Work-in-Progress: The Development of a Smart-Environments Learning Kit for Computer Science Classes

Embedding curriculum content in relevant contexts is a challenge computer science teachers face. The idea of smart environments as networking embedded computers to complete everyday tasks provides strong possibilities for context orientation, including smart homes, smart cities, and Industry 4.0. In particular, the context smart home offers teachers exciting and versatile possibilities to introduce students to computer science. It enables teaching programming, networks, communication protocols, and electrical engineering in a student-oriented manner. In order to provide teachers with a low-barrier opportunity to use this context in computer science classes, we developed a smart-environments learning kit. The kit contains hardware that can be easily interconnected and recombined, leaving plenty of room for individual development and internal differentiation. First pilot uses of the kit in different learning groups revealed room for improvement: For instance, preparing the boards in computer science classes is too time-consuming, and the open-source firmware of the hardware modules is too complex to be covered in class. Following a design-based research approach, this work-in-progress paper documents lessons learned from the piloting implementations and illustrates potential solutions.