How to Implement Educational Robotics’ Programs in Italian Schools: A Brief Guideline According to an Instructional Design Point of View

Nowadays, children and teenagers use technology products in an increasingly passive way. As simple consumers they cannot benefit from the opportunities of designing technology, which has a learning value. Educational Robotics (ER) programs are particularly effective in delivering contents of difficult disciplines: they can re-establish a balance between the learners and the technological devices, because the learners act as programmers and can develop their computational thinking. Therefore, we believe the school should upgrade its teaching methods, through the implementation of ER programs. This could be done without introducing a new subject, since technology could be considered like an interdisciplinary application module within pre-existing subjects. In this paper, we provide an overview of ER programs to share a practical guidance with those who want to plan educational workshops in their institutes. First, we analyze ER theoretical and epistemological fundamentals: ER has roots in recent and classic disciplines (psychology, cybernetics, robotics, cognitive science…), but it is also consistent with the principles of widely recognized pedagogies. Then, we describe successful Italian projects with a focus on regulations concerning ER programs. As a result of this analysis, we propose a brief guideline on the following topics: (a) needs analysis, (b) target segmentation, (c) objectives, (d) laboratory setting, (e) contents definition, (f) activities, (g) evaluation tools. Finally, we show that designing learning paths according to this method could also promote a more rigorous (and not only qualitative) evaluation, and then enhance both research and practice in this field.