Board 320: Integrating Playful Learning: A Mixed-Reality Approach to Enhance Computational Thinking in Young Learners

Jaejin Hwang; Mohammad Faizan Sohail

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Conference: 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Portland, Oregon
Publication Date: June 23, 2024
Start Date: June 23, 2024
End Date: June 26, 2024
Conference Session: NSF Grantees Poster Session
Tagged Topic: NSF Grantees Poster Session
Page Count: 14
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--46900
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/46900
Download Count: 69

Paper Authors

biography

Jaejin Hwang Northern Illinois University

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Dr. Jaejin Hwang, is an Associate Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at NIU. His expertise lies in physical ergonomics and occupational biomechanics and exposure assessment. His representative works include the design of VR/AR user interfaces to minimize the physical and cognitive demands of users. He specializes in the measurements of bodily movement as well as muscle activity and intensity to assess the responses to physical and environmental stimuli. In this project, he will lead multimodal behavioral data collection, processing, and analyses to assess children’s learning and affective behaviors.

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Mohammad Faizan Sohail Northern Illinois University

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Abstract

Over the course of a three-year period, supported by NSF EHR-ITEST funding, this project aims to create a pioneering mixed-reality setting to facilitate the early cultivation of computational thinking. Rooted in the principles of embodied cognition and social robotics, the project team is in the process of crafting and examining an environment that seamlessly integrates augmented reality (AR) technology with a physically embodied social robot. Within this setting, kindergarten through second-grade students navigates a floor mat designed as a 5x5 chessboard-like grid while assisting a robot named Linibot in charting a path toward a predetermined destination. To aid them in this endeavor, the children hold a tablet through which the robot provides guidance in the form of instructions, cues, and constructive as well as motivational feedback. Concurrently, the tablet screen displays a corresponding map and various augmented reality obstacles for the children to navigate around. The primary educational goals of this experience encompass building foundational STEM problem-solving skills, fostering an understanding of symbols and sequences that transcend various STEM domains, and instilling confidence in young learners' proficiency in advanced technology utilization. To assess the effectiveness of the envisaged mixed-reality learning setting, individual children underwent pre-and post-tests. Throughout these assessments, children addressed analogous path-finding challenges on a tablet by manipulating and placing different arrows. Additionally, two distinct groups were designated: a control group, devoid of mixed-reality environments, and an intervention group, exposed to mixed-reality environments. The aim is to compare the computational thinking skills of each group and gauge the impact of the mixed-reality learning environment on skill development. Iteratively developed over a span of two and a half years, the mixed-reality environment underwent continuous refinement, with ongoing designs subjected to testing involving thirty-five children in diverse informal settings, including our lab, a community center, and STEM showcase events. The focus of each test varied, aligning with the developmental progress of the environment at that particular stage. During this poster session, we will showcase the outcomes of our latest implementation involving twenty boys and girls participating in a local one-day STEM showcase event. The participants, aged seven to eleven, represented diverse ethnicities, including Caucasian, Asian, and African American. Parents and children voluntarily visited our booth, leading to varied observations and conversations that highlighted a broad spectrum of children's abilities and computing experiences. Presently, we are in the process of analyzing data from interaction logs to evaluate each child's walking distance and time taken to reach the goal while simultaneously refining the design of AR-enabled obstacles and the robot's verbal cues. This poster session aims to present the findings of our analyses and discuss the implications of this technologically advanced environment in supporting developmentally appropriate learning and ecologically valid assessment.

Citation
Format

Hwang, J., & Sohail, M. F. (2024, June), Board 320: Integrating Playful Learning: A Mixed-Reality Approach to Enhance Computational Thinking in Young Learners Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--46900

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Over the course of a three-year period, supported by NSF EHR-ITEST funding, this project aims to create a pioneering mixed-reality setting to facilitate the early cultivation of computational thinking. Rooted in the principles of embodied cognition and social robotics, the project team is in the process of crafting and examining an environment that seamlessly integrates augmented reality (AR) technology with a physically embodied social robot.
Within this setting, kindergarten through second-grade students navigates a floor mat designed as a 5x5 chessboard-like grid while assisting a robot named Linibot in charting a path toward a predetermined destination. To aid them in this endeavor, the children hold a tablet through which the robot provides guidance in the form of instructions, cues, and constructive as well as motivational feedback. Concurrently, the tablet screen displays a corresponding map and various augmented reality obstacles for the children to navigate around. The primary educational goals of this experience encompass building foundational STEM problem-solving skills, fostering an understanding of symbols and sequences that transcend various STEM domains, and instilling confidence in young learners&#39; proficiency in advanced technology utilization.
To assess the effectiveness of the envisaged mixed-reality learning setting, individual children underwent pre-and post-tests. Throughout these assessments, children addressed analogous path-finding challenges on a tablet by manipulating and placing different arrows. Additionally, two distinct groups were designated: a control group, devoid of mixed-reality environments, and an intervention group, exposed to mixed-reality environments. The aim is to compare the computational thinking skills of each group and gauge the impact of the mixed-reality learning environment on skill development.
Iteratively developed over a span of two and a half years, the mixed-reality environment underwent continuous refinement, with ongoing designs subjected to testing involving thirty-five children in diverse informal settings, including our lab, a community center, and STEM showcase events. The focus of each test varied, aligning with the developmental progress of the environment at that particular stage.
During this poster session, we will showcase the outcomes of our latest implementation involving twenty boys and girls participating in a local one-day STEM showcase event. The participants, aged seven to eleven, represented diverse ethnicities, including Caucasian, Asian, and African American. Parents and children voluntarily visited our booth, leading to varied observations and conversations that highlighted a broad spectrum of children&#39;s abilities and computing experiences. Presently, we are in the process of analyzing data from interaction logs to evaluate each child&#39;s walking distance and time taken to reach the goal while simultaneously refining the design of AR-enabled obstacles and the robot&#39;s verbal cues. This poster session aims to present the findings of our analyses and discuss the implications of this technologically advanced environment in supporting developmentally appropriate learning and ecologically valid assessment.

AU  - Jaejin Hwang
AU  - Mohammad Faizan Sohail
CY  - Portland, Oregon
DA  - 2024/06/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Board 320: Integrating Playful Learning: A Mixed-Reality Approach to Enhance Computational Thinking in Young Learners
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/46900
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--46900
ER  -