Artful Educational Robotics to promote Computational Thinking in a Blended Learning context

Integrating Educational Robotics (ER) in Informatics/ICT courses is essential for developing digital skills and Computational Thinking (CT), positively impacting student development. The disruptio...

The project’s main scope was establishing the FERTILE design methodology for Artful Educational Robotics (ER) projects. An innovative methodology exploiting interdisciplinary learning between ER and Arts, leveraging ER simulators and cultivating Computational Thinking (CT) in blended learning contexts. Our explicit target group included educators of all educational levels, academic tutors, and pre-and in-service teachers involved in ER and Arts education. The FERTILE design methodology was expected to stimulate innovative teaching practices by designing and implementing Artful ER projects. An implicit target group were the students of those educators who were expected to creatively develop digital skills and computational thinking (CT) while implementing Artful ER projects. The FERTILE project's key objectives were: - Develop the FERTILE design methodology for Artful ER projects - Develop the FERTILE community platform for remote collaboration, design and implement Artful ER projects. - Produce training materials for the methodology and the community platform as OERs - Train educators to implement the FERTILE methodology in their courses - Support students in developing digital skills and CT by implementing Artful ER projects.

The project workflow included supportive activities and those focused on delivering results. Supportive activities involved: - Internal communication. - Organise TPMs, online meetings and steering committee meetings. -Create a Project Management handbook. -Quality management. -Collaborate with associated partners. -Maintain the project website. -Disseminate within organisations, and at regional/national and international levels. -Organise and implement MEs. The activities addressing the project’s objectives and delivering the project results were: R1: The FERTILE Design Methodology. - A literature review on Educational Robotics (ER). - Arts & ER Educator profiling. - Conceptualise, develop, evaluate and refine the methodology. - Produce a Handbook and conduct webinars on the methodology. R2: The FERTILE Community platform - Define design requirements. - Develop the community platform. - Evaluate the platform. - Constant debugging and refinement of the platform. - Produce a user guide and an introduction video. R3: The FERTILE Training material - Develop the material. - Evaluate the material. - Refine the material. R4: The FERTILE Training - Organise and implement pilot training. - Evaluate the pilot training. - Organise and implement the main training events. - Evaluate the main training events.