In this article I will talk about how we came up with a training course for ourselves, which helps us in learning. The material is publicly available, you can use it at your discretion. Of course, the course is not some kind of mega-innovative solution, but specifically in our case it works quite well.
Search for a suitable format
So, as I said above, the problem arose of educating a child aged 8-9 years of robotics (arduino).
My first and obvious decision was to sit next to me, open some sketch and explain how everything works. Of course, loading it onto the board and looking at the result. It quickly turned out that it was very difficult due to my “tongue-tied”. More precisely, not in the sense that I am not explaining well, but in the fact that my child and I have a huge difference in the amount of knowledge. Even my simplest and most chewed explanation, as a rule, turned out to be rather complicated for him. It would be suitable for high school or for high school, but not for the "beginning".
Having suffered like this for some time without a visible result, we postponed training indefinitely - until the search for a more suitable format. And then one day I saw how training is arranged on one school portal. Instead of long texts, the material there was broken into small steps. This turned out to be exactly what you need.
Small steps training
So, we have the chosen training format. Let's turn it into specific course details ( link to it ).
To start, I divided each lesson into ten steps. On the one hand, this is enough to reveal the topic, on the other hand, it is not very extended in time. Based on the materials already completed, the average time to complete one lesson is 15-20 minutes (that is, corresponds to the expected).
What are the individual steps? Consider, for example, a lesson on learning a breadboard:
- Introduction
- Bread board
- Board Power
- Assembly rule
- Power connection
- Details for the circuit
- Parts Installation
- Power connection to the circuit
- Connect power to the circuit (continued)
- Lesson Summary
As we see, here the child gets acquainted with the breadboard itself; understands how food is organized on it; collects and runs the simplest circuit on it. It is impossible to fit more material into one lesson, because each step should be clearly understood and performed. As soon as the idea “well, it’s kind of understandable ...” skips when compiling the task, it means that in real execution it just will not be clear. So, better is less, but better.
Naturally, do not forget about feedback. While my son is going through the lesson, I sit beside him and note which of the steps are causing difficulties. It happens that an unsuccessful formulation, it happens that there is not enough explanatory photograph. Then, of course, you have to adjust the material.
Tuning
Add to our course a couple more pedagogical techniques.
Firstly, many steps have a specific result or answer. It must be specified from 2-3 options. It does not let you get bored or just “skip” the lesson with the “next” button. For example, you need to assemble a circuit and see how exactly the LED flashes. I think the feedback after each action is better than the overall result at the end.
Secondly, I brought our 10 lesson steps to the right corner in the interface. It turned out conveniently. This is for those cases when the child is engaged completely independently, and you only check the result at the end. So you can immediately see where the difficulties were (they can be immediately discussed). And it is especially convenient when studying with several children, when time is limited, but everyone needs to be controlled. Again - the general picture will be visible, which steps most often cause difficulties.
We invite you
At the moment, this is all that has been done. The site has already posted the first 6 lessons, and there is a plan for another 15 pieces (so far the basics). If you are interested - there is an opportunity to subscribe, then when you add a new lesson you will receive a notification by e-mail. The material can be used for any purpose. Write your wishes and comments, we will improve the course.