualized tracking of every student upon the collected data from his/her profile and daily work, 2) configure the classroom to maximize the performance of all its members, 3) automatically obtain the teacher's feedback about the class operation and possible anomalies, and 4) monitor the working groups behaviour and achievements automatically to redirect their operation when necessary. The framework of the proposed system is described, a proof of concept is presented, and a new virtual student profi le, named as bystander, is identifi ed in preliminary experimentations.
In this paper we present an educational resource called LSMaker, a caterpillar mobile robot that has been introduced in the curricula of Engineering Education. The platform has been used to link ...subjects, so common tasks and challenges have been defined. We are looking for updating contents and educational methodology, enhancing the motivation of students and not less important, increasing the number of new students in our engineering school. The interdisciplinary nature of the robotic project should facilitate the assimilation of new concepts. We present how this project has introduced in the first year course in La Salle Engineering school, and then we analyse the results obtained after two years of running this educational methodology.
Many of the new teaching methods that currently exist are based on collaborative learning. Indeed, cooperative work adds value to the processes of teaching and learning, allowing the acquisition of ...the Key Skills with greater ease and effectiveness. One of the fundamental factors to implement these methodologies based on cooperative work is the definition and formation of heterogeneous working groups among students. However, this is not a trivial task: the large number of parameters to be taken into account to generate heterogeneous groups in a class is a key parameter that increases the complexity of the task. Currently, this process of group allocation is manually solved by the teaching staff; an individual profile analysis is performed for each student and then each one is assigned to a particular group, which can take more than a week of work when the number of students is around 120. This paper presents a tool that supports the teaching staff in this daunting task and that allows the automatic generation of heterogeneous groups. The tool, its functionalities, the technical processes for development and the decisions to validate its design and obtain satisfactory results are detailed.
In this paper we present the new version of the LSMaker Robot, an educational platform designed by La Salle - Ramon Llull University to be used as facilitator of acquisition of concepts in all ...engineering curricula and, at the same time, a new companion as a robotic classmate. The new version of the LSMaker, named LSMaker EV1, changes from a full customized to an open source Arduino-based hardware. So the paper describes the challenges faced by the original LSMaker, studied the advantages and disadvantages of standardization in front of customization, and gives a description of the new proposed platform.
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