Play-based strategies and using robot technologies across the curriculum

Abstract

Formal education is constantly influenced by a determined curriculum, which teachers are more or less forced to follow. But by following Sicart (2014. Play Matters. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press), and thereby considering children's democratic rights and their right to play we can ask important questions, such as: How can we make schools more playful by giving teachers inspiration and tools for making their subjects in school more creative, engaging and inspiring? How can we use technologies in curriculum-oriented and cross-curricular ways? How can we learn about the influence of technology, about culture and societal development, in age-appropriate ways? The paper investigates which pedagogical approaches and strategies that are most useful as inspiration and as educational exchange on a transnational level. Furthermore, the paper discusses new robotic influenced pedagogies for transforming traditional school activities into more play-based approaches to be implemented with twenty-first century learning skills: creativity, communication, collaboration and critical thinking.