Dialogue with Curriculum Developers: How New Technologies Truly Enter Classrooms 2.0

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Dialogue with Curriculum Developers:

How New Technologies Truly Enter Classrooms 2.0

Dialogue Guests:

Xie Zuoru, Teacher at Wenzhou Middle School, Zhejiang Province, Co-founder of the “Virtual Valley Project”;

Liu Zhengyun, Teacher at Nantong University Affiliated Middle School, Jiangsu Province, Core Member of the “Virtual Valley IoT” Project.

Challenges Faced

“China Information Technology Education”: Whether developing courses or writing textbooks, it is very complex, as it involves sorting out various knowledge in the curriculum and considering various issues during implementation. What problems did the two teachers encounter during the course development and textbook writing process?

Xie Zuoru: Because I focus on new technologies, choosing suitable software or hardware for primary and secondary schools is the core task. Often, the difficulties lie here. Taking the Open Source Hardware Project Design as an example, the work on this was initiated in early 2016. At that time, the most popular open-source hardware in China was Arduino, followed by Raspberry Pi. Due to the high usage threshold of Raspberry Pi, most application cases treated it as a computer that required an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse to operate. We believed that such a teaching scenario was difficult to promote, so we initially dismissed Raspberry Pi. However, Arduino’s programming language is C/C++, or we can use ArduBlock and Mixly, which posed a challenge for us. Since other modules of the textbook used Python, using C/C++ for this module raises questions about students’ programming foundations and creates a sense of inconsistency from a holistic perspective. Using graphical programming tools like Mixly might also seem to diminish students’ capabilities.

Liu Zhengyun: Influenced by Teacher Xie, I have also focused on open-source hardware, and I certainly hope to bring this aspect of “new technology” into primary and secondary school classrooms. Taking the Tsinghua University Press textbook Internet of Things and Smart Home as an example, IoT technology is not exactly “new” and has appeared in primary and secondary school textbooks multiple times, but how to integrate IoT technology with the currently popular Python language to rejuvenate its presence in primary and secondary classrooms is a significant challenge. The biggest difficulty we encountered while writing the textbook, which can also be described as the greatest challenge, was how to design a new technology course related to new technologies that allows students to truly engage in various classic experiments.

The prerequisite for students to engage in hands-on practice is that schools are willing and able to purchase the IoT kits used in the textbook. If costs are too high, some schools will certainly be unable to implement it; if the technical difficulty is too high, teachers will have difficulty teaching. What writing strategies can we adopt to ensure our textbooks break through the bottlenecks of previous materials while also considering the actual circumstances of individual schools is a question we continuously pondered during the writing process.

Solutions

“China Information Technology Education”: From the introductions of the two, we understand that choosing a suitable platform (hardware or software) is key to the course’s successful implementation. So, how were these difficulties ultimately resolved?

Xie Zuoru: I think there are only two paths; one is to keep searching, to look everywhere. For example, when writing High School Information Technology Textbooks, in the first version, we chose to use Arduino for smart terminals. About half a year later, I unexpectedly discovered that micro:bit actually supports MicroPython. After research, I proposed a bold idea to several chief editors—to replace Arduino in the textbook with micro:bit.

Similarly, for neural network experiments in artificial intelligence, everyone was hesitant at first, saying TensorFlow was too difficult, but we quickly discovered Keras, which has concise and easy-to-understand code. The second path is to find ways to solve the problems ourselves. For example, at that time, choosing micro:bit was risky because there were no manufacturers in China supporting micro:bit, and its peripheral circuits and expansion modules could not be guaranteed. So I persuaded several closely related maker companies in China to design expansion boards for micro:bit. Then, through platforms like Cat Friends Association and STEAM Education Conference, we organized training on micro:bit and wrote courses. Once there was a market, various supports would follow. As a result, before our textbook was officially published, micro:bit had already become popular in the domestic maker education circle.

Before developing “Arduino Creative Robot”, ArduBlock was very difficult to use. I, along with Liu Zhengyun and other students, reorganized the details and had He Qicheng from the new workshop redevelop the educational version of ArduBlock. Initially, the code writing tool for micro:bit was not mature, and the official only provided an online writing method, which could not be used in the textbook. Therefore, I suggested DFRobot develop a small open-source tool called BXY. Currently, BXY is one of the best code writing tools for micro:bit and controlling boards, and is very much needed in middle and high school teaching.

Tracing back to the origin of the “Virtual Valley Project”, it was actually a method devised by frontline teachers who could not find good software and hardware platforms. The design of the controlling board was to solve the terminal issues of IoT, while the Virtual Valley number was aimed at solving the teaching issues of artificial intelligence.

Liu Zhengyun: It is gratifying that over time, the timing for new technologies to be implemented will become increasingly mature. In choosing open-source hardware, we can also use cost-effective Arduino and controlling boards as the main objects for students to operate during textbook writing. Arduino is the most popular open-source hardware in China, with a high level of public acceptance; the controlling board is a domestically developed open-source smart hardware designed to popularize STEAM maker education, artificial intelligence education, and programming education, compact and powerful. The controlling board initially provided a simplified version of Python—MicroPython—as one of its programming languages; Arduino has always used “block language” programming or “C-like language” for programming, but in the spring of 2020, the Virtual Valley Project and Shanghai Mushroom Cloud makers developed the pinpong library, allowing Arduino to also support Python programming.

