6º m TERECoP – 6° Meeting Educational Robotics in Italy: future perspectives after the TERECoP experience The Italian group: Emanuele Menegatti and Michele Moro, DEI UNIPD; Irene Pagello, Marco Antonelli, and Stefano Tonello, ITR; Nello Fava and Stefano Monfalcon, TMR

29 1 TERECop - 6° Meeting DEI UNIV PD © 2009 Introduction The group Previous competences The course implementations Outcomes The lessons learnt Future development

29 2 TERECop - 6° Meeting DEI UNIV PD © 2009 The group Department of Computer Engineering (DEI) – University of Padova Emanuele Menegatti Michele Moro IT+Robotics (ITR) – Padova Irene Pagello Marco Antonelli, Stefano Tonello, Alberto Pretto Town Museum of Rovereto (TMR) Nello Fava Stefano Monfalcon

29 3 TERECop - 6° Meeting DEI UNIV PD © 2009 Previous competences DEI Research on Robotics and Computer Vision Programming languages and Real time systems Constructivist/constructionist approach in teaching/learning ITR Development of robotic application Dissemination of modern robotic culture TMR Dissemination of scientific knowledge Application of educational robotics Supporting the scholastic system for applying robotics in education

29 4 TERECop - 6° Meeting DEI UNIV PD © 2009 The course implementations The official implementation was held in Rovereto About 15 in-service teachers on different levels Two weekends + two evaluation meetings Objectives: to build competences for designing educational laboratory project-based activities; to learn to use innovative didactic methodologies and technologies that the course proposed;

29 5 TERECop - 6° Meeting DEI UNIV PD © 2009 The course implementations Objectives: to consolidate the ability of working in groups, also through the use of ICT tools; working on: the realization of the proposed activities, with communication and guided groupbased work; pedagogical and methodological reasoning on the educative management of the activity After the course, ten teachers presented their activities in the exhibition of the Discovery Festival

29 6 TERECop - 6° Meeting DEI UNIV PD © 2009 The course implementations Another implementation in Bolzano About 20 in-service teachers as trainees Following substantially the TERECoP curriculum with some adaptations

29 7 TERECop - 6° Meeting DEI UNIV PD © 2009 Outcomes Papers presented in international conferences Organization of a workshop on Educational Robotics followed by an open day in Venice Organization of the edu-robotics exhibition within the Discovery in Rovereto (included a TERECoP stand) Participation to several initiatives organized by schools Participation to the Open Day in Pamplona

29 8 TERECop - 6° Meeting DEI UNIV PD © 2009 Outcomes Development Several didactical examples of various levels, both in NXT-G and NXC Analysis of the NXT sensors A simple simulator with graphical interface A remote laboratory How to control NXT with other languages

29 9 TERECop - 6° Meeting DEI UNIV PD © 2009 Lessons learnt Teacher prefer practical activities with respect to theoretical lessons They are not used to exploit a constructivist approach in their daily lessons in the class Their request was for activities examples with a clear didactical content Importance of a well presented and organized repository (avoiding just off- the-shelf examples) They show difficulties in organizing effective and well-integrated laboratorial activities

29 10 TERECop - 6° Meeting DEI UNIV PD © 2009 Lessons learnt Some criticalities In Italy teachers of arts and humanities have difficulties in approaching robots as a teaching tools and also in collaborating on a project base with the teachers of science or technology The cost of the NXT kit NXT could be too complex for primary level students and perceived too childish for oldest secondary level students Financial requests for new courses

29 11 TERECop - 6° Meeting DEI UNIV PD © 2009 Lessons learnt Suggestions Take into account the peculiar local school context and teacher audience Focalize the conveying to teachers of the methodological method and to give them motivations for applying robotic technologies within their normal curricula Not be strictly dependent on the robotic kit chosen Find collaborations with external entities (apart from financial issues) if the can give support in any phase of the learning process (examples: FLL, LEC, Robocup, club houses)

29 12 TERECop - 6° Meeting DEI UNIV PD © 2009 Future Projects The organization of new teacher training activities in collaboration with the school network(s) and official scholastic institutions To continue development of lab activities with undergraduate/graduate students (more specifically using Lejos, URBI and with humanoid robots) The participation to a new European or National Project on Educational Robotics (to be identified) To organize again a workshop (and maybe an open day) at SIMPAR 2010 in Darmstadt (Germany) To collaborate with TMR for the LEC, FLL and other dissemination activities

6º m The end TERECoP – 6° Meeting - M.Moro – DEI UNIPD - Italy