Pedagogical and technological augmentation of mobile learning for young children interactive learning environments

The ubiquity and educational potential of mobile applications are well acknowledged. This paper proposes six theory-based, pedagogical strategies to guide interaction design of mobile apps for young children. Also, to augment the capabilities of mobile devices, we used a humanoid robot integrated with a smartphone and developed an English-learning app that applied the design strategies to this environment. Our observations of children's one-on-one use support the promise of the strategies and the combined use of robots and mobile devices to be a viable option to help optimize mobile learning.     

Children’s Cognitive and Behavioral Reactions to an Autonomous Versus Controlled Social Robot Dog

Research Findings: Interactive technology has become ubiquitous in young children’s lives, but little is known about how children incorporate such technologies into their intuitive biological theories. Here we explore how the manner in which technology is introduced to young children impacts their biological reasoning, moral regard, and prosocial behavior toward it. We asked 5- and 7-year-old children to interact with a robot dog that was described either as moving autonomously or as remote controlled. Compared with a controlled robot, the autonomous robot caused children to ascribe higher emotional and physical sentience to the robot, to reference the robot as having desires and physiological states, and to reference moral concerns as applying to the robot. Children who owned a dog at home were more likely to behave prosocially toward the autonomous robot than those who did not. Practice or Policy: Recent work has begun to use robots as learning tools. Our results suggest that the manner in which robots are introduced to young children may differentially impact children’s learning. Presenting robots as autonomous agents may help promote children’s social-emotional development, whereas presenting robots as human controlled may help promote robots as purely cognitive educational tools.     

Development and validation of an educational robot attitude scale (ERAS) for secondary school students

Humanoid robots equipped with social skills have come to be used increasingly in the field of education across various subfields such as science education, special education, and foreign language education. In order to enhance the use of humanoid robots in educational settings, and to comprehensively evaluate its impact on the transformation of the class, understanding students’ attitudes towards the use of robots for educational purposes plays a critical role. This paper outlines the implementation and validation procedures of an educational robot attitude scale (ERAS) developed to measure the attitudes of secondary school students towards the use of humanoid robots in educational settings. The sample of the study comprised of 232 secondary school students. The development and validation process consisted of exploratory factor analysis and convergent validity. The developed scale consists of 17 items and represents four factors of students’ attitude: engagement, enjoyment, anxiety and intention. These four factors accounted for 66% of the total variance of the scale. Internal consistency coefficient for the whole scale was found .90 according to the reliability analysis. The results of the study suggest that the scale is a valid, reliable, and efficient tool for measuring the dimensions of students’ attitudes towards humanoid robots in educational settings.     

Robots: A high-tech tool for the learner

Conclusion With the rapid developments of technology, robotic literacy is becoming a greater necessity. Alvin Toffler stated in theThird Wave that students ought to be print literate, computer literate, media literate, and robot literate. In addition, Harold Shane predicted that robots may become paraprofessionals in the future classroom. With these developments, teachers should be prepared to include robotic literacy in the school curriculum. To assist in the attainment of that worthy goal, the utilization of a walking, talking, and grabbing robot would be the most effective teaching strategy. As an outstanding motivator, robots can generate maximum enthusiasm, facilitate learning, and provide a stimulating and enjoyable learning experience for students. Today is the time for media specialists and teachers to examine the potential of robotic literacy as an important content area providing necessary knowledge and skills needed by students entering the Information Era. ▪     

Interactive Robotics Using the Internet

We report on a project currently under way within the department of Computer Science at the University of Reading exploiting networking and multimedia technology to provide a shared robotics laboratory on the Internet. The laboratory is for use by our own students and students at other Higher Education (HE) institutions in the UK. We present a mobile robot system we have developed to support teaching, and we describe how the Internet is being used to provide and control access to the robot. A case study is presented illustrating the use of the mobile robot in student project work. The key goal of the work we are pursuing is the provision of robots as networked resources similar to other computing resources, in this way making them accessible to many more students than would otherwise be able to gain access to this advanced technology.     

