Abstract
This chapter presents a methodology for the development of activities based on educational robotics: five phases of educational robotics (5PER). First, the authors describe how technology and science have evolved to this day, recognizing their importance, and how they have impacted the schools with approaches such as STEM. Then, the main theories and learning approaches that have driven to the use of educational robotics in schools are reviewed, as well as concepts of robotics, educational robotics, and the difference between them. Finally, each of the five phases are explained, and two practical examples of how to implement them in the development of learning activities are shown.
TopIntroduction
In recent years, the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in education has intensified, framed in what we currently call the knowledge society. (Välimaa & Hoffman, 2008) Initially, many of these applications were aimed to provide better tools for teachers in their classrooms: computers, multimedia projectors, electronic whiteboards, etc. Subsequently, the ICT began to be used as means of learning: the internet generated information and interpretation skills and the simulators developed capacities in the management of virtual environments.(Boud & Prosser, 2002) The problem with these types of technological applications is that relativized the real world. Theories such as Seymurt Papert's constructionism,(Harel & Papert, 1991) gave us a more active and natural approach to learning, his Learning by doing theory promoted the creation of Educational Robotics (ER) as a means of learning, which privileges creativity and experimentation through the design and construction of prototypes.(S. Papert, 1987, 1993; S. A. Papert, 1973, 2020), allowing students to experiment in the real world. Later, with the appearance of STEM as a new interdisciplinary educational approach, different disciplines such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, were encouraged in the classroom. Nowadays, the teaching of these disciplines are currently considered essential for the integral development of people.(Bybee, 2013; Xie, Fang, & Shauman, 2015) In this context, ER allows a more natural approach of students with these areas, initially as a game and then through experimentation, it allows the student to interact with physical phenomena and later propose possible solutions to observed problems and formulate conclusions in a way very similar to the scientific method.(Benitti, 2012; Mikropoulos & Bellou, 2013; S. A. Papert, 2020)
ER has great potential in education, and it is necessary to define a framework that standardizes its use and its relationship with research through experimentation. In the present work, the main objective of the authors is to propose an ER model based on the traditional scientific method called “5 Phases of educational robotics (5PER)” and an example of its implementation in educational environments.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Program: A program is a set of instructions that a computer understands and execute.
Electronics: Electronics allows the addition of senses to the prototype, making it able to detect and recognized its environment.
Robotics: Is the design and construction of machines with a certain degree of intelligence, capable of replacing human beings in certain activities.
Electrical Motor: An actuator that transform electrical energy into mechanical energy.
LED: It is an actuator that allows to generate visible light when it is activated. It is an electronic device of the digital type; this means that it has two states: on (ON) and off (OFF).
Teaching: It is a communicative process, whose purpose is to transmit information to generate knowledge and/or transmit procedures to generate skills.
Pedagogy: it is a social science that studies the methods and techniques applied to teaching.
Algorithm: Algorithm is a finite and ordered sequence of tasks to follow in order to solve a problem.
Technology: Is the set of skills, methods or processes used for the design and construction of machines or services to satisfy human needs.
Microcontroller: It is an intelligent integrated circuit that is programmable. It has implemented a set of instructions that allows it to process information according to a program previously stored in its ROM or RAM memory.