A Feasibility Study of Arducation Bot : An Educational Robotics and Mobile Application Kit for Computational Thinking Skills

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to develop and test a pedagogical platform for teaching computational thinking through tangible and mobile technologies. Arducation Bot combines educational robotics and mobile application to create an intuitive and less intimidating approach in computational thinking and computer science. A large-scale testing of Arducation Bot platform was conducted with 180 high school students from Thailand and Japan. A strong pattern of improved computational thinking was shown in the collected data. Arducation Bot shows its universal appeal or suitability for pupils with different nationalities and backgrounds. Teachers and educators could potentially benefit from applying this mobile application and tangible technology platform to help students understand computational thinking skill - an imperative skill for the 21 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">st</sup> century.