Abstract:

The advancing development and spread of digitization in the world of work requires in many ways a rethinking in the field of basic education and training. The responsible political protagonists often blatantly underpin this need for change with the demand for informatics as mandatory part of school education. However, so far, the necessary concepts and required content to realize this demand are still missing. A digital transformation not only requires teaching and learning with media, but also learning through media, ultimately creating new media literacy and new approaches to solving problems. In addition, new teaching and learning concepts must be embedded in holistic change processes of the education system.

The paper proposed here will present the project RoboPraX which aims at addressing these challenges in their entirety and creating a new qualification framework that enables media learning through dedicated tools and media, identifying structural factors that support or counteract process implementation and transferability. Humanoid robots and the utilities available for their development serve as a practical basis for this new path.

The project is based on the premises that in this increasingly digitized world, the importance of confronting learners with robotics and program development early on in their school years is a necessity to ensure a sustainable future. Robots can be used in a variety of ways and can assume a wide range of roles in the educational process, including as objects for learning, as knowledge facilitators or as tools. The added value of robots in the educational context arises in particular from the social nature of humans. Learning is supported by the dialogical approach or social interaction with the robots.

The project RoboPraX consists of two components: a learning component that offers the content, and a research and development component that uses quantitative and qualitative surveys to quality assure the content and offered scenarios. The aim is to adapt the course material by means of new group compositions and tailor-made development tasks on humanoid robots during the course of the project and, hence, to prepare the participants for the necessary thinking and planning structures in a digital world. Furthermore, the prerequisites and hurdles for the planned change process in the educational system with all its stakeholders are also subjects of research.

This holistic research approach will then result in the development of evidence-based implementation strategies which are the foundation for embedding the new teaching and learning concepts in the German education system.

Keywords:

Robots, digitization, didactics, programing, problem-based learning, collaborative-learning, education.