13. Smart Education in CS: A Case Study

Today, computer science (CS) is regarded as a fundamental course (similarly to mathematics, physics, etc.), which is delivered in both universities and schools. Its importance has been recognized far ago because it is a source of the primary and fundamental knowledge needed for our lives and activities, which are highly penetrated by the use of computers, the Internet and other modern technologies. On the other hand, CS can be also seen as an interdisciplinary course, for example, with respect to its relation to robotics and e-learning domains. Furthermore, combining CS topics with the use of robots in learning adequately, it is possible to make a significant contribution to the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) paradigm, a new interdisciplinary approach to learning and teaching for the twenty-first century. Though we have not considered this paradigm explicitly so far, in fact, by introducing and combining two novel approaches, smart LOs and robot-based smart educational environments, we have paved a way for researching and studying the STEM approach too. But first, we need to show how smart LOs and smart educational environments interact among themselves and to approve this interaction in the real learning and teaching setting.