Abstract
Technology has always played a major role in education, constantly being integrated into classrooms to allow for the most engaging learning experiences for students and making it easier for teachers to convey complex technical themes. My technical capstone and STS research paper revolve around educational technology and delve into questions about what makes them good and how to design them. For my technical capstone, my group designed a robot kit meant to be used to teach embedded programming, allowing students to learn interactively. For my STS research paper, I analyze the shortcomings of educational technology intervention programs in postcolonial areas, such as One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), and how we can design educational technology to work in all environments.
The pedagogical robot kit that was designed is a continuation of a previous robot kit that was used by UVA professors to teach embedded classes. This robot kit interfaced with a microprocessor board that was deprecated, which caused the courses using the robot to no longer be offered. A new version of the robot was created which could interface with two newer microprocessor boards that are currently used to teach embedded programming. The robot was designed by my group, who have all taken the embedded course and advised by a professor who commonly teaches it, allowing the robot to be designed with the target users in mind. The robot contains wheels, multiple sensors, and wireless connectivity that allow users to explore different aspects of embedded programming in an interactive way. Multiple quality of life improvements were also made to the robot, such as battery charging and mounting a better screen to the board. Overall, the features and functionalities of the pedagogical robot make it an ideal tool to have students engaged when learning about the fundamentals of embedded programming.
My STS research paper involves analyzing educational technology (EdTech) interventions in postcolonial areas. Using the OLPC program as the main case study, my work involves answering these questions: “Why does educational technology imported from western countries into postcolonial areas not always meet their target benefits and how does it affect local education practice? How can Edtech be designed such that it best conducts its goal of education?” To answer these questions, I use postcolonial computing as a framework to understand how educational technology design and deployment are shaped by global histories of power, culture, and inequality. Under this framework, I come to valuable conclusions about the design mistakes EdTech intervention programs made, and how they occurred. Furthermore, I also describe how these mistakes can be mitigated by instead having a researched, teacher/student-backed design approach for educational technology in postcolonial environments. In doing so, this work underscores the importance of inclusive, context-aware design principles in creating educational technologies that are both effective and equitable.
It is clear that the bridge between my technical capstone and STS research paper is the process in which educational technology for learning institutions are developed. Although my research paper focuses on postcolonial areas, I believe that the work outlined in both sections provides a deeper understanding of how EdTech can be designed for any given context. In both cases, the success of educational technology depends on how well it accounts for the needs, constraints, and perspectives of its users. My capstone project applies this principle by incorporating direct input from students and instructors to create a tool tailored to its educational environment, while my STS research reveals how overlooking these factors in postcolonial contexts can lead to ineffective or even harmful outcomes. By examining both a successful localized design and broader systemic failures, I can better understand the critical role that context, collaboration, and inclusivity play in the development of impactful educational technologies.
