EAGER: Paper Mechatronics: Creating High-Low Tech Design Kits to Promote Engineering Education

网络学习和未来学习技术计划为支持展望学习技术的未来并推动我们了解人们如何在技术丰富的环境中学习的努力提供资金。在这个渴望网络学习的项目中，项目组正在为使用“纸机电一体化”作为一种学习技术开发基础。纸质机电一体化使以工艺为导向的工程和计算教育方法成为可能，它融合了机械工程、电气工程、控制系统和计算机编程的关键概念，同时将纸张作为学习者设计、探索和探究的主要材料。在这种方法中，学习者将设计可折叠的纸组件和组件；对发动机、传感器和控制进行编程；反复测试他们的想法；并在网站上分享他们的设计。这种基于纸张的建模方法旨在学习机械工程、电气工程、控制系统和计算机编程的概念和实践，最终目的是使所有学习者都有可能接触并有机会参与创造性的工程、设计和计算机编程。通过设计和制造纸机电子学来学习的方法是许多不同技术因素的汇聚--以低成本获得的小型计算机、传感器和致动器阵列，以及儿童可以使用的尺寸；各种可操作的导电材料(线、涂料、织物)的可用性；用于纸张和类似材料的低成本和精确的桌面和激光切割机；各种新的类似纸张的材料；以及与计算机交互的新方式。这种方法在帕普特的建构主义和当前的制造者运动中有其基础，但它具有超越建构主义本身的潜力，无论是在实践中，还是在使用它的背景下，关于学习和发展的潜在学习和发展方面都是如此。在拟议的项目过程中，该小组正在解决各种问题--理论(例如，扩展建构主义方法，考虑到儿童可以对提议的材料类型具有的具体经验)、学科(例如，哪种学科内容学习和跨学科联系可能对这种类型的支持以及对哪些人群提供最好的支持)、技术和实用问题。他们将确定设计目标和研究问题，这是在更成熟的项目中承担的最有意义的问题。这个项目的工作将为扩展基于计算的表达技术的理论，设计面向建构主义的学习环境，以及评估学龄儿童对机电系统的创造力、自我效能感、参与度和概念理解奠定基础。

The Cyberlearning and Future Learning Technologies Program funds efforts that support envisioning the future of learning technologies and advance what we know about how people learn in technology-rich environments. In this Cyberlearning EAGER project, the project team is developing foundations for using "paper mechatronics" as a learning technology. Paper mechatronics makes possible a craft-oriented approach to engineering and computing education that integrates key concepts from mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, control systems, and computer programming, while using paper as the primary material for learner design, exploration, and inquiry. In this approach, learners will design foldable paper components and assemblies; program motors, sensors and controls; test their ideas iteratively; and share their designs on a website. This paper-based modeling approach to learning concepts in and practices of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, control systems, and computer programming ultimately aims to make it possible for all learners to have exposure to and the opportunity to participate in creative engineering, design, and computer programming.The approach to learning through designing and making through paper mechatronics is made possible by a convergence of many different technological factors -- the array of small computers, sensors, and actuators that are becoming available at low cost and a size that children can use; availability of a wide variety of manipulable conductive materials (threads, paints, fabrics); low-cost and precise desktop and laser cutters for paper and similar materials; a wide variety of novel paper-like materials; and new ways of interacting with the computer. The approach has its foundations in Papert's constructionism and in the current maker movement, but it has potential beyond constructionism itself, both in practice and with respect to what can potentially be learned about learning and development in in context of its use. During the course of the proposed project, the team is addressing a variety of issues -- theoretical (e.g., extending the constructionist approach to take into account the kinds of embodied experiences children can have with the proposed kinds of materials), disciplinary (e.g., which disciplinary content learning and interdisciplinary connection making might this kind of making best support and for which populations), technological, and pragmatic ones. They will identify both the design goals and the research questions that it makes the most sense to take on in a more mature project. Work on this project will lay the foundations for extending theories of computationally-based expressive technologies, design of constructionist-oriented learning environments, and assessing creativity, self-efficacy, engagement, and conceptual understanding of electro-mechanical systems with school-aged learners,