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Learning to Program with Lego Mindstorms – Difference Between K-12 Students and Adults

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Teaching and Learning in a Digital World (ICL 2017)

Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 716))

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Abstract

In this paper, a workshop that was originally designed for K-12 students as a first introduction into programming by using Lego Mindstorms is conducted on adults coming from different companies. The aim of the study is to compare attitudes and results of adult learners with K-12 students and to see how their interests and understanding of programming concepts differ from the original audience. It is found that the exact same workshop is suitable for older audience and, as expected, the adults are showing slightly better learning outcomes. Using Lego as a tool for teaching is not a problem for adults.

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Acknowledgements

Author wants to thank Indrek Karo and Martin Jaanus for conducting some of the workshops. Author also wants to thank Innovation and Business Center Mektory for facilitating the workshops.

Publication of this research has been supported by European Social Fund’s Doctoral Studies and Internationalization Programme DoRa and DoRa+.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn, Estonia

    Kadri Umbleja

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  1. Kadri Umbleja
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Correspondence to Kadri Umbleja .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Carinthia University of Applied Sciences , St. Magdalen, Kärnten, Austria

    Michael E. Auer

  2. International E-Learning Association Kaleidoscope Learning, New York, New York, USA

    David Guralnick

  3. Obuda University , Budapest, Hungary

    Istvan Simonics

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Umbleja, K. (2018). Learning to Program with Lego Mindstorms – Difference Between K-12 Students and Adults. In: Auer, M., Guralnick, D., Simonics, I. (eds) Teaching and Learning in a Digital World. ICL 2017. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 716. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73204-6_49

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73204-6_49

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-73203-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-73204-6

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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