Proceedings of the International Workshop on EuroPLOT Persuasive Technology for Learning, Education and Teaching (IWEPLET 2013)

"This book contains the proceedings of the International Workshop on EuroPLOT Persuasive Technology for Learning, Education and Teaching (IWEPLET) 2013 which was held on 16.-17.September 2013 in Paphos (Cyprus) in conjunction with the EC-TEL conference. The workshop and hence the proceedings are divided in two parts: on Day 1 the EuroPLOT project and its results are introduced, with papers about the specific case studies and their evaluation. On Day 2, peer-reviewed papers are presented which address specific topics and issues going beyond the EuroPLOT scope. This workshop is one of the deliverables (D 2.6) of the EuroPLOT project, which has been funded from November 2010 – October 2013 by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) of the European Commission through the Lifelong Learning Programme (LLL) by grant #511633. The purpose of this project was to develop and evaluate Persuasive Learning Objects and Technologies (PLOTS), based on ideas of BJ Fogg. The purpose of this workshop is to summarize the findings obtained during this project and disseminate them to an interested audience. Furthermore, it shall foster discussions about the future of persuasive technology and design in the context of learning, education and teaching. The international community working in this area of research is relatively small. Nevertheless, we have received a number of high-quality submissions which went through a peer-review process before being selected for presentation and publication. We hope that the information found in this book is useful to the reader and that more interest in this novel approach of persuasive design for teaching/education/learning is stimulated. We are very grateful to the organisers of EC-TEL 2013 for allowing to host IWEPLET 2013 within their organisational facilities which helped us a lot in preparing this event. I am also very grateful to everyone in the EuroPLOT team for collaborating so effectively in these three years towards creating excellent outputs, and for being such a nice group with a very positive spirit also beyond work. And finally I would like to thank the EACEA for providing the financial resources for the EuroPLOT project and for being very helpful when needed. This funding made it possible to organise the IWEPLET workshop without charging a fee from the participants.

The effects of project-based learning on the academic and linguistic achievement of emergent bilingual learners: A mixed methods approach

This mixed methods study examined the academic and linguistic impact of teaching emergent bilingual leaners through robotics project-based learning aligned to state standards. Two hundred ten middle school students attending a public charter school in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas participated in the study. Twenty percent of the students were emergent bilingual learners. Qualitative observation notes recorded students’ learning process as they completed an adapted Khan Academy robotics project. The students also completed pre- and post-assessments that quantitatively measured academic and linguistic gains. Emergent bilingual learners grew 20.1% points in academic content and 28.6% points in language development (p ≤ 0.001). Effect sizes for emergent bilingual learners’ academic content growth (Cohen’s d = 1.39) and linguistic growth (Cohen’s d = 1.35) were greater than those of non-emergent bilingual students (0.89, 0.87). This study demonstrates that project-based learning can lead to significant academic and linguistic gains for emergent bilingual students

Preparing the Future Workforce: Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Policy in K12 Education in Wisconsin

Last December, the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education Coalition - a national organization of more than 600 groups representing knowledge workers, educators, scientists, engineers, and technicians wrote to President-elect Obama urging him to "not lose sight of the critical role that STEM education plays in enabling the United States to remain the economic and technological leader of the 21st century global marketplace." While that imperative appears to have resonated in Washington, has it and should it resonate in Madison? This report attempts to answer that question by examining the extent to which STEM skills are a necessity for tomorrow's Wisconsin workforce, whether our schools are preparing students to be STEM-savvy workers, and where STEM falls in the state's list of educational priorities

Telepresence robotic technology support for social connectedness during treatment of children with cancer

Children with cancer experience fragmented school attendance during treatment. Telepresence robots that connect them with school during treatment periods were explored through an intervention involving participant observation followed by semi-structured interviews from 2020–22 with children with cancer, their class teachers, and classmates. We used an abductive approach, inspired by the Agential Realism theory and Situational Analysis. The use of telepresence robots in education enables hospitalized children to actively participate in real-time social activities with their classmates. However, consistent monitoring is necessary to ensure the success of this integration process as the classmates can lose interest in providing support to a child with cancer.</p

SOCIABOTS: A Robotic Approach for Special Education Children to Improve their Social Skills

Social behavior for special-needs children is crucial to ensure that the special-needs children know how to communicate and establish social relationship with others. Children with special-needs such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD), Down syndrome and Slow Learner usually have problems in socializing as they usually have empathy deficit. The current pedagogy used by teachers also are unattractive making them unable to attract the children’s attention and making them unable to stimulate the children’s kinetic senses and tactile senses thus affecting the learning rates of the special-needs children. Therefore, to address this issues, SOCIABOTS, a NAO robotic approach for the special education children to improve their social skills is developed as to aid teachers in their teaching process. This robotic application is able to play shapes game with the special-needs children and dance after they accomplish the task correctly. It is a perfect solution for both of the specialneeds children and the special education teachers as it caters both needs. This robotic module focuses on making learning turn taking attractive to sustain the special-needs children’ attention while stimulating their tactile and kinetic senses. The RAD methodology is used for development of this robotic module. Surveys, interviews and observations are the source of data to gather information and opinion for the development of SOCIABOTS. A shape recognition test is conducted to determine which background color works better in recognizing shapes. A field test at the Sekolah Kebangsaan Sultan Yussuf, Batu Gajah, Perak with 5 special education students was conducted to compare the effectiveness of SOCIABOTS against the current pedagogy used by teachers. The results show that SOCIABOTS helps in sustaining the specialneeds children’ attention and helps in assisting the teachers in teaching. It scores better compared to the current pedagogy that the teachers used in classes. This module is focusing on assisting teachers in their teaching process and helps special-needs children learning taking turns interactively thus improving their social skills

Makers at School, Educational Robotics and Innovative Learning Environments

This open access book contains observations, outlines, and analyses of educational robotics methodologies and activities, and developments in the field of educational robotics emerging from the findings presented at FabLearn Italy 2019, the international conference that brought together researchers, teachers, educators and practitioners to discuss the principles of Making and educational robotics in formal, non-formal and informal education. The editors’ analysis of these extended versions of papers presented at FabLearn Italy 2019 highlight the latest findings on learning models based on Making and educational robotics. The authors investigate how innovative educational tools and methodologies can support a novel, more effective and more inclusive learner-centered approach to education. The following key topics are the focus of discussion: Makerspaces and Fab Labs in schools, a maker approach to teaching and learning; laboratory teaching and the maker approach, models, methods and instruments; curricular and non-curricular robotics in formal, non-formal and informal education; social and assistive robotics in education; the effect of innovative spaces and learning environments on the innovation of teaching, good practices and pilot projects

L.Y.R.A. - Laboratory of Inquiring in Robotics and Astronautics

In this work we present preliminary results of the L.Y.R.A. project-Laboratory of Inquiring in Robotics and Astronautics-a proposal that develops playful production interventions of robotic toys with low-cost materials and easy access. The interventions were focussed in the natural sciences, but also articulated with the arts and the Humanities by producing handmade toys by participants and discussions of STS themes.. We seek to investigate whether the proposal has stimulated the interest of students for the debate and for the production of these artifacts. The name L.Y.R.A. is a reference to the brazilian Jackie Lyra, Mechanical NASA's aerospace engineer