LearnBlock: A Robot-Agnostic Educational Programming Tool
Education is evolving to prepare students for the current sociotechnical changes. An increasing effort to introduce programming and other STEM-related subjects into the core curriculum of primary and secondary education is taking place around the world. The use of robots stands out among STEM initia...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IEEE
2020-01-01
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| Series: | IEEE Access |
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| Online Access: | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8986589/ |
| _version_ | 1818664476320202752 |
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| author | Pilar Bachiller-Burgos Ivan Barbecho Luis V. Calderita Pablo Bustos Luis J. Manso |
| author_facet | Pilar Bachiller-Burgos Ivan Barbecho Luis V. Calderita Pablo Bustos Luis J. Manso |
| author_sort | Pilar Bachiller-Burgos |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Education is evolving to prepare students for the current sociotechnical changes. An increasing effort to introduce programming and other STEM-related subjects into the core curriculum of primary and secondary education is taking place around the world. The use of robots stands out among STEM initiatives, since robots are proving to be an engaging tool for learning programming and other STEM-related contents. Block-based programming is the option chosen for most educational robotic platforms. However, many robotics kits include their own software tools, as well as their own set of programming blocks. LearnBlock, a new educational programming tool, is proposed here. Its major novelty is its loosely coupled software architecture which makes it, to the best of our knowledge, the first robot-agnostic educational tool. Robot-agnosticism is provided not only in block code, but also in generated code, unifying the translation from blocks to the final programming language. The set of blocks can be easily extended implementing additional Python functions, without modifying the core code of the tool. Moreover, LearnBlock provides an integrated educational programming environment that facilitates a progressive transition from a visual to a general-purpose programming language. To evaluate LearnBlock and demonstrate that it is platform-agnostic, several tests were conducted. Each of them consists of a program implementing a robot behaviour. The block code of each test can run on several educational robots without changes. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-17T05:33:21Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-2b727dfdb0ab4a099db7ae250753e407 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2169-3536 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-17T05:33:21Z |
| publishDate | 2020-01-01 |
| publisher | IEEE |
| record_format | Article |
| series | IEEE Access |
| spelling | doaj.art-2b727dfdb0ab4a099db7ae250753e4072022-12-21T22:01:41ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362020-01-018300123002610.1109/ACCESS.2020.29724108986589LearnBlock: A Robot-Agnostic Educational Programming ToolPilar Bachiller-Burgos0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0690-7749Ivan Barbecho1Luis V. Calderita2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0784-4102Pablo Bustos3Luis J. Manso4Department of Computer and Communication Technology, Robotics and Artificial Vision Laboratory (RoboLab), University of Extremadura, Cáceres, SpainResearch and Development Department, Mobbeel Solutions, Cáceres, SL., SpainDepartment of Computer and Communication Technology, Robotics and Artificial Vision Laboratory (RoboLab), University of Extremadura, Cáceres, SpainDepartment of Computer and Communication Technology, Robotics and Artificial Vision Laboratory (RoboLab), University of Extremadura, Cáceres, SpainSchool of Engineering and Applied Science, Aston University, Birmingham, U.K.Education is evolving to prepare students for the current sociotechnical changes. An increasing effort to introduce programming and other STEM-related subjects into the core curriculum of primary and secondary education is taking place around the world. The use of robots stands out among STEM initiatives, since robots are proving to be an engaging tool for learning programming and other STEM-related contents. Block-based programming is the option chosen for most educational robotic platforms. However, many robotics kits include their own software tools, as well as their own set of programming blocks. LearnBlock, a new educational programming tool, is proposed here. Its major novelty is its loosely coupled software architecture which makes it, to the best of our knowledge, the first robot-agnostic educational tool. Robot-agnosticism is provided not only in block code, but also in generated code, unifying the translation from blocks to the final programming language. The set of blocks can be easily extended implementing additional Python functions, without modifying the core code of the tool. Moreover, LearnBlock provides an integrated educational programming environment that facilitates a progressive transition from a visual to a general-purpose programming language. To evaluate LearnBlock and demonstrate that it is platform-agnostic, several tests were conducted. Each of them consists of a program implementing a robot behaviour. The block code of each test can run on several educational robots without changes.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8986589/Educational toollearning programmingrobot-agnosticsoftware architecture |
| spellingShingle | Pilar Bachiller-Burgos Ivan Barbecho Luis V. Calderita Pablo Bustos Luis J. Manso LearnBlock: A Robot-Agnostic Educational Programming Tool IEEE Access Educational tool learning programming robot-agnostic software architecture |
| title | LearnBlock: A Robot-Agnostic Educational Programming Tool |
| title_full | LearnBlock: A Robot-Agnostic Educational Programming Tool |
| title_fullStr | LearnBlock: A Robot-Agnostic Educational Programming Tool |
| title_full_unstemmed | LearnBlock: A Robot-Agnostic Educational Programming Tool |
| title_short | LearnBlock: A Robot-Agnostic Educational Programming Tool |
| title_sort | learnblock a robot agnostic educational programming tool |
| topic | Educational tool learning programming robot-agnostic software architecture |
| url | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8986589/ |
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