This paper illustrates how a university-based project management office (PMO) can provide focused support across the entire grant project lifecycle within a European research context. In recent years, EU (European Union) research and innovation grant programs have increasingly shifted to support multidisciplinary consortia composed of industry,…

This study presents the case of development and evaluation of a STEM-oriented 30-h robotics course for junior high school students (n = 32). Class activities were designed according to the P3 Task Taxonomy, which included: (1) practice-basic closed-ended tasks and exercises; (2) problem solving--small-scale open-ended assignments in which the…

Educational robotics (ER) is an innovative learning tool that offers students opportunities to develop higher-order thinking skills. This study investigates the development of students' metacognitive (MC) and problem-solving (PS) skills in the context of ER activities, implementing different modes of guidance in two student groups (11-12 years…

Teaching programming and coding skills in K-12 classrooms is becoming a part of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) programs across the United States. Often, these opportunities are available through extra-curricular activities such as Robotics club, math club, STEM club, etc. Increasing STEM opportunities for students who are…

It is important that preservice educators have an awareness of geography, including city, county, state, and the broader globe. Ensuring that preservice educators are aware of new technologies to promote K-12 students' knowledge of geography is important. K-12 students can benefit by gaining 21st-century skills using problem solving, critical…

Driverless cars are hitting the road, powered by artificial intelligence. Robots can climb stairs, open doors, win "Jeopardy," analyze stocks, work in factories, find parking spaces, advise oncologists. In the past, automation was considered a threat to low-skilled labor. Now, many high-skilled functions, including interpreting medical…

Japanese university students (N=253) conversed with human and Artificially intelligent (AI) chatbot partners then recorded their perceptions of these interactions via open-ended written feedback. This data was qualitatively analyzed to gain a better understanding of the merits and demerits of using chatbots for English study from the students'…

The increasing number of English language learning children in U.S. classrooms and the need for effective programs that support these children present a great challenge to the current educational paradigm. The challenge may be met, at least in part, by an innovative humanoid robot serving as a cultural broker that mediates collaborative…

In this paper we review the contribution of our original work titled "Simulating Instructional Roles Through Pedagogical Agents" published in the "International Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Education" (Baylor and Kim in "Computers and Human Behavior," 25(2), 450-457, 2005). Our original work operationalized…

In this work the authors investigate the effectiveness of robotics in education. Rather than creating excitement for children when playing with robots in games, they are examining the overall learning environment where a robot acts as a teaching assistant. They designed a suitable lesson plan when groups of teenagers participate in activities…

This article introduces a series of real-world classroom projects that demonstrate how to integrate robotics into art classrooms using Makerspaces as the preferred contextual framework. The goal of this article is to encourage art teachers to use the Makerspace concept, and the included project ideas, as a source of inspiration for their own…

This study explores how using action plans, SMART goals, personal learning networking and peer teaching in a first-year education technology course influence pre-service teachers' (PSTs') self-efficacy beliefs in their technological pedagogical knowledge (TPK) and technological content knowledge (TCK). Pre- and post-course survey items from the…

There is a need for developmentally appropriate Computational Thinking (CT) assessments that can be implemented in early childhood classrooms. We developed a new instrument called "TechCheck" for assessing CT skills in young children that does not require prior knowledge of computer programming. "TechCheck" is based on…

The purpose of this article is to describe a possible methodology for developing joint attention skills in students with autism spectrum disorder. Co-robot therapy with the humanoid robot NAO was used to foster a student's joint attention skill development; 20-min sessions conducted once weekly during the school year were video recorded and…

The world of work is being impacted by a fourth industrial revolution, transformed by artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies. With forecasts suggesting large shares of workers, displaced by automation, in need of upskilling/reskilling, the design of active skills policies is necessary. Conventional methods used to anticipate…