TEHRAN (ANA)- Researchers in Iran have designed and produced a software that acts like an educational operating system for students to learn different lessons in an environment like a real laboratory.
Mohsen Tabatabaifar, a university graduate in robotics and the creator of an integrated educational ecosystem, said that he and his teammates’ aim in developing the system, adding, “After realizing the need and with the aim of shouldering the social responsibility, we entered the educational-cultural field. There have been changes in the educational systems in Iran and the entire world, and the combination of these events has created different needs.”
“With changes in the work environment and market many of the jobs we needed before have been replaced by machines, robots and artificial intelligence,” added the researcher.
He went on to say that science of the robotics is one of the changes in education. “In this regard, we need software and hardware that are in conformity to the new educational needs. We did not have the experience and technical ability in the country, we had to be depend on foreigners. Thereby, the foreigners included their desired content in it (the imported products). This made us choose between the quality of education and cultural damage.”
“After the needs assessment, our group produced an indigenous alternative software. The software is an environment similar to an educational operating system that you can do different lessons using this environment in the parts of the physical – not virtual – personal laboratory and the analytical laboratory,” Tabatabaifar continued.
“It has capabilities such as logical thinking training, creating games, animation, training about physics, light, movement, and topics like that. Moreover, its difference with educational softwares is that the system is an executive tool. For example, in the field of programming, students are trained in a way that the thaught matters would be used in real life and allows linking to external physical cases such as temperature and pressure.”
“They see the programs that they are taught in a graphic form on the computer and they see them in the external environment in the form of lights and motors in a way that it improves the knowledge of children about the efficiency of the products around them and has an impact on the ability to solve problems and improving their algorithmic thinking. It acts not only like a textbook but also it increases the speed of programming.”
“This ecosystem is for those who work in the field of education. It is a physical laboratory student edition with an emphasis on the indigenous cultural identity of our country; for example, the use of Iranian characters in game development in the program. Furthermore, the loss of [cultural] values is prevented. In similar products while they claim that they support the Persian language, they need the import of expensive tools for the hardware section connection.”
The producer of the Iranian software product continued to note that the program which is called “I-Code” educational ecosystem is useful for children in elementary school until they receive their university degrees.
He added that he and his teamamtes produced the educational operating system on their own with receiving no financial support from government bodies with the aim of entering the education system.
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Source: ANA