Abstract:

In the NMC Horizon Report 2015 (Johnson, Becker, Estrada, & Freeman, 2015) Internet of Things (IoT) is referred as an important development of educational technology. This projection is currently gaining prominence, especially through the concept of "hypersituation”, that can be described as the ability to amplify knowledge based on the specific context of the user's location. In this scenario, students will be able to monitor their own surrounding environment and collect real-time data for future study, taking advantage from data produced and shared by devices immersed in the environment. For this, it’s possible to use local sensors connected to the internet (through IoT technology) that can be complemented with data provided by institutions through open data feeds.

This study intends to assess the perceptions of students and teachers regarding the use of IoT for learning on topics of physics, chemistry, natural sciences, geography and mathematics, and produce inputs to the understanding of the power of IoT in educational contexts.

Based on this premise, an IoT system was developed to allow obtaining data on humidity, temperature and air pressure, soil moisture and pH, ultraviolet index and gases. Complementarily to the development of the device, a visual guide was created that facilitate the construction of the same by teachers and students, even if they do not have knowledge about the use of IoT technologies. Along with the building scripts, didactic scripts were also developed to be used in activities related with learning of topics on physics, chemistry, natural sciences, geography and mathematics that take advantage from data obtained from the developed devices. In parallel, a wiki of open data feeds, provided by several international institutions, relevant to Portuguese curricula contents, was also created. These guides have been validated by experts and are now being evaluated in a pilot study involving 97 students (all from 7th grade) from Aveiro’s schools (Portugal) and 10 teachers from different disciplinary areas.

This paper will provide a discussion of the power of IoT in Education, a description of the materials developed and of their pedagogical rationale and, also, the preliminary results from the pilot study with basic school students and teachers.

References:
[1] Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Estrada, V., & Freeman, A. (2015). NMC Horizon Report: 2015 Higher Education Edition. Austin, Texas. Available in http://www.nmc.org/publication/nmc-horizon-report-2015-higher-education-edition/

Keywords:

Internet of Things, Education, Learning, Devices.