HEAT (Handheld Embodied-cognition Augmented-reality Technology)

About HEAT

The teaching goal of this project is to create a series of challenge-oriented activities for students that will improve their understanding of programming concepts while they also explore innovative solutions to robot-based problems. The goal of the research is to examine students’ engagement, motivation, and learning in an authentic learner-centered context that includes several different interventions, included experiences with building and programming robots using hand-held technologies.

Our first pilot study, explored whether students’ understanding of distance, time, and rate can be improved by introducing two technology-based interventions: programming and direct controls with a hand-held device, and compared the differences in engagement, motivation, and understanding demonstrated by the students using these two types of technology-based learning. The current research involves teaching advanced LEGO programming skills by providing students with the opportunity to think about the challenges in an “embodied” way, using both direct embodiment and surrogate embodiment. Direct embodiment is when the student acts as (embodies) the robot, while surrogate embodiment learning is when the learner manipulates a tool (in this case, a robot) throughout a deputy or surrogate. For example, one student might ask another student to act out his/her program and monitor the results and see if the program works. In this research, we are interested in finding out how different teaching methods affect how well, and quickly, students learn to program, as well as the extent to which gender, age, and previous experience with robotics account for the results.

“Technology-based Learning Tools (Programming and Hand-held Devices) for Improving the Understanding of Science Concepts in a Lego Robotics Elementary After-School Classroom,” accepted by for a session organized by the SIG-Technology, Instruction, Cognition & Learning, for the 2009 AERA conference.