%0 Journal Article
%T Using control heuristics as a means to explore the educational potential of robotics kits
%A Ilaria Gaudiello
%A Elisabetta Zibetti
%J Themes in Science and Technology Education
%D 2013
%I Themes in Science and Technology Education
%X The educational potential of robotics kits as a form of control technology will remain undervalued until meaningful observation parameters are identified to enable a better understanding of childrenĄ¯s control strategies. For this reason, this paper aim sprimarily to identify and classify the heuristics spontaneously applied by 6-10 year old children interacting with robotic devices containing specific transparency features (i.e.programmability) and interactivity features (i.e. immediacy of feedback). Two studies are described: an exploratory investigation into the control of a Lynx AL5A arm and apilot study about the control of a Lego Mindstorms NXT . Two issues relating to control heuristics are addressed: the heuristic shift and the perceived and objective level of task difficulty. The results demonstrate that three main types of heuristic emerge: (i) procedural-oriented, (ii) declarative-oriented, and (iii) metacognitive-oriented. Limitations of the difficulty indicators used and shift patterns proposed are discussed inrelation to future research.
%K educational robots
%K control heuristics
%K interactivity
%K transparency
%K Lego Mindstorms NXT
%U http://earthlab.uoi.gr/theste/index.php/theste/article/view/115/81