Educational robots as collaborative learning objects for teaching Computer Science

Abstract

We present the constructionism-based approach towards using collaborating educational robots for teaching the abstract concepts of Computer Science (CS) such as task decomposition. We present the collaborative robot-based e-learning environment, which enables us to implement the principles of constructionism and collaborative learning for teaching students how to solve CS problems using LEGO multi-robots as tangible Collaborative Learning Objects (CLOs). We extended the existing approaches by a) providing a framework of robotic CLO based learning environment; and b) demonstrating the use of task decomposition and allocation principles for teaching CS algorithms and programming.