The pinpong library is a Python hardware control library. Its principle is to burn a specific firmware into the smart terminal, allowing it to communicate with the computer via serial port and execute various commands. Currently, the pinpong library supports Arduino, controlling boards, micro:bit, Virtual Valley number, etc. With the help of the pinpong library, programming various common smart terminals can be done directly with Python code. The design of the pinpong library is to allow developers to focus on software implementation without being constrained by complex hardware models. In other words, hardware is no longer important; any choice is fine, and software is the core.

When both software and hardware are well addressed, the main task of writing textbooks is to design activities that allow students to engage in hands-on practice. For me, it is necessary to comprehensively consider the difficulty, fun, and cost of the activities involved. For instance, we categorize activities into experience, experiment, and practice. “Experience activities” can be demonstrated by teachers, can be experienced by students following the steps in the activity resource package, or can be recorded for students to watch, offering a variety of choices; therefore, more attention is paid to the fun aspect when designing experience activities. Conversely, “experiment activities” and “practice activities” require students to undergo the process of experimentation and practice. To ensure smooth large-class teaching, we consider the costs of the equipment used when selecting specific activities, and we take a progressive approach to the difficulty of the activities when designing them.

Textbook Writing Ideas

“China Information Technology Education”: Could you provide a simple example of the thought process or core philosophy behind developing a specific course?

Xie Zuoru: I will take “Open Source Hardware Project Design” as an example. This is an elective compulsory module for high school information technology courses, designed according to the needs for personalized development of students, following the project design process of open-source hardware. The module includes three parts: “Characteristics of Open Source Hardware,” “Project Process of Open Source Hardware,” and “Design and Production of Works Based on Open Source Hardware.”

Our textbook is divided into five chapters. First, we introduce “Open Source Ideas and Open Source Hardware,” then analyze a typical open-source hardware project to understand its development process and plan a project, then learn the basic knowledge of hardware, and finally guide students to publish and maintain this project on GitHub or Gitee.

How can we ensure that students successfully complete their projects? Considering the conditions of different regions and schools, we showcase open-source hardware projects that lean towards programming, avoiding mechanical structures as much as possible. We provide three typical project development processes as learning examples for students, namely a computer magic controller, a classroom answering device, and a smart flower pot, involving human-computer interaction, multi-machine communication, and IoT technology, covering knowledge from multiple disciplines. In summary, my course development philosophy is that it must be truly implementable.

Liu Zhengyun: I will take “Internet of Things and Smart Home” as an example. The textbook is divided into two units: the first unit delves into understanding IoT, including terminal devices, communication, perception, and control, and learning to build a simple IoT system for remote interconnection; the second unit, Smart Home, is a specific application of the first unit, involving indoor environmental perception, remote control of home appliances, exploration of intelligent interaction, and the future of smart homes.

Like other textbooks, this textbook also adopts a project-based learning approach. Project learning is organized into stages: “Learning Guidance,” “Problem Needs,” “Implementation Planning,” “Division of Labor and Cooperation,” “Project Implementation,” and “Communication and Sharing.” At the beginning of each unit, a project case with a specific context is provided to guide and inspire students, encouraging them to attempt to design a large project related to the unit content; at the end of each section, the “Project Implementation” stage helps students clarify the key points in the project.

Course Development Recommendations

“China Information Technology Education”: Finally, let’s return to the topic. Ensuring that new technologies truly enter primary and secondary school classrooms is a challenge every teacher must face and solve. In this regard, can the two teachers offer some advice to other course developers?

Xie Zuoru: The development of information technology is rapid, and our textbooks must keep pace with the times. For new technologies entering primary and secondary school classrooms, I think we need to focus on two points.

The first is to consider learning costs, which means how to lower the technical threshold so that teachers can quickly adapt. For example, when designing the syntax for the controlling board, we specifically made it compatible with the syntax of micro:bit. Similarly, the syntax of the Virtual Valley number and the pinpong library is also compatible with the controlling board. Once one is learned, the others can be easily understood. This way, the teaching of open-source hardware slowly forms an industry standard.

The second is to consider implementation costs, which means it cannot be too expensive or too troublesome. For instance, when designing the Virtual Valley number, I focused on Jupyter, considering how to allow the Virtual Valley number to be powered on and programmed through the network, which provides a great experience. The pinpong library can integrate well with Jupyter, supporting common open-source hardware and regular input/output modules, thereby significantly reducing hardware investment. These two points are also applicable to the promotion of other new technologies.

Liu Zhengyun: In addition to the learning costs and implementation costs mentioned by Teacher Xie, I would like to add one more point regarding new technologies entering primary and secondary school classrooms. Recently, the latest version of the pinpong library has been able to support NFC modules, which is a new requirement I proposed to the development team some time ago. NFC is one of the core technologies in IoT and is widely used; currently, there is no particularly simple way to conduct “NFC experiments” in teaching. The controlling board, BXY, and pinpong library, etc., initially had incomplete functions, but as we continuously propose requirements, engineers keep developing, and the controlling board and pinpong library have become increasingly powerful and more in line with the actual teaching needs of primary and secondary schools.

Thus, for new technologies to be implemented in primary and secondary school classrooms, it requires the concerted efforts of many people and the support of social enterprises. We not only need to learn new technologies but also actively participate in the popularization of new technology teaching. When a good interactive mechanism is established between frontline teachers and enterprises, these educational products will be more aligned with actual classrooms.

This article comes from: “China Information Technology Education”

Dialogue with Curriculum Developers: How New Technologies Truly Enter Classrooms 2.0

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