Proceedings of The 7th International Conference on Research in Teaching and Education
Year: 2023
DOI:
[PDF]
My Little Asperger Robots
Prof. Florencia Yaque
ABSTRACT:
In this opportunity, the teacher is going to share a personal experience with a robotics group of Formación Profesional Básica (FPB) from UTU. When classes started in March 2021, the teacher found that in a particular group she had three boys with Asperger’s (according to the reports she viewed in the teacher’s book). At first she thought that it would not be an easy task but it was not impossible either, since she had attended some courses on the subject. Being 3 boys with the same condition, she thought she could reach them with the same techniques. Two weeks after the face-to-face classes began, due to the pandemic, we had to return to our homes to work from our Ceibalitas. From virtuality she began to understand that we are all different even if we have the same pathology.
The idea of this workshop is to sensitize teachers and propose putting themselves in the other’s shoes, in the student’s shoes, the family and the teacher itself. Feel what the other feels, in order to develop an effective action plan for everyone. I will share what I did with each student, and how I reached them and adapted my class to the 3 boys, without neglecting the remaining 27 (with their needs and differences as well).
As teachers, having a space for exchange is essential, not only will personal experience be exposed, but there will be instances to share the experiences of the participants. We all had to adapt our classes to particular situations at some point, and I consider it of great importance to be able to share with others and relate to each other.
In terms of training, the objective of the workshop is to raise awareness and generate critical thinking, providing activities that can be the basis for future instances of their own teaching practices. In addition, we will learn a little more about the Autistic spectrum, more specifically Asperger’s, although we all know that it is a type of autism, is not always openly talked about or we have little information.
My Little Robots and Asperger’s is a totally new topic, at least personally I’ve never worked in a classroom with 3 students with Asperger’s with such a passion for robotics. Another aspect to highlight is that a large part of the experience takes place in virtuality, a challenge for teachers and families. It will be an instance where awareness, critical thinking, robotics and didactics come together for a common good: that everyone has the same opportunities to access quality education and always be heard.
keywords: Education, robotics, virtuality, communication, English