An approach to advance STEM education practices based on IoT technologies and the CoPs paradigm

Internet of Things and other state-of-the-art technologies like mobile and ubiquitous computing present ample opportunities for developing novel so- lutions almost in every domain of modern life. The research work presented here aims to leverage on the potential of such technologies in the direction of enhancing learning practices in secondary level education and promoting posi- tive attitudes towards the corresponding scientific and engineering disciplines. The originality of the proposed approach lies on the provision of an educational platform, framed by contemporary pedagogical principles, and with an aim to stimulate collaboration between the relevant stakeholders in the form of opera- tional communities of practice. Such communities are brought together on the basis of participating in on line activities, problem solving, exchanging reflec- tions and experiences in the context of educational scenarios that incorporate modern technologies. The platform development is discussed in terms of the underlined conceptual models, the defined stakeholders’ requirements, the on- line services developed, the software tools integrated and the data management supported. An example educational scenario, the corresponding IoT application developed and preliminary evaluation results of this approach are also reported.The final authenticated version is available online at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21151-6_