Maker Education Practice Based on App Inventor

【Abstract】 “Maker” is currently a popular term on the internet. How to integrate “Maker” into teaching in primary and secondary schools, cultivating a group of new makers with innovative thinking and social benefits, is a question that educational researchers must consider. This article revolves around “Maker Education” and “Innovative Thinking”, proposing that the core concept of Maker Education is to train students’ “hands-on” and “thinking” abilities, and that the process of Maker Education is a process of “learning by doing”. Combined with practical cases of Maker Education using App Inventor, it elaborates on the practical process of Maker Education.

【Keywords】Maker; Innovative Thinking; Maker Education; Micro-classes; App Inventor

1. “Maker” and “Maker Education”

1. What is a “Maker”?

The term “Maker” originates from the English word “Maker”, referring to individuals who are willing to innovate, do not aim for profit, and strive to turn various ideas into reality.[1] It originally stemmed from a practical project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which encompasses a wide range of content including innovative ideas, innovative design, and personal manufacturing. At the 12th National People’s Congress, Premier Li Keqiang first pointed out the need to vigorously promote “mass entrepreneurship and innovation”. The term “Maker” was included in the government work report for the first time.

In China, the current meaning of “Maker” is broader: “Makers” transform the results of innovative thinking into reality through various methods. Some are enthusiasts in the field of electronics, some in woodworking, and others in textile arts. The common characteristic of “Makers” is that they are practitioners of “innovative thinking” in various fields.

2. The Core Concept of Maker Education – “Innovative Thinking”

“Innovative Thinking” is the cognitive foundation and starting point for all Maker activities. Innovative thinking is one of the complex and advanced psychological processes of humans, representing a comprehensive reflection and enhancement of existing things.[3] It originates from life and transcends life; through contact with daily life and things, people generate certain reflective feedback, and its existence promotes the advancement of production technology and improves people’s daily living standards.

In primary and secondary schools and vocational schools, Maker Education should focus on cultivating “innovative thinking”. Primary and secondary students are in a period of rapid physical and psychological development, full of dreams and creative ideas that need to be nurtured and encouraged. Maker Education requires an implementable platform to guide young people in exercising innovative thinking, allowing them to fully exert their subjective initiative and engage in practical exploration to realize their dreams.

2. Theoretical Analysis of “Learning by Doing” in Maker Education

“Makers” share a common characteristic as practitioners of “innovative thinking” in various fields. The author believes that the core concept of Maker Education is to train students’ “hands-on” and “thinking” abilities, and the process is “learning by doing”. This theory is based on Dewey’s theory that “education is life”. Dewey’s educational theory represents modern educational theory, distinguishing itself from the traditional “classroom-centered”, “textbook-centered”, and “teacher-centered” old three-center theory, proposing the new three-center theory of “child-centered (student-centered)”, “activity-centered”, and “experience-centered”.[4] Education is a process of transmitting accumulated human experience, guiding the next generation in their lives and adapting to social development. Broadly speaking, education is the process of people interacting, influencing each other, gradually expanding and improving experiences, and cultivating moral qualities and various life production knowledge and skills.[5] Various experiences and lives are closely integrated, and the accumulation of experience promotes personal growth. Educator Dewey summarized that “education is life”, and “education is growth”, meaning that education is the “transformation of experience”.

Conventional computer education courses, especially at the secondary school level, mostly involve various algorithms, logic discussions, and program debugging on computers, with little connection to real life; the programming process is prone to errors, and usually, if students make one or two character mistakes, the program fails to run smoothly. Dull programming courses and error-prone coding frustrate students’ interest.

Currently, many tools for cultivating creative thinking have emerged, such as the commonly used Scratch block-based programming; App Inventor for Android application design, Arduino electronic breadboards, AI artificial intelligence, and augmented reality (AR). These tools are developed for students, easy to learn, and feature visual goal orientation and open-source characteristics. App Inventor, developed jointly by Google and MIT, is an Android application tool aimed at cultivating students’ creative abilities. Students can use the App Inventor platform to quickly write Android applications, turning ideas into reality. It is a combination of “hands-on” and “thinking” in Maker Education.

