Technologies for an inclusive robotics education

Abstract

The H2020 project “INBOTS: Inclusive Robotics for a Better Society” (2018­–21) has worked in different disciplines involved in the acceptance and uptake of interactive robotics, including the promotion of accessible and multidisciplinary education programs. In INBOTS, educational robotics is considered as a learning tool that can bring robotics into school classrooms and benefit all children regardless of their future educational or professional orientation. Aiming to make robotics education inclusive, INBOTS has introduced a paradigm shift inspired by sound pedagogies (Papert’s constructionism) and emerging educational trends (the maker movement) and focused on creativity and other 21st-century skills. However, the realisation of this new paradigm requires appropriate curricula and technologies at both hardware and software levels. This paper addresses several questions and dilemmas related to the technologies currently in use in robotics education and the kind of technologies that can best support the proposed paradigm. This discussion results in specific criteria that robotics technologies must fulfil to foster the new paradigm. Based on these criteria, we review some representative technologies in both hardware and software. Then, we identify and discuss some technological solutions that exemplify the kind of technologies that can best support inclusive robotics education and make the proposed paradigm feasible. Finally, we show how some of these technologies can be combined to design a creative and inclusive project consistent with the criteria set in this paper.