Ozobots are cute little dudes (robots) that use a camera to read colour codes on a line drawn below them. They are super tools that allow learners the opportunity to explore coding in a fun and engaging way! Alongside the bot itself all you need is a piece of paper and 4 markers – black, red, green, and blue.
Our time with the Ozobots allowed us to see how valuable they are and how they can fulfill the 7 Principles of learning!
- Learners at the centre. For the first principle, Ozobots put learners at the centre by allowing them to problem solve and be engaged in their own learning. In our class use with them this was heavily demonstrated when we were asked if we wanted to continue working with the Ozobots for an additional lesson, as our professor saw that we were highly engaged.
- The social nature of learning. Students will most likely have to work in groups and they will almost definitely want to share what their little dude is doing, this is the second principle: the social nature of learning.
- Emotions are integral to learning. Emotions are in everything we engage in. The Ozobots create excitement and joy, you are invested in the little guy’s success (and thus are invested in your own success).
- Recognising individual differences. Every group of students will come up with different ways for their bot to get around and behave, even though they are given the same directions!
- Stretching all students. The beauty of Ozobots is that the code they run on can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it!
- Assessment for learning. Assessment comes from asking students to make the bot perform a certain task (ours was to have them be able to run independently on a circuit that we created) and having them complete it.
- Building horizontal connections. Ozobots allow for students to collaborate and take on different roles in their group. As an example, one person might be scribing (drawing the line and associated code) while another reads out the colours of the code. Coding itself is a very important and powerful tool to have in the modern day.
I fell in love with these little guys and will be looking into getting them into my classroom for a lesson or two! 🙂