App Inventor is an online development platform for electronic devices and Arduino mobile applications. It is an excellent tool for exercising students’ innovative thinking. It uses an advanced stacking method for application development, allowing developers to build programs using a block-based programming interface according to their design ideas. App Inventor avoids delays in the development process due to individual coding or instruction errors. It has built-in sensor modules such as Bluetooth, GPS, photoelectric, and accelerometer, allowing developers to directly add parameters to call these modules to achieve their envisioned functions. Its peripheral development areas include mobile applications, Arduino electronic breadboards, smart robots, and open-source electronic components.

Applications created with App Inventor can run directly on various Arduino electronic breadboards and Android phones, utilizing numerous sensors on the phone, such as accelerometers, GPS sensors, cameras, microphones, compasses, and photoelectric sensors. The integration of sensors with real life can truly achieve the goal of applying what is learned, which is an organic combination with “education is life”.

Maker Education Practice Based on App Inventor

Figure 1: Theoretical Analysis of the Foundation of “Maker” Education and “Learning by Doing”

3. Analysis of Application Scenarios for App Inventor in Maker Education

App Inventor can communicate with external devices through sensors, allowing for the design of various Maker projects, such as: (1) Smart campus and smart home applications (smart classroom monitoring and control); (2) Life and work assistants (smart running, driving mobile assistants); (3) Learning tools (ping pong match record keeper, App Inventor remote control LEGO EV3 car), etc. The designed application fields include daily life, work, and learning. Below, we will analyze the micro-class titled “Smart Robot” as a case study to detail the application of App Inventor in Maker practice.

1. Problem Statement of the “Smart Robot”

Since Google’s AlphaGo faced off against a Korean Go champion, the topic of smart robots has reached a new level of interest. Artificial intelligence has never been so lively. The author has also designed his own smart robot using App Inventor, Bluetooth wireless communication modules, and robot modules.

There are many types of smart robot modules available on the market, such as LEGO robots from the United States, which have been dedicated to the field of robotics, and various robot cars assembled using Arduino electronic breadboards in China. They come in different shapes but can all receive commands through programming. Regardless of the type of robot, as long as it is given a “brain” that can think, it can achieve artificial intelligence. Data communication types usually include Bluetooth modules, WIFI modules, USB modules, etc. In this case, we will use the Bluetooth module for data transmission.

2. Specific Analysis of the Problem

Whether integrated or assembled, the source code of robots is generally open and has reference materials available for reading and understanding. The EV3 communication protocol includes two types of commands: system commands (Sys Cmd) and direct commands (Dir Cmd). Direct commands refer to controlling external components (photoelectric, motors, microphones, sensors, etc.) of the EV3 through the communication protocol. Here, we will use App Inventor to achieve remote control of the EV3 and record the production process as a micro-class video, forming a series of micro-classes for teachers and students to learn online.

3. Solution Approach

Based on the EV3 robot’s communication protocol and coding specifications, we will write direct commands and system commands as multiple subprograms (Procedures) within App Inventor. For example, subprograms for controlling motor output power (power-out), starting output (Start-control), and reading sensor data (Read-input), etc. Students can call different subprograms as needed.

Communication between the Android device and the EV3 robot is achieved through App Inventor’s Bluetooth module (BluetoothClient) or Wifi module. By calling the corresponding control subprograms, the Android device can send direct commands (DC) to the EV3 robot via Bluetooth. At the same time, feedback information received from Bluetooth is also obtained from sensors and transmitted to the CPU brain for processing.

4. Implementation Process

The mobile phone acts as the brain of the robot, and the control of the EV3 robot generally includes three processes: “establishing a connection”, “sending commands”, and “reading data”. Specifically, it involves establishing a Bluetooth connection between the phone and the EV3 smart block, then sending data collection commands to the robot, reading the sensor data returned by the EV3 robot, processing the data on the phone, and finally sending corresponding commands to the robot. If GPS compass sensors, natural language recognition, and image recognition are added, remote control of the robot can be achieved wirelessly. The robot can follow a predetermined path or interact without needing to control the robot itself. This makes the EV3 robot truly intelligent.

(1) Establishing Communication Connection

App Inventor establishes a connection with the smart robot’s Bluetooth port through the Bluetooth client (BluetoothClient), using the Bluetooth client component to obtain the device list (AddressesAndNames), and then using the selection function of the list reading component to read the successfully connected EV3 address and device from the list. As shown in Figure 2.

Maker Education Practice Based on App Inventor

Figure 2: Establishing Communication Module

(2) Sending Commands

By consulting relevant materials, the direct control commands (Direct Command) of the EV3 have been encapsulated in multiple subprograms (Procedures). These include output power (Power-out), start output (Start-control), stop output (Stop-control), and input reading (Read-input) subprograms.

5. Application

App Inventor can control the forward and backward movement of the EV3 robot, allowing for the setting of single motor drive or multiple servos to rotate together. When needing to drive a single motor, the port (Port) parameter of the module should be set to the corresponding servo motor’s port value. For example, to drive motor A alone, set the Port value to 1. When needing to drive multiple motors, the Port should be set to the sum of the motor port values. For example, if motors on ports C and D need to rotate simultaneously, the Port value should be 4 + 2 = 6.

If voice command interaction and image processing technology are required, the mobile phone’s voice sensor and image sensor can interact with the EV3 robot. By reading the distance values of obstacles detected by the camera, combined with distance sensors and GPS sensors, the robot’s walking route can be pre-planned, allowing it to automatically avoid obstacles.

Similarly, many other cases exist, such as automatic diagnosis robots, face recognition, and elderly companion robots, all of which are practical works created by Makers utilizing “innovative thinking” combined with hands-on abilities.

4. Conclusion

Education is life, and life is education. Returning education to its essence is a question worth pondering for educators. “Innovative thinking” is a reflective and summarizing process that continuously enhances and elevates existing things through daily practice. By applying innovative thinking, we can consider how to improve the efficiency of things, making them more convenient for people. In the ongoing process of reflection and improvement, we influence the things that affect daily life. It originates from life and is not a fanciful castle in the air; it must feedback into real life and benefit people. Without the essence of life, innovation can only be a castle in the air. All “Maker” works do not emerge from thin air, nor are they fabricated for the sake of being labeled as “Makers”; they should be based on the needs of life, creating practical small inventions and creations. The App Inventor electronic application platform is an excellent creative platform. It effectively combines innovative thinking with hands-on abilities. Maker works should be close to life, relying on solving practical problems in life. Maker Education will be a way to exercise “innovative thinking” in primary and secondary schools and a new direction for vocational schools to cultivate practical talents. Teachers should provide students with rich introductory materials, smart robot components, Arduino electronic breadboards, etc., encouraging students to engage in creative activities. As long as the core concept of “hands-on” + “thinking” is adhered to in Maker Education, more and better talents and Maker works will emerge in the future schools.

References:

[1] Liu Yan. The Characteristics of Maker Culture and Educational Reform [J]. China Youth Research, 2016, (1):79-83.

[2] Liu Decai. On the Cultivation of College Students’ Scientific and Technological Innovation Ability [J]. China Adult Education, 2016 (1): 81-83.

[3] Xie Weiping. Stimulating Innovative Thinking and Cultivating Students’ Information Literacy [J]. Educational Information Technology, 2012, (5): 44-45.

[4] Zhang Xuemei. Project-Based Learning and Its Teaching Design [J]. Educational Information Technology, 2009, (2): 52-53.

[5] Li Tianqin. Returning to the Essence of Education to Bloom the Flower of Education—A Brief Analysis of the Penetration of “Three Lives Education” in Language Education [J]. Curriculum Education Teaching Research, 2012, (24): 30-35.

[6] Wang Tongju. Exploration and Practice of Robot Teaching Models in Primary and Secondary Schools [J]. Educational Information Technology, 2012, (9): 38-40.

Leave a Comment