Android Robo is a very successful Robotic Education Company providing STEM / STEAM based Robotics Training for schools and students.

1. Robots in Education: Why? What?
How? And What For?
Robotics is now considered as a General Purpose Technology, meaning it
has the potential to drastically alter societies through its impact on pre-existing
economic and social structures. With this in mind, it is only natural to discuss
educational robotics as a truly stimulating strategic topic that looks toward the
future.
What role can robots play in enabling new avenues for pedagogy, in the same
way as digital technologies profoundly transformed education a few years
back?
To bring robots into our schools successfully – and the criteria for success
must be determined – how shall we involve all stakeholders in the process?
Shall we incorporate robots into education for the purpose of stimulating a
stronger interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)
or to pave the way for our children towards a society in which robotics will be
consistently integrated everywhere?
Innorobo organized the first Franco-Korean Education & Robotics Forum at
Robotworld 2016, thus bringing together the opinions and visions of
stakeholders from leading French educational institutions and premier Korean
educational robotics companies and organizations. We have documented the
topic briefly, using additional sources, in order to finally publish this article. We
welcome any comments, feedback and, more importantly, different opinions
and visions, as we believe we should spark a discussion so as to contribute,

2. through debate, to forging the appropriate answers to these highly important
questions.
Robots are enabling new avenues for pedagogy and classrooms
According to a spokesperson at Robotis, South Korea’s leading Educational
Robotics company, “Robotics is the best tool for Project Based Learning
(PBL) for the 21st century and the most exciting way to learn by doing. PBL is
a student-centered pedagogy that involves a dynamic classroom approach in
which students acquire deeper knowledge through active exploration of
real-world challenges and problems. Students learn about a subject by
working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to a
complex question, challenge or problem.”
ICAP (France, an ambitious program for technology–enhanced
learning):
ICAP has identified 3 roles for robots in education.
The robot as an educational subject
To start with, in early primary classes, from 5-6 years of age, children learn
basic algorithms by programming objects and actions. Throughout their
schooling, they are now offered robots that follow their progress. There are
also a number of competitions at different levels using robots they have built
and programmed.
Robots as learning support tools
In this second role, robots help to support educational activities. For instance,
in medical and healthcare education, the use of simulation is an important
means of learning in order to improve patient safety and quality of care.

3. Implementation of more realistic simulation-based teaching methodologies,
which serves as a bridge between the acquisition and application of clinical
skills, knowledge, and attributes, increasingly makes use of robotic simulators.
Telepresence robots
These devices enable sick or hospitalized children to “virtually” attend
classroom sessions at school by taking control of a tele-operated robot.
We can add a 4th role, assisting education professionals in their daily tasks
via a “collaborative, complementary robot-human” approach. For instance,
robots can account for the presence or absence of students, welcome them
into the classroom by name, etc., thus allowing the teacher to focus on their
pedagogical objective.
It is generally agreed, despite a certain lack of scientific studies at a large scale
on the topic, that robots are a motivating tool for students to pursue
STEM studies and a pedagogical tool for STEM. In particular:
 Robots strengthen scientific and technological culture in schools
 Robots are tools to facilitate the transfer of knowledge through
trans-disciplinary activity- based projects
 Robots are good tools for applying scientific thinking, (through
enquiry-based activities, for instance).
 Robots are ideal artifacts for making abstract knowledge concrete, e.g.
for teaching real-world application of math, science, programming and
engineering.

4. As well, some professionals claim that, in an educational context, robots are
certainly relevant and effective beyond science, technology, engineering and
mathematics teaching.
states Didier Roy, a mathematics professor, researcher in optimization of robotics
learning and mediation, and member of INRIA’s Flowers team. “The active research
approach to educational robotics opens the debate and is an asset to facilitate
student expression in a traditional school setting. This teaching of robotics,
and more broadly of IT, has become essential in a society where digital
technology is at once so present in our lives and so little understood. Indeed,
technology separates humans into two categories; those who use it, knowing
the benefits as well as the pitfalls, and who capture the essential foundations
of computational thinking. And the others.” (Source: Generation Robots blog)
Robots are underused (but growing) in formal education, yet
widespread in informal education
In Korea, a large educationalrobotics program led to the setup of more than
3,000 robots at pre-schools more than 6 years ago. Korea’s national robotics
strategy has sparked the creation of educational robotics companies that lead
the field. In addition, South Korea counts a host of after-class programs and
competitions dedicated to robotics.The Russian Association of Robotics (RAR)
counts more than 1,000 educational robotics centers for children and 53
universities that teach robotics. In Switzerland, the Ecole Polytechnique Fédé
rale de Lausanne (EPFL) created Thymio, an affordable educationalrobotics
platform together with associated educational material and a teacher-training
program. Together, EPFL and the Lausanne University of Teacher Education
(La Haute Ecole Pédagogique du Canton de Vaud) have trained 214 teachers in
educational robotics, linking the discipline with the official curriculum. In
France, algorithm programming will be compulsory as of 2017 in order to

5. obtain the Brevet des Collèges middle-school certification. As well, the Hauts
de France region, in the northern part of the country, is now offering several
educational programs and degrees in robotics, ranging from the
post-high-school vocationallevel to a Master’s in Robotics.
Such initiatives are not limited to Asia or Europe. The African Robotics
Network (AFRON) has launched the $10 Robot Design Challenge, a contest
that hopes to generate robot designs that will be cheap enough to be
accessible in schools and used for educational purposes in emerging countries
across the globe (see below).
These developments are only the tip of the iceberg, just a few examples of the
advances being made in educational robotics around the world.
Getting stakeholders involved
One decisive factor for ensuring the uptake and success of educational robotics
is involving teachers and taking their standpoint into account. The French
Institute of Education (IFE) is working to to set up clear learning outcomes,
aims and objectives for educational robotics so that it is proven truly useful in
schools. One study held among Korean teachers reveals that the desired and
expected outcomes are – by order of importance – creative design, learning
programming, playing with robots, an introduction to science and math and
engineering practice. European teachers using Thymio have been surveyed on
the usefulness of the robot. In their view, beyond mathematics and science
teaching, which robots are best suited for, they also help develop transversal
skills such as reflective processes, collaboration, communication, learning
strategies and creative thinking.

6. What is particularly interesting here is that creativity (e.g. creative design and
creative thinking) is the one learning outcome mentioned in both Asia and
Europe.
Successfully paving the way for a new robotics society
The IFE states clearly that education is fully concerned by the profound
societal changes that robotics entails. In a June 2016 special edition of IEEE
Robotics Automation Magazine dedicated to educational robotics, Pericle
Salvini and Illah Nourbakhsh argue that
“Robots at schools, at any level, should foster a critical reflection on robotics,
provide students with a realistic perception of robotics technologies and be the
opportunity to teach the new generations to relate with autonomous robots in a
responsible way. As we give students a chance to understand the scope of what is
possible in robotics, so we also empower them to have opinions and voices that
will help drive how we can change society for the better using robotics
technologies.”
Technologies – and robotics are no exception – are a means to achieve an
objective or a vision, and not an objective or a vision in themselves. It is up to
us, the human beings who create and develop these technologies, to decide
what we want them to do. Together, as a conscious community involving all
stakeholders, we can determine a vision for a new sustainable social &
economic organization, transformed by disruptive general-purpose
technologies.