Interest in Generative Al (GenAl) chatbots has exploded across the education industry, subsequently expanding in sophistication and usage. However, students' perceptions on utilizing this technology ultimately determines how well these chatbots promote learning. Hence, this study examines the factors influencing how Singapore secondary school-aged computing students perceive using MyBotBuddy (MBB), a GenAl chatbot, to assist them with programming tasks. A thematic analysis determined that students' perceptions were influenced by reliability, utility, cognitive effort needed, satisfaction, and enjoyment. The study contributes to the literature on GenAl chatbots supporting secondary school programming students and may guide the development of such tools in secondary school classrooms more effectively.

This paper presents the results of a systematic review of the research papers on the use of explainable AI in the real world. The present body of research indicates there is a huge drive from the academic society in pushing and exploring explainable AI across disciplines from a research perspective, and there is inherent need to design prototypes with increased complexity to tackle the numerous scientific and methodological issues in the process. The main conclusions of the review are that there exist serious methodological issues with the use of XAI in complex systems which reside on vast or layered information systems spanning across multiple organizational units with important data sometimes missing, potentially limiting the validity of the XAI approach used in practice. For XAI to work in the real-world context of education, the approaches to presenting explanations to the stakeholders such as teachers and students should be understandable by them to take appropriate actions or decisions. This would highlight the need to study of human-computer interaction between AI and users that would lead to better transparency, trust and personalization.

This paper describes the results of a systematic review dealing with the use of personas, avatars, and characters in conjunction with AI-supported tools such as chatbots or generative AI in education. Although the use generative AI in education is gaining traction, this study seeks to systematically review the body of knowledge dealing with personified and conversational approaches to education with both pre-generative and generative AI. The results of the study emphasize the importance of the three key elements of such systems: the use of pedagogical agents, interaction, and personalization. These key elements can be relevant when considering the adoption of the new generation of generative AI in education. Such systems should scaffold learners’ understanding providing guidance and support, promote self-directedness and ensure effectiveness in learning, provide customized learning paths, and promote ethical use.

In this paper, we describe how the use of physical computing devices like an embroidery machine and TurtleStitch software can be used to engage learners in coding and developing their Computational Thinking (CT) skills. Two lessons are described on how novice learners can create geometric patterns with code while applying CT skills. In the first lesson, students learn to create polygon shapes such as square, triangle, pentagon, and hexagon. Through abstraction, pattern recognition, and algorithmic thinking, they must develop a modularized code block to create a polygon with sides and length of the polygon as input parameters. In the second lesson, they must create pinwheel geometric patterns through decomposition, pattern recognition, and algorithmic thinking. The accompanying approaches such as tinkering, creating, debugging, persevering, and collaborating were used to develop CT skills as learners generate geometric patterns with block-based codes in TurtleStitch. The use of embroidery machines and coding on TurtleStitch can provide opportunities for novice learners to develop coding and computation thinking skills as they creatively generate patterns with codes that can be embroidered in a tangible textile form.

This paper describes two mobile learning journeys in the zoo using either smartphones or tablets, and a mobile learning application SamEx, all designed and implemented as part of a research study in a Singapore primary school. Out-of-school semi-formal learning activities such as zoo trips present standard curricular topics where students go out of their schools in order to explore topics of interest in a semi-controlled designed environment. Typically, students observe and connect their observations with prior knowledge or further extend their knowledge on the go or later with their teacher in the classroom. The initial study in 2013 included the whole Primary 3 (P3) level of students, 305 of them, while the subsequent study in 2015 included 321 students. Between the years technology shift was inevitable — the participating school switched from smartphone devices to tablet computers, where each child has a tablet with the option to connect to both a WiFi network and to a mobile broadband network. Furthermore, the changes in the design of the mobile learning SamEx application were carried out in collaboration with the teachers, through a design-based research process. SamEx allows for the collection, organization and storage of media collected by students typically as responses to questions and prompts set up by their teachers. The initial design was oriented towards individual students, to support their individual in-class and homework learning tasks and assignments. The main features added to the application incorporated additional teachers' needs in carrying out curricular topics including inquiry learning and collaborative learning. The paper explores the evolution of both technology and the implementation of the application in the period, and problematizes the notion of inevitable technology change, constant software maintenance and enhancement and the effect of these changes on learning activities and outcomes.

Over a year of time, we co-designed primary three science curriculum to integrate 1:1 mobile technology with teachers. The form teacher of the experimental class in a Singapore school enacted the curriculum as her regular teaching. This paper proposes a cyclic model of how to “mobilize” the curriculum in align with the national primary science syllabus. Preliminary results of the enactment are also presented.