Julien Bugmann

The Educational Impacts of Minecraft on Elementary School Students

The goal of this research project is to identify the uses and benefits of integrating the Minecraft videogame into school curricula. The project, conducted with 118 elementary school students, utilized 10 different types of data collection tools. The supported and scholastic use of Minecraft described in this study benefitted students in various aspects of their learning. These positive outcomes include, but are not limited to, an increase in motivation, the development of collaboration skills, the learning of computer programming, and the development of other computer science competencies.

Learning to Program a Humanoid Robot: Impact on Special Education Students

Robots are making steady inroads into the world of education, where they are used mainly to teach students about computer programming or coding. These versatile tools allow for student learning through experimenting with programs which lead to the building and control of real objects. However, although these teaching aides are increasingly incorporated into everyday classrooms, few studies have examined the affordances they provide to students with special needs. An exploratory study with the aim of examining the educational benefits for programming of a new type of humanoid robot called NAO for special education students was therefore conducted. A variety of data collection methods, including interviews, videotaped observations, and trace analysis were used. The results show a number of positive student outcomes: they developed coding skills and improved in several areas critical to scholastic success, such as increased motivation to attend school, peer collaboration, and task engagement.

EDUCATIONAL IMPACTS OF 1-1 TABLET PROJECTS IN CANADIAN SCHOOLS

Introduction: In a few short years, tablets have made unprecedented inroads into elementary and high schools around the world. Today, over 400,000 students in Canada are using a iPad in class every day, and in the United States that number has exceeded 7 million (Etherington, 2013). The aim of this study was to understand both the benefits and challenges of 1-1 tablet projects in both elementary and secondary Canadian schools. Method: In all, 26,044 students (from grades 3 to 11) and 802 teachers participated in this study. We used six main instruments to collect the data for this study: 1. Online surveys for teachers (n = 802) 2. Online surveys for students (n = 26,044) 3. Semi-directed individual interviews with teachers (n = 18) 4. Semi-directed group interviews with students (n = 44) 5. Semi-directed group interviews with teachers (n = 16) 6. Videotaped classroom observations (n = 18 60–90-minute periods). In this presentation, we will focus mainly on the data obtained from the online questionnaires completed by students (26,044) and teachers (802). To illustrate some of the findings, we also present some extracts from the individual and group interviews. The questionnaires were designed following an exhaustive review of the literature on technologies in education, particularly educational uses of the tablet, and in relation to the research objectives. The questionnaires were validated on three different occasions in subgroups of teachers and students. Both teachers and students responded to the online questionnaires. However, to maximize the number of respondents, students were asked to complete the questionnaire in class, online, using their tablets? under their teacher’s guidance and supervision. Teachers were given a choice of either responding in class while the students were completing their questionnaires or responding later online. The protocol for the semi-directed individual and group interviews with students and teachers revisited the topics covered in the questionnaires, with the aim of gaining more insight into the main trends and their interrelationships. From the individual interviews, we gathered the students’ and teachers’ perceptions of the research objectives. The group interviews were particularly useful for deepening our understanding of how the tablets were used in class and the benefits and challenges of daily use of the tablet. Main findings: The results reveal that 1-1 tablet projects have had a major impact on the students, particularly on their motivation to learn. Besides the substantial impacts on motivation, the results also show more than 40 main benefits of using tablets in the classroom, as underscored by the teachers and students: access to extensive information, a wide variety of available resources, to name only a few. However, 1-1 tablet projects in education come with challenges, such as classroom management. Based on the results of this study, we may propose that tablets have enormous educational potential—as demonstrated by the list of benefits reported by students and teachers—but that, contrary to what many believe, their advent in schools will not be problem-free. In fact, this new technology may pose challenges that teachers will find difficult to overcome, especially if they are poorly prepared. The key to successful integration of tablets in the classroom, and arguably for all newly introduced technologies, is to provide teachers with adequate training.

Using Humanoïd Robots to Support Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder

In recent years, an increasing number of robots have found their way into American, Asian, and European classrooms. With names like Bee-Bot, Dash, Mindstorm, and Sphero, they offer exciting educational potential and have attracted growing attention from the education community. Recent studies have shown that these robots can serve as powerful educational tools, especially for students with learning disabilities. A robot subgroup, the anthropomorphic robot, appears poised to become the gold standard for educational use. The anticipated contributions of the anthropomorphic robot to development and learning provided the motivation for an exploratory research project. This paper focuses on the application of a robot called NAO to support children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).