Designing Robotic Artifacts: Rural School-Community Collaboration for Learning

The development of a community is reflected in the efforts designed to improve the economic and social atmosphere, and the quality of life of the community. Nevertheless, community development specialists have focused on economics, ignoring other aspects of development and the interrelation of such. The goals of this proposal are: 1) To study how the design of robotic artifacts and the use of other digital technologies can enhance student learning, while also contributing to improvement in rural community life; 2) To explore how the relationship between learning, technology, and culture can be employed to inform new educational approaches that build a strong school-community relationship through out the use of technology, and thus, close the gap between rural and urban life. In this paper, the different aspects of the research program will be described, as well as some sample projects made by the teachers and children during workshops conducted recently in a rural community in Costa Rica.