The Role of Educational Technologist in Robot Supported Math Lessons

Abstract

The decision makers of educational systems in different countries have started to realize the importance of technology enhanced learning (TEL) in order to prepare students for the world of 4th Industrial Revolution. However, in the grass root level, teachers are still reluctant to implement technology into their lessons. In this paper we investigate the feedback from 134 Estonian teachers, each of whom conducted with the help of educational technologists up to 15 robot supported math lessons, in order to find out which supportive roles did educational technologists have in these lessons. The results show that educational technologist’s roles as a technical support person or a robotics teacher were more important during the first lessons, but the need for these roles faded fast. Instead, educational technologist’s role as an assistant teacher, explaining tasks and answering students’ questions, proved to have a greater importance, especially in the 3rd grade. Based on the results we suggest that in TEL lessons the subject teacher needs to be accompanied by an educational technologist who also has basic knowledge about the topic taught.