=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1602/paper6
|storemode=property
|title=Internet of T(eachi)ngs: Assessing Children's Learning in the IoT Era
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1602/paper6.pdf
|volume=Vol-1602
|authors=Fabio Sorrentino,Lucio Davide Spano,Riccardo Scateni
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/avi/SorrentinoSS16
}}
==Internet of T(eachi)ngs: Assessing Children's Learning in the IoT Era==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1602/paper6.pdf
31
Internet Of T(eac)hings: Assessing
Children’s Learning In The IoT Era
Fabio Sorrentino Abstract
Department of Mathematics and This paper discusses an early prototype aiming at providing
Computer Science teachers with means for configuring connected objects that
University of Cagliari
can be used for assessing the understanding and the cre-
Cagliari, CA 09124, Italy
ative reworking of children’s learning. In order to do that, we
sorrefabio@gmail.com
support teachers in defining the information flow between
Lucio Davide Spano the connected objects and the interactive manipulation
Department of Mathematics and events considered relevant for the assessment. Consid-
Computer Science ering that in the last years classrooms have been more and
University of Cagliari more equipped with different technological supports, we
Cagliari, CA 09124, Italy
propose to use them in a more customisable way, helping
davide.spano@unica.it
both teachers and students in making lessons more enjoy-
Riccardo Scateni able and pleasant.
Department of Mathematics and
Computer Science We focus on already available and low cost technologies,
University of Cagliari since more advanced ones may have a high impact on
Cagliari, CA 09124, Italy school budgets. Due to this, we propose an approach that
riccardo@unica.it uses modular and low cost components that could be em-
bedded in different physical objects and easily replicated by
schools with a low investment.
Author Keywords
Internet of things, Children learning, NFC
Copyright is held by the author/owner(s).
AVI, June 07âĂŞ10, 2016, Bari, Italy
ACM Classification Keywords
H.5.m [Information interfaces and presentation (e.g., HCI)]
32
Introduction school setting.
It is a common belief that people learn while studying and
that testing is needed since teachers and educators must
somehow measure what actually has been learned. Indeed,
in order to improve learning it is usual to spend more time
and effort improving teaching rather than testing.
On the contrary, Roediger [4] said that testing memory not
only assesses what we know but changes it, underlining
the important of this task that could be, in some way, under-
used by educators. Roediger found that testing as often as
studying leads to better long-term retrieval, and that study-
ing once and then testing often allows students to retaining
the information well in both the short and long term. Testing
is one of the most important parts of a successful learning
experience [1], it is that particular moment when students
demonstrate their understanding of the facts and notions
explained by teachers and educators. Testing could be
Figure 1: Assessment game developed in the pilot study. A large
done in different ways and through many methodologies.
screen shows the question with multiple answers. The child can
It could be carried out orally or through written material, answer the question inserting a ball inside one of the baskets
it could use, for example, true-false statements, multiple below the screen.
choice questions or short answers. Our approach is mo-
tivated by a simple question: What if learners could play
while testing? An EUD learning assessment platform
Today, teachers can choose among dozens of available
Testing does not always have to be a serious and stress-
learning assessment tools and they can easily create their
ing experience. It can be immersive, interactive, fun and
tests by using free or paid web material. We are currently
creative. Playing is fun for children and it represents one
studying a solution for creating assessment exercises that
of the way they actually learn [5] [3] [2]. Through play, they
combine physical exercises and question for rehearsing
learn about their environments, their relatives, friends and
lesson concepts.
the whole world around. Positive play experiences develop
positive emotional well-being. So we can use of this positive
factors to turn testing into a positive experience. The tar-
get user is represented by the school-aged child between 5
and 12 years old. Our approach analysed the possible test-
ing scenarios, and the required hardware, in a low budget
33
Figure 2: Master, slave and link modules.