Fostering geospatial thinking in science education through a customisable smartphone application

Enhanced capabilities of modern smartphones offer the potential to design tools that support new forms of teaching and learning. Increased access to mobile‐networked environments and geospatial systems provide opportunities for developing new educational experiences that support a geospatial approach to science, fostering new ways of thinking about science. However, designing effective innovative educational mobile applications remains a challenge. Applications need to be accessible to teachers that are not tech‐savvy as well as those that are, foster active learning pedagogies, enable flexible and creative use, as well as fit within the curriculum. This paper describes a smartphone application developed together with pre‐service science teachers, designed to be customisable by teachers while supporting a geospatial approach to science education. The design process and trial illustrate application use, how it supports a geospatial approach to science education and raises issues around mobile technologies, teacher pedagogies and adoption.     

Using educational games and simulation software in a computer science course: learning achievements and student flow experiences

This study investigates how educational games impact on students' academic performance and multimedia flow experiences in a computer science course. A curriculum consists of five basic learning units, that is, the stack, queue, sort, tree traversal, and binary search tree, was conducted for 110 university students during one semester. Two groups of students participated in learning activities: the experimental group was instructed using the gaming method; and the control group was instructed using the non-gaming method. During the study, tests, a survey, and interviews were conducted with students. The evaluation results for academic performance and multimedia flow experiences show that compared to the non-gaming method, incorporating the gaming method into the learning process can enhance students' academic performance and multimedia flow experiences. The results also indicated that there is a non-significant and positive relationship between students' academic performance and multimedia flow experiences.     

A Network-Centric Approach to Computer Science Education and Research Based on Robotics

A network-centric university teaching and research environment based around mobile robots is described. It supports teaching a wide spectrum of computer science and engineering subjects (e.g., digital electronics, computer architecture, operating systems, communications, distributed processing, software engineering, machine vision, artificial intelligence, embedded computer design, real-time computing, HCI, computer graphics, virtual reality, etc.) within a single unified experimental environment. This enables students to combine their coursework so as to build more complex, interesting and industrially relevant systems, thereby significantly increasing their motivation and knowledge. The laboratory infrastructure makes extensive use of networks to produce a versatile and cost effective teaching and research environment. This paper will focus on the teaching aspects of the laboratory, describing the technical infrastructure and showing how it is used to support the Essex Un! iver sity information technology curriculum and report on the effectiveness of the approach. Finally, to demonstrate the more general academic synergy provided by this laboratory a short overview of some of the research applications is presented.     

高校非理工类专业工业机器人工程实训教学改革探索

目前,重庆理工大学工业机器人工程实训主要针对机械类专业开设全周期教学内容,对于少学时的非理工类专业学生则普遍采用认知实习,已经不能满足发展需求。随着学科间交叉融合深入,有必要将工业机器人新兴教学内容应用到非理工类专业学生实训上,因此在课程设置、考核方式等方面进行相应改革,通过构建网络学习云平台、设计虚拟仿真在线学习系统等多种方式,用于非理工类专业学生实践教学。     

A framework for implementing and teaching the social and ethical impact of computing

This article describes the work of Project ImpactCS, which was initiated to define the core content and pedagogical objectives for integrating social impact and ethics into the computer science (CS) curriculum. Over a three year period the project will address three major problems that hamper the implementation of across-the-board curriculum change: the lack of a well-specified definition of what the core content and learning objectives should include, the lack of a strategy for adapting and adopting existing materials that address the core topics into the existing CS curriculum, and the lack of awareness and expertise on the part of most CS faculties regarding the need and methodology for presenting such material in their courses. This report provides the conceptual frame-work and describes the learning objectives, called knowledge units, for defining a new content area in the computer science curriculum. It also discusses strategies and innovative pedagogical techniques for implementing the knowledge units into the curriculum.     

