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Teaching computational thinking in Mexico: A case study in a public elementary school

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Abstract

Digital literacy is a need for our current society. In Mexico, digital incursion programs are barely implemented, which represents an educational delay compared to other countries that have faced the need to integrate the teaching of digital skills, in a wide range of educational levels. This paper presents a learning environment of Computational Thinking called EasyLogic3D, which proposes a novel integration of emotional recognition, gamification, and a 3D environment. Experiments with 102 children from an Elementary School in Mexico were carried out, where cognitive and technological acceptance tests were performed. Analyzing the Cronbach’s alpha score, we found that students accepted the technology (learning environment). Also, the results showed that the perceived enjoyment when using the learning environment was positive. On the other hand, results show that the learning gained through using the learning environment was comparable to a class session in which the same topics and exercises were presented.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Research and Postgraduate Studies. Juan de Dios Tecnológico Nacional de México/IT de Culiacán, Bátiz 310 Pte. Col. Guadalupe, Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico

    José Mario Ríos Félix, Ramón Zatarain Cabada & María Lucía Barrón Estrada

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  1. José Mario Ríos Félix
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  2. Ramón Zatarain Cabada
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  3. María Lucía Barrón Estrada
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Correspondence to Ramón Zatarain Cabada.

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Ríos Félix, J.M., Zatarain Cabada, R. & Barrón Estrada, M.L. Teaching computational thinking in Mexico: A case study in a public elementary school. Educ Inf Technol 25, 5087–5101 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-020-10213-4

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