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Educational Robotics for kids: “e-Rob” project designed by Sant’Anna BioRobotics Institute, Fondazione Stella Maris, Fondazione Tim and Comune di Pisa to be presented in Florence at Didacta Italia Expo

Publication date: 05.09.2017
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The project “e-Rob” developed by the Institute of Biorobotics at Sant’Anna School in partnership with Fondazione TIM, IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris, and Comune di Pisa will be presented to school teachers, education professionals, and guests during the Didacta Italia Expo in Florence on September 27-29, 2017. A software platform designed as part of the “e-Rob” project was developed to help teachers create programs with a focus on “Educational Robotics: Bridging Neuroscience and Education”; the workshop will be held at 2.00 pm on Wednesday 27 September at Regione Toscana Stand.

The “e-Rob” project aims to help young students to improve their skills through the the e-learning platform. The project developed in Pisa involved more than 250 kids from 13 schools; 20 kids had vision problems and LDs.

Scientific evidence has proved that the use of technology to enhance learning is an effective approach for many children. Preliminary results of the “e-Rob” project suggested that the robot bees “Bee Bot” led to improvement in reading and spelling in all children. The therapy approach was based on the idea that children’s visual perceptual motor abilities influence other cognitive processes, such as reading and linguistic functions. Neuropsychologists and neuropsychiatrists of IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris and robotics and programming experts of Sant’Anna Biorobotics Institute used the e-learning platform Moodle (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) and developed a Moodle activity module as an aggregation of a variety of modules.

The platform, as a source available on-line, gives the teachers the opportunity to download teaching material, flashcards, pictures, photos, games, etc.. Teachers have also the opportunity to give their feedback about the activities and determine if additional work is needed.

In addition to teaching sessions, “e-Rob” also features a public forum and teachers have many opportunities to network, exchange best practices and develop new approaches to education.