Abstract:

Transformative technologies impact our behavior in everyday life ubiquitously. Once exclusive of IT companies, they are now populating our homes, educational institutions at all levels, and even the less imagined leisure places. How do they on purpose or not are affecting the way we learn, communicate, and interact with others has become an open research question, though: much of the negative implications are first noticed after these transformative technologies are used and deployed in real scenarios and not in the lab settings where they were created.

This is why increasing awareness and educating young generations not only in their use but also when shaping the development of transformative technologies has become a must task for educators across industry, academia, and society in general. Learning scenarios have been adapting to the new challenges. Training settings in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects have been rethought alike.

In this paper, we review important aspects to be considered when removing the barriers that prevent an extended inclusion of transformative technologies in educational contexts. The characteristic properties of different educational contexts are presented. These consist of different teaching and mentoring scenarios both in undergraduate and graduate education. A roadmap for robotics and our experiences with its implementation are described as well. Its dimensions include a variety of gender, diversity, and didactic aspects of utmost importance when developing and applying new curricula that should be consistent with the rapid advancement of transformative technologies. A paramount change of both perception and behavior when dealing with these technologies is required. This paper sheds light in this direction.

Keywords:

Gender and diversity in education, higher education, transformative technologies, robotics, robots, STEM.