Mobile robots have been playing an important role in education during the last few years. This refers not only to robots used for teaching robotic concepts, but also, and in a more and more pervasive way, to a general approach that uses the robot as a teaching tool rather than as the tool being taught, extending their usage from high school down to the first grades of primary education. This is very similar to what happened to computers: their first appearance in schools was related to the need of teaching programming languages, while today they are seen as a tool for teaching subjects that often have little or nothing to do with computer science. On the practical side however, several difficulties must be overcome when trying to set up an educational robotics lab. Relying on a centralized, standard setup, maintained by trained personnel shared among all users (thus reducing costs), backed up by training programs and with the possibility of building a community of interested users and educators has proven definitely a plus. The widespread availability of Internet connections has also greatly helped making the physical distance of the lab from its users unimportant. Furthermore, to-date technologies allow keeping things simple, introducing some virtual reality techniques to support and enhance the physical part of the lab. A comparison of existing systems and of the advantages and drawbacks of such approach will be made, and some insight on currently ongoing projects will be given.

Real Mobile Robots and Virtual Worlds - Putting them Together in a New Teaching Paradigm

CASSINIS, Riccardo
2014-01-01

Abstract

Mobile robots have been playing an important role in education during the last few years. This refers not only to robots used for teaching robotic concepts, but also, and in a more and more pervasive way, to a general approach that uses the robot as a teaching tool rather than as the tool being taught, extending their usage from high school down to the first grades of primary education. This is very similar to what happened to computers: their first appearance in schools was related to the need of teaching programming languages, while today they are seen as a tool for teaching subjects that often have little or nothing to do with computer science. On the practical side however, several difficulties must be overcome when trying to set up an educational robotics lab. Relying on a centralized, standard setup, maintained by trained personnel shared among all users (thus reducing costs), backed up by training programs and with the possibility of building a community of interested users and educators has proven definitely a plus. The widespread availability of Internet connections has also greatly helped making the physical distance of the lab from its users unimportant. Furthermore, to-date technologies allow keeping things simple, introducing some virtual reality techniques to support and enhance the physical part of the lab. A comparison of existing systems and of the advantages and drawbacks of such approach will be made, and some insight on currently ongoing projects will be given.
2014
978-989-758-039-0
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11379/454716
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact