European Statistical Institution has conducted a nationwide survey on the use of information technologies by children in the age rage of 6 to 15 years. The survey has studied the form, the frequency and purposes of use of computers, the Internet and mobile phones by the children that fall into the scope of the survey’s target audience, which has been divided into two sub-groups, being 6 to 10 years and 11 to 15 groups, in order to better observe the variances. The data derived suggest that the average age to start using a computer is 6. Having been born into the technology, the generation Z loves the Internet but most members of it do not go beyond gaming and the use of the social media. One of the threats posed by the advancements in the world is the technology addiction, which leads to physical issues in the members of generation Z as well as causing them to encounter problems with other individuals around them, to feel lonely and unhappy, to develop depression, to get disconnected from social relations, to be exposed to obscenity and sexual abuse as well as cyber bullying, online gambling and other unfavorable factors and phenomena. The disconnection of young individuals from the social life due to technology addiction causes them to underachieve significantly in their academic lives. Our project intends for the youngsters of generation Z to manage and control technology instead of being addicted to it and to so engage in activities jointly with their friends, socialize and emerge as self-fulfilling individuals in the society. Another specific objective of the project is to help the youngsters to thrive in their academic performance. We also aim at enabling them to become capable of managing the technology through mobile programming, robotic coding and software development trainings, which we will be delivering on the basis the analyses that will be conducted jointly by project partners as a part of preventive actions, which is a significant means of combating addiction, and social support activities. It is the objective of our project to contribute to the upbringing of young individuals, who: know how to prioritize and solve the problems they encounter in their lives, have learnt how to think systematically and develop plans, easily understand the logic of operation of machines, can correlate events and situations and separate bugs and errors in any given situation, and have high level of creating thinking abilities. As is known, in today’s ever rapidly evolving, digitalized world, the Industry 4.0 has been reshaping and will continue to reshape not only jobs but also the qualifications sought in candidates. With this fact in mind, we will guide our students in their endeavors to use robotic coding and software, and using such capabilities, to develop their own software and solution systems through transnational efforts. Respecting our students’ own learning pace, we will enable them to work with their peers and mutually improve one another. Peer education and team effort will be an integral part of coding education both for the teachers and the students. All project partners have will, enthusiasm and experience to carry out the project-related activities. Our strategic partners are committed and cooperative institutions in Italy, Portugal, Poland, Turkey and Romania with background and experience in the fields of robotic coding and STEM, who have needs to carry out and curiosity in robotic coding endeavors. The target audience of the project is comprised of 4 students in the age group of 10 to 15 years and 2 teachers at the 6 project partner institutions, which are based in Turkey, Italy, Portugal, Poland, Estonia and Romania. Our LTT and other activities toward the actualization of our objectives include: - Exploration of algorithms, block-based sites, which shall be followed by the exploration of block-based programming languages, through a simple-to-complex path, and empowerment of students to develop their own original codes for animations, programs and games, - Creation of solution-oriented electronic circuits and performance of project-based activities to offer solutions to regional and global issues, -Transformation of algorithms created toward specific goals into codable, controllable objects through robotic kits, - Development of mobile applications, and - Utilization of 3-D design programs. It should be noted that we will adopt a STEM approach for all of the foregoing activities. Throughout the project; the teachers will also improve themselves constantly and ensure the inter-institutional sharing and transfer of good examples. We will continue benefiting from and improving the effects and outcomes of the project even after it is completed. The project website will remain active through the contribution and activities of the partners for 2 years. The project-related activities will be maintained and extended on eTwinning. Also, we will be sharing our activities on Scientix portal.
The idea of creating the project was the reaction to the information about statistical surveys on the use of information technologies by children in the age range of 6 to 15 years. These surveys showed that youngsters are addicted to the technology as users not as creators. Because of that we focused on the next goals. Our youngsters * know how to prioritize and solve the problems they encounter in their lives, * have learnt how to think systematically and develop plans, *easily understand the logic of operation of machines, * can correlate events and situations and separate bugs and errors in any given situation, * have a high level of creating thinking abilities. These goals of our project "ROBOCODERS Z IN 4.0" were mostly achieved. Our pupils ability to solve the problems, think systematically, develop plans and models, understand the logic of operation different mechanisms have increased. In proof of that we can see lot of experiments, different models on our webpage https://sites.google.com/view/robocoderszin40/resources. 6 short-term exchanges of groups of pupils in Turkey, Estonia, Poland, Portugal, Italy and Romania took place. During the visits pupils took part in activities concerning the topic of the project, they took part in workshops connected with learning programming and robotics, using information-communication technology to solve problems and they visited places connected with new technologies. One of the concomitant aim of our project LTT-s was to develop also programming and technology skills among teachers by means of a great variety of ICT tools used in the project. Teachers of partnership schools exchanged their knowledge about methods and tools of teaching programming included to the STEM, teaching computational thinking and using ICT tools in teaching and learning. Partners use different tools for teaching programming, robotics, 3D technology. This knowledge helps to choose new technology specially robotics kits to your own lesson. The lessons conducted on the LTT-s gave to teachers lot of ideas how to integrate them to STEM lessons on their schools. During the project every school took various actions concerning the topic of the project including programming and robotics workshops for students and teachers, taking part in Hour of Code, meetings with IT specialists. In the beginning all partnership schools prepared some posters which informed the school’s community about the project. Students designed their own proposals for the logo of the project and they also sent Christmas wishes with the use of Christmas movies designed with different technology and programmed by them. Within the project the website of the project https://sites.google.com/view/robocoderszin40/home was made. It can find there all information about realized activities. Descriptions of LTT-s, presentations, worksheets, videos of different models and experiments. Majority of teachers and students involved in realizing the project think that thanks to this they increased their openness, tolerance and acceptance of other cultures. It also contributed to the high motivation to learn foreign languages. Teachers truly believe that international cooperation affected the quality of their work and the frequency of using different ICT tools in teaching. The participation in Erasmus+project increased interesting in programming among students and teachers’ willingness to taking part in international projects. Everyone will be able to make full use of website resources after the project has finished. In the longer term, effects of our work will be available for all schools where teaching of programming/robotics will be introduced. Some activietes were suspended due of Covid-19, especially local events. Schools were closed and do the robotics activietes online was impossible. Thanks to the possibilty to extend the project for one year was possible to organise LTT-s. Three LTT-s in three months it was a little bit complicated too. But their were some difficulties with find of pupils beacause of COVID. Another problem was with the Ukrainian war: Italian pupils parents didn't give promission to travel to Romania because of that.