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Children, robotics, and education

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Abstract

Popular interest in robotics has increased astonishingly in the last few years. Robotics is seen by many as offering major new benefits in education at all levels. Before rushing to exploit this popularity, educators should ask serious questions about the universality and longevity of the robotics phenomenon. Is it a fashion? To be useful, the energy released by robotics must be sustained and universal, and the means of exploiting it must be systematic. Universities define their own robotics curriculum, but most schools lack both the resources and the freedom to do this, and must work with a national curriculum. If it can be shown that robotics has sustained potential in education, it seems inevitable that new ways need to be found to integrate it into the school curriculum.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. RoboFesta Edutainment and Robotics Research Laboratory, Department of Design and Innovation, Faculty of Technology, The Open University, MK7 6AA, Milton Keynes, UK

    J. Johnson

Authors
  1. J. Johnson
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Correspondence to J. Johnson.

Additional information

This work was presented in part at the 7th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 16–18, 2002

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Johnson, J. Children, robotics, and education. Artif Life Robotics 7, 16–21 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02480880

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02480880

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