一种基于元胞自动机的机器人运动规划算法

利用元胞自动机模型对周围环境已知的机器人的运动进行规划。对机器人所在空间建模后,通过演化规则计算最短路径,使机器人成功避开障碍到达终点。实验结果表明机器人能快速搜索到无碰路径,证明该算法的可行性和有效性。     

计算机工程实验教学体系的构成与改革

针对计算机技术发展的特点和市场对计算机人才的知识能力要求，建立科学实用的实验教学体系意义重大。文中给出了计算机学院实验教学体系的构成及具体实施方法，并结合现实提出了以大型综合课程设计为主线及走向企业等改革的思路与举措。     

基于项目驱动的工业机器人实验设计和开发

工业机器人综合了机械、自动化、计算机等多学科技术,是智能制造系统中的重要单元。在课程实践中,将工业机器人作为一种机电产品进行系统设计和控制操作。基于ABB六轴工业机器人实验平台,以企业工程应用和自主设计任务作为创新性设计实验项目内容,进行工业机器人三维建模、控制系统设计、程序开发和动作执行。在工业机器人课程中应用后,取得了明显的效果,有助于学生更好地掌握工业机器人基本理论和项目开发,培养了学生的设计开发能力、实践动手能力和创新设计能力,并能使学生更好地理解工业机器人单元在智能制造系统中的作用。     

On self-recovery mechanism and additional maneuverability of a mini mobile robot

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基于C#和SMART的机器人涂胶装配工作站的设计与仿真

分析汽车挡风玻璃涂胶与装配的自动化过程,基于ABB仿真软件RobotStudio完成涂胶工作站的建模;用Visual Studio中的C#语言和RobotStudio的二次开发工具PC SDK开发上位机的控制应用程序,完成对工作站的控制;用RobotStudio的Smart组件构建虚拟控制系统,完成机器人涂胶工作站的仿真运行。结果证明,通过机器人涂胶仿真工作站的建模和ABB机器人的二次开发,可完成对机器人涂胶工作站的远程控制和仿真运行。     

基于移动学习教学模式的“静态网页设计”课程改革

开放性、自由化的移动学习教学模式为学生提供了更有效的学习环境。本文就"静态网页设计"这门课中如何引入移动学习,提高学生的自主性学习进行探究,以促进"静态网页设计"课程新的教学模式的生成。     

国外教育机器人辅助语言学习研究:认知激活与情感驱动

本文系统分析了国外教育机器人辅助语言学习的研究,发现其内容涵盖两个方面.第一是对参与者语言学习结果的认知激活,第二是侧重于对情感方面驱动作用研究.前者的研究以词汇学习为主,还包括如阅读、口语和语法等其他技能;后者关注教育机器人对学习动机的积极影响、教育机器人辅助语言学习的新颖性效应和教育机器人社会行为的复杂性.目前我国...     

机器人比赛和学生创新能力的培养

大学生高水平的创新能力是建设创新型国家的人才和技术基础。足球机器人系统是一类典型的多移动机器人合作的对抗系统,机器人足球比赛已受到人工智能和机器人相关领域学者的广泛关注,并逐渐成为一个标准问题。分析机器人比赛在培养大学生创新能力方面所起的重要作用,阐述机器人系统的基本知识。通过参加机器人比赛,使学生获取更多的知识并学会分析问题和解决问题的方法,在创新能力方面得到有效的训练和全面健康的发展。     

基于数据挖掘的中药成分分析——聚类分析在HPLC测定林下山参人参皂苷含量中的应用

对林下山参高效液相色谱指纹图谱进行研究,运用SPSS16.0软件包,先对样品进行相似度分析,然后用聚类分析方法对林下山参样品的主要7种人参皂苷进行分类研究,对样品进行合理的分类,揭示样品间的远近亲疏关系,这可大大缩减了以往全凭主观判断所造成的误差,使数据分析结果更具客观性,对林下山参品种与质量的鉴定有一定的理论意义和实用价值。     

Probeware and Handhelds in Elementary and Middle School Science

This paper reports a test on the feasibility and educational value of probeware and associated instructional materials in middle school science education. We addressed feasibility through consideration of costs, teacher professional development, and instructional design. In order to test our approach, we developed 2 middle school science curriculum units, 6 low-cost probes that interface between handheld Palm computers, and CCLabBook software for the Palms that presents the curriculum, interfaces with the probes for data collection and visualization, and supports guided exploration. The materials were tested by 30 teachers in the first year, and in a follow-up study by 8 of those teachers the second year. We found that teachers were able to conduct the investigations successfully in their classrooms, and that student learning was enhanced through the use of the probes and handhelds. Specifically, students experienced the physical correlation between phenomenon and modeling, which helped them to develop understanding and to confront misconceptions.