Cognitive‐Conceptual Model for Integrating Robotics and Control Into the Curriculum

The phenomenon of control is an essential component of our everyday natural, social and artificial environment. Control‐related concepts have become a central component of many core topics in modern technology education. However, evidence already collected shows that students have serious difficulties in transcending the phenomenal or behavioral understanding of a system's functioning, towards more formal definitions of the control process. In this paper we suggest a framework for the design of learning environments of control concepts and design skills. Two main paradigms are suggested as the conveyors of very different cognitive approaches to control: programmingor software oriented and designor hardware oriented paradigms. The control of a Lego robot is used to elaborate on the different paradigms, and an example of computer implementation of control using spreadsheet software ‐the spreadsheet‐book metaphor for representing control‐ is presented in detail.