is a question which has only one correct answer. We en-
vision the developed tool as freely available online where
Our main idea is to provide an end-user development (EUD)
teachers can create their own questions thus sharing their
environment that would enable teachers to use cheap hard-
tests. Users, browsing among the available categories in
ware for sensing physical objects, for creating learning
the system can select which of them are suitable for the les-
games that would take advantage from both the physical
son, and, if necessary, they can create a set of questions
and the digital world.
combining more categories by simply removing or adding
The teacher, through the support of the EUD environment, single items.
defines the game rules and the playing field. From such
Each module is designed as a square of a rigid material
definition, the environment will suggest how to configure a
(i.e. wood or plastic) with a 180mm side having a thickness
set of smart modules for supporting the game. The smart
of 10mm. At its centre we find a circular hole with a 10mm
modules will be different low-cost sensors and hardware
diameter. A magnet stripe is placed both on the right and
devices, that will be automatically configured for receiving
the bottom side, while an iron one is placed on the left and
the data. In the rest of the paper, we will describe a small
on the top side. These stripes allow teachers to connect
pilot study for a multiple answer question game.
them in different configurations. The only constraint for the
Figure 3: Components used in the set-up is that there will be a single module labelled as mas-
very first prototype: an Arduino
Smart module design
ter while the others will be labelled as slaves. Their smart-
nano, an NFC RC522 module and In our first prototype we built a simple platform that man-
ness come from a combination of two main elements: an
an NFC tag. ages both the creation and the game experience. It allows
Arduino nano micro controller and a near field communica-
teachers to create a single ten-item quiz, where each item
34
tion (NFC) reader connected to it. This combination gives
to each module the computational ability to read an NFC
tag and to send its code to a PC through the master module
that continuously retrieves all the information read by the
slave modules.
The NFC technology is a set of communication protocols
that enable two electronic devices to exchange informa-
tion by bringing them within a short distance. NFC tags are Figure 4: Different examples of physical widget
passive component which can be read, and under some
circumstances written to, by an NFC device.
The composed modules create a single block that can be These widgets could have different shapes and materials (it
connected to the main PC through an USB cable. From is sufficient that they fit inside the hole placed in the square
now on, all the data read by the modules will be sent to the module) and in our early test we used foam balls placing
system making possible the user interaction. The game an NFC tag inside of them. At this point we can associate
requires a initial configuration, in fact the user may insert widgets students/players and the modules represents the
the number of players and their NFC ID. The association available answers for the current question. The system can
between user and ID is a guided operation; firstly, the sys- actually identify the answers given by the players checking
tem requires the name of the player, secondly the player their correctness.
may bring its physical widgets within four centimetres of
the master module. This way the name of the player will
Conclusion and future work
In this paper we discussed our idea for creating an EUD
be associated to the widget and the given answers will be
environment supporting teachers in developing learning as-
recorded for the right player.
sessment games. We developed a first game prototype for
Even if the default physical widgets are simple foam balls understanding the requirements and technical difficulties in
equipped with an NFC tag, teachers can create different automating the configuration of the physical object sensing
ones working together with their students 4. hardware.
Testing scenario In the future we would like to implement the environment,
We describe the usage of these modules for a quiz game, focusing on two main parts: the first one is the configura-
combining them with a screen or a projected surface. Mod- tion engine, that will receive the teacher-defined configu-
ules can be combined by using the magnet stripes, secur- ration and would generate the instructions for connecting
ing them with an optional frame that can hosts up to four the hardware and generate the code for reading data and
module as shown in figure 1. This smart component allows playing the game.
students to give their answers to the test by using physical
The second part is the EUD support, applying the existing
widgets equipped with NFC tags.
35
state of the art metaphors for defining the data flow, and observation, interaction and reflection. British
studying how to represent the start modules in a simple yet Educational Research Journal 32, 2 (2006), 191–207.
precise way the different modules.
4. Henry L. Roediger and Jeffrey D. Karpicke. 2006.
Test-Enhanced Learning: Taking Memory Tests
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