What Was Learnt

Teachers - Our Role and Experiences
As teachers we are used to making decisions about our students’ learning – the syllabus gives us both content and outcomes to address, and we generally choose the learning path. In this type of project, we endeavour to hand the learning back to the students, encourage them to own their initiative and choose their own pathway. Teachers here must be prepared to be open to the many directions students choose to take and allow them the freedom to follow their choice. This however does not mean we abdicate our role and of course there are times when, through conferencing, gentle suggestions can be made. Our role is though, essentially as ‘guide on the side’. This project also meant that in many areas, it was the student who was the ‘expert’ and the teacher the novice. Children today are immersed in technology from birth and so come to tasks such as this with no hesitation or self-doubts. As teachers in this project we often felt lacking in expertise.
Nevertheless, all the teachers involved supported the program and are looking forward to repeating it next year. We learnt from our experiences and have plans to streamline the project, based on the responses from the students and our own journals.

Our Decisions Relate to

  • Compressing to 1 term
  • Booking Macquarie ICT early so we can all go in the same week. (We had 3 bookings over 4 weeks, which meant we were ‘marking time’ waiting for all groups to be skilled up.)
  • Reduce the size of the groups – some children had very little ‘hands on’ with the programming, others were dominated by the natural leaders in their group. “Sam is doing all the work and not letting us do much.”- Nicola
  • Need to stagger lessons so no computer access problems. Laptops would be useful here.
  • Teachers would feel more comfortable with a kit available with which to develop skills. We had only 2 short sessions before the kits were handed to the students.
  • Teachers need to have more planning sessions so they have an input into planning.
  • Batteries need to be constantly charged. Many times battery failure caused the RCXs to lose their program.

Excerpts from my Journal

Unfortunately, we became so busy that I forgot to keep up with my journaling. CLICK HERE to read what I did manage to jot down.

Student Comments

The overwhelming feedback from the children was that they thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Looking at their journals it is obvious that they were often frustrated by the limitations of their program and by the input of some of the members of their group, but overall, their responses were positive. We asked the students to reflect on their experiences at the conclusion of the project.
Questions like ‘What made this project different from the way you normally learn at school?’ and ‘Was this a good way of learning?’ elicited responses such as:
“The teachers weren’t helping us all the time and telling us what to …do”
“We had to work harder and think more carefully…”
“We didn’t do the same thing over and over again and we learnt (by) trial and error.”
“…it gave me a unique learning experience in which I could actively try out what I learnt and that made learning fun.”
“It gave me a feeling of pride and triumph…”
“It’s more challenging…”
“We got to choose what we did.”
“..it is challenging ..we learn by experiencing it.”
“…we were using our ideas, doing the work by ourselves, teachers just watching in amazement as we create…”
“ we were allowed to discover so much on our own. We …got to explore the program by ourselves…without any restrictions.”
“ ..you got to (use) the robots first hand instead of watching others have the time of their life.”
“You got to design, make, program and showcase a robot. It was so cool and it’s extremely fun!”
CLICK HERE to view a quicktime movie of the students' comments.

CLICK HERE to view journal samples and reflections!

Student Learning

This can be divided into 3 sections:


Science & Technology Skills

Research tells us that Science, as a subject, is difficult to teach in a way that moves beyond the delivery of facts. ‘Machines of the Future’ is an attempt to teach Science and Technology in a very different way – by expecting students to be scientists and designers. To do this they quickly realise that they need to find out what scientists already know about a subject (eg. Robotics) and set about finding out through research. On many occasions the children became the teachers, not only to their peers, but to their teachers as well, as they searched out particular solutions for their design. Einstein began as a child wondering about the world around him. We hope we can keep our students’ curiosity alive so that in the future they may provide us with answers to the very questions they are asking now.

Lifelong Skills

  • Yes, they learnt an amazing amount about robotics, and continuously surprised us with their novel ideas, but they also learnt many skills that will be valuable for their future.
  • Self – directed learning – being able to select an area of interest, follow up this interest with valid research, and produce something to demonstrate their learning. Many of the students were excited about producing movies/TV advertisements, brochures etc.
  • Co-operation – a skill many found difficult. The teachers tried not to interfere with this process except to counsel and offer suggestions when asked.
  • Negotiation – when several members of a group had different ideas, they needed to come to a consensus through negotiation. Many found this challenging – it is difficult to let go of something you feel strongly about.
  • Responsibility – we wanted the children to ‘own’ the process and thus take responsibility for their work. Teachers were always on hand for advice and to give reminders of deadlines, but the responsibility for completing the work was theirs.
  • Being an active member of the group – children kept each other ‘up to the mark’ as far as staying actively involved.
  • Persistence –children had to go ‘back to the drawing board’ many times to rethink and problem-solve.
  • Presentation skills – many students have learned to make PowerPoint presentations, to create dramatisations and film and edit movies.

Thinking Skills

This type of learning requires the learner to use:
  • Higher order thinking skills – communication, questioning, reasoning, analysing, creating and evaluating
  • Critical thinking skills – Will it work? How can we modify it?
  • Problem-solving, innovative risk-taking and creativity
  • Differentiated learning, allowing students to move up to levels beyond their normal capabilities or for gifted students to work at a higher level.