Why Re-Focus on IoT in Education? Evidence of the PARADIGM Project

The proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices has created a growing demand for integrating IoT technologies in educational settings. While technical expertise in IoT engineering is essential for developing IoT skills, it is equally crucial for educators to possess pedagogical skills that enable them to effectively teach their students about the diverse range of available IoT systems, hardware, and software components, through properly designed STEM activities early on during secondary education. However, recent studies suggest that most IoT engineering curricula need specifically adapted and properly designed pedagogical frameworks. This paper presents an experimental research study conducted as part of the evaluation stage of the PARADIGM project, a European-funded collaborative initiative under the auspices of the Erasmus+ programme. The project aims to design an e-learning course on pedagogical issues, develop an IoT environmental observatory to provide hands-on experience and establish a citizen science platform as the PARADIGM Virtual Maker Space and Repository. The specific research objective is to assess the impact of PARADIGM tools on educators' pedagogical and technical knowledge of IoT. Fifty educators from secondary schools in Greece, Spain, and Cyprus participated in the study. Pre-and posttest were conducted to measure differences in mean scores, and t-tests were used to analyze these differences. Despite the relatively small sample size, it is noteworthy that this study was part of a larger collaborative initiative involving multiple institutions and stakeholders, which increased the generalizability and external validity of the study and reduced the potential for bias or confounding factors. The results indicate that the use of PARADIGM tools significantly improved educators' knowledge scores in IoT. Furthermore, the findings reveal a statistically significant correlation between educators' knowledge of IoT devices and their hands-on experiences using the PARADIGM observatory IoT devices. These results highlight the need for further research on IoT education programs to enhance educators' skills in IoT devices. In conclusion, this paper contributes to advancing knowledge on IoT education by emphasizing the potential of PARADIGM tools to enhance educators' pedagogical and technical understanding of IoT. The study recommends integrating PARADIGM tools into IoT curricula to equip educators with the necessary skills to teach their students about IoT effectively.