Educational Robotics and Computational Thinking Development
Timoleon Theofanellis, Evagelia Voulgari, Savvas Tsolakis · Advances in early childhood and K-12 education · 2020
Computational thinking (CT) is a problem-solving process that refers to characteristics such as de-composition, abstraction, pattern recognition, and algorithms. This chapter focuses on educational robotics and their use in developing CT. Firstly, the importance of CT is analyzed along with the way it is applied in the classroom. It goes on discussing the way the introduction of educational robotic systems in education affect CT and the importance of the do-it-yourself philosophy. It presents two widely used educational robotic systems follows, Arduino and Lego EV3, along with examples of their relationship with CT development. The chapter finishes with a comparison of the two systems regarding the easiness and difficulties of using them.