A Portal Designed to Learn about Educational Robotics

1. A Portal Designed to Learn about Educational Robotics ChanMin Kim (chanmin@uga.edu), Prashant Doshi, Chi Thai, Dongho Kim, Jiangmei Yuan, and Roger B. Hill The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA Need for RoboSTEM RoboSTEM Architecture RoboSTEM Design Rationale: Theoretical Foundations RoboSTEM Design Rationale: Theoretical Foundations • and establishing attainment value of what they do on RoboSTEM (Belland et al., 2013) • RoboSTEM prompts teachers to select aspects of STEM education, robotics, and student engagement that are relevant to them • Practical examples are given to intrigue teachers’ interests in reading more about engagement theories and viewing related lessons (see Figure 2) • Seeing others’ comments on posts and leaving their own comments on, teachers get the opportunity to “reflect on and articulate attainment value” of the posts (Belland et al., 2013, p. 253) • Example-Based Learning • Observational learning • “learning by observing other persons’ behavior (i.e., models)” (Renkl, 2014, p. 8) • Very efficacious (e.g., Bjerrum, Hilberg, van Gog, Charles, & Eika, 2013; Rummel, Spada, & Hauser, 2009) • RoboSTEM provides multiple models (e.g., multiple teachers presenting lesson plans and videos), a crucial motivating factor for teacher learning (e.g., Schunk & Hanson, 1985) • Engagement • Engagement refers to a person’s involvement in a task such as learning and teaching (Reschly & Christenson, 2012) • RoboSTEM promotes teacher engagement through belonging and valuing-crucial variables in engagement models (e.g., Finn & Zimmer, 2012) • To enhance belonging, RoboSTEM is designed in ways that teachers’ (a) shared goals are pursued, (b) social goals are satisfied, and (c) shared standards are built together (Belland, Kim, & Hannafin, 2013) • The goal of RoboSTEM is aligned with that of the teachers who intend to learn to design and implement STEM lessons using robotics and the goal is shared among teachers • The features on RoboSTEM for creating, joining, and participating in a group (e.g., robotics newbies) helps teachers achieve their social goals, such as social-networking with each other by sharing their learning experience, gathering reactions to it, and reflecting on it together • Liking other teachers’ lessons and bookmarking them as favorites leads to creating shared standards • Valuing can be enhanced by fostering teachers’ interest in what is on RoboSTEM • Benefits of educational robotics for STEM education: • Robotics technology provides a great tool for teachers to facilitate active learning while at the same time addressing STEM content (Perritt, 2010) • Using robotics can enhance teacher knowledge and practice, which in turn promotes interdisciplinary work habits, learning by design, collaborative learning, and student engagement (Bers, 2008) • By empowering teachers to create and utilize age-appropriate and standards-aligned robotics activities, students' STEM engagement and achievement can be enhanced (Alimisis, 2013) • Gaps: • The benefits of robotics cannot be achieved without effective teacher preparation (Greenberg, McKee, & Walsh, 2013) • However, traditional programs for teacher preparation have not adequately prepared teachers to implement educational robotics (Nugent, 2010) • Integrating robotics into classrooms is still new to many teachers (Alimisis et al., 2007) • Active networking among researchers, practitioners, and learners is not present that can lead to “open educational and technological products and practices (curriculum and resources)” (Alimisis, 2013, p. 69) • RoboSTEM: • RoboSTEM, a portal for open educational resources (OERs) for the use of robotics in teaching and learning, aims to help teachers learn how to design and implement lessons using robotics • Teachers view and share lesson plans, videos, robot programming files, and reflections to learn what other teachers do with robots and how that works for students • Home • The purpose of RoboSTEM, featured media, and recent videos, lessons, and groups are presented (see Figure 1) • Toolbox • Teachers search lesson plans by (a) lesson categories and (b) engagement theories • Both offer lessons that teachers can search, collect, and use • Lessons are organized around categories: activity style (e.g., challenge-based), grade levels, and subject areas • Theories illustrate how lessons using robots can promote student interest, mastery goals, success expectancy, autonomy, and volition (see Figure 2) • Teachers share their lesson plans • Community • Teachers participate in groups and forums and view user channels and the event calendar • Support • Teachers contact the RoboSTEM team for technical help or if they have a question • My Account • Teachers edit their profile, view media they bookmarked and pinned as their favorites, edit the lessons, videos, and other documents that they created, and see the groups in which they participated Figure 1. A screenshot of RoboSTEM Home page Figure 2. A screenshot of RoboSTEM Toolbox page References Please see the handout. Acknowledgement The RoboSTEM research and development is funded by the Center for Teaching and Learning, the College of Education, and the Office of the Vice President for Research at the University Georgia.