Transcript RoboSTEM - University of Georgia

A Portal Designed to Learn about Educational Robotics
ChanMin Kim ([email protected]), Prashant Doshi, Chi Thai, Dongho Kim, Jiangmei Yuan, and Roger B. Hill
The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA
Need for 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
RoboSTEM Architecture
Figure 1. A screenshot of RoboSTEM Home page
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
o Both offer lessons that teachers can search,
collect, and use
o Lessons are organized around categories:
activity style (e.g., challenge-based), grade
levels, and subject areas
o 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
RoboSTEM Design Rationale:
Theoretical Foundations
Example-Based Learning
 Observational learning
o “learning by observing other persons’
behavior (i.e., models)” (Renkl, 2014, p. 8)
o 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)
o 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 socialnetworking 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
o Valuing can be enhanced by fostering
teachers’ interest in what is on RoboSTEM
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)
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.