Arduino Exploratory Study
Arduino Exploratory Study
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Abstract
In this study we explore the possibility of organizing and structuring an information technology training
day for upper secondary vocational teacher training in automotive and transport engineering. The
objective is to show the development process of the three training sessions in response to survey data
completed by teachers. Information technology has widely penetrated into the car industry during the
last few decades but some teachers have difficulty in adapting and teaching new technologies to their
students. This paper presents one approach to break the ice between 'old school' teachers and
information technology, through the use of an 8-hour training day consisting of programming,
electronic technology and data bus technology.
The aim of this study is to discover how to structure training of new technology for experienced
vocational teachers. In this paper we describe how we developed, organized and assessed
information technology training for vocational teachers within the case study. The training day was
organized in three locations in Finland: Pori, Jyväskylä and Vantaa. After the first surveys were
completed by the vocational teachers, the arrangement of the next training day was adjusted in
response to the outcome of the initial surveys. After the first lecture session, the training feedback
indicated that there should be more 'learning-by-doing' type of action. The next sessions included
Arduino board [1], electronic components and a laptop software development environment.
In this study we found that the attitudes of the training attendees were different in three locations
around Finland. This is an interesting finding. When comparing the results obtained from Jyväskylä
and Vantaa the outcomes were slightly more negative in Jyväskylä than in Vantaa. However the
training was identical in both cases. The results also showed a difference in attitude between teachers
of different age groups.
One of the biggest problems in this type of training was the limitation of time. Most of the teachers
were familiar with the automotive based digital testing equipment, but they were also aware that their
students were far more advanced in information technology than they were. This may have generated
tensions and resistance from the older generation of teacher when adopting any new technology.
The overall outcome was positive. Teachers were pleased with this training in an automotive context,
because it was first time they had received generic technological training. The attendees felt it was
important because the training sessions were targeted directly to them. The collected survey results
provided information about what vocational teachers are actually missing in practice. In the conceptual
part of this paper we discuss motivation to learn [2,3] and adult education. In the empirical part of this
paper we introduce the training method utilized and finally discuss the presented outcomes and
conclusions of the survey data.
Keywords: Arduino, motivation to learn, vocational teaching, survey, case study.
1 INTRODUCTION
Vocational further educational teaching in the automotive repair and transport sector is based mostly
on teachers’ individual interests. According to [4,5], rapid development of automotive and
transportation technology, international transportation and changes in EU transportation directives set
challenges to automotive vocational teachers to maintain their knowledge. Teachers themselves
recognize these challenges and there is a need for further education in electronics, information
technology, data transmission technology, new automotive technologies (for example hybrid
technology) and material technology [4]. These further educational problems associated with
automotive and transport technology vocational teachers may originate from those vocational teaching
2 MOTIVATION TO LEARN
For an individual to learn, he or she must move to a learning mentality. In other words, the individual
has to be motivated. The motivation can be intrinsic, i.e. from within the individual, or extrinsic, i.e.
imposed from outside. Buckler [11] proposes that an individual moves through a number of stages in
the process of becoming learning oriented:
Ignorance - If an individual accepts that no one knows what they do not know, the no blame can be
attached to any individual who finds himself or herself in a state of ignorance.
Awareness - After awareness, motivation is needed from the individual to put in the effort for
understanding of the subject or problem. Barriers to this are attitudes such as, ‘It is not my job’, and, ‘I
am not paid to know that’, which are typical responses.
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Understanding - Understanding develops as the depth of knowledge increases. Superficial
understanding generally leads to single-loop learning, whereas double-loop learning requires much
deeper understanding. Usually, commitment starts to develop as understanding rises.
Commitment - Commitment cannot be achieved without intrinsic interest and curiosity. Without it, the
move to action is not likely to take place. Such desire cannot be directed, but must come from within
the individual.
Enactment - It is only when individuals working within teams move to enactment that real
improvements through learning start to emerge. Effective discovery-learning systems can enable
individuals to move to this stage.
Reflection - This is a key step in the learning process, and is the stage most often missing in ‘taught’
organizations. In this stage, actions, outcomes, and theories are evaluated, and deep learning takes
place.
This learning model has been tested in [2,3] where industrial project personnel learning were
measured by project managers and reflected by the learning model. In this further educational study of
vocational teachers the situation is almost similar and the results can be reflected through the model
presented by [11].
3 TRAINING DAYS
In this section we focus on the content of the training days. There was a pedagogical motivation day
which included the adaptation of new media forums, such as social media, for the vocational teaching.
Next the electronics and programming as well as data bus technology and telematics in cars were
introduced in the next training days. In addition the two day electric/hybrid car safety licence course
was offered to the participants. Approximately one month after the training, a conclusion day was held
for each group.
In this paper we will focus on data bus technology, electronics and programming training and the
feedback obtained from those courses. The first training days consisted of programming and
electronic technology lectures, and also data bus technology lectures. These were held on the 14-
15.10.2014 in Pori. The training was held in four 45 minute sections, totaling 180 minutes, per topic,
for example programming and electronics. The programming and electronics topic presentation was
done using powerpoint slides, introduction of embedded system boards and discussion between the
teacher and the participants. The data bus technology was presented to the listeners by powerpoint
slides containing history of the bus technology in the car industry and data transmission technology in
vehicles. All 25 participants answered the questionnaire from the Pori sections. All participants
answered the question “Did the courses in electronics and data buses fulfil your expectations?” and
the answers are presented in table 1
Table 1. Answers from the Pori lectures to the question “Did the courses in electronics
and data buses fulfil your expectations?”
Strongly disagree 6
Disagree 5
Neutral 8
Agree 3
Strongly agree 3
Total 25
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The idea of combining the programming, electronic and data bus courses comes mostly from the
feedback provided. After experimenting with different ideas we concluded to select an embedded
system platform that would be easy to program and the programming results are seen instantly. This
builds on related works [12, 13] where authors were using open hardware platforms for teaching
programming. Also the selected board must be relatively cheap so that if the participants are
interested they may consider buying the items for their students. In the next chapter we describe the
structure and materials of the training day.
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Table 2. Structure of “Programming, electronics and bus technology”
training day in Jyväskylä and Vantaa.
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The first exercise was to light the LED with the Arduino program. This exercise required Arduino and
one LED. If the connections and program were completed accurately the LED would start blinking.
This typical “Hello world” application shows the basic idea how the development environment works.
The aim of the exercise was to familiarize attendees to Arduino and show how easy it is to work.
The third exercise combined LCD and Arduino. The aim was to get the text “Hello world” onto the LCD
(figure 3 shows an example circuit switch). The LCD generated some difficulties in the need for the
right input and control voltage. The wiring of this exercise was demanding because of the amount of
needed wires (12 wires between LCD and Arduino).
There was an extra exercise for the fastest students who could get the LCD to work. They were
instructed to use the temperature sensor and LCD together so that the LCD showed the temperature
(for example showing “Temperature 22 Celsius”). This part of the education started before lunch and
continued after lunch
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4 RESULTS OF SURVEY
Questionnaire results from Jyväskylä and Vantaa are presented in Table 3. Feedback from the
Jyväskylä training was good when compared to the Pori results in Table 1, so we did not make any
modifications to the Vantaa training. Feedback from Vantaa was also good so the structure of the
training for vocational school teachers might be correct. Some attendees in the training did not give
feedback (1-2 papers per training). These blank papers were categorized as ‘Neutrals’.
Jyväskylä Vantaa
Strongly disagree 1 0
Disagree 0 0
Neutral 4 4
Agree 6 2
Strongly agree 2 8
Total 12 14
In Table 4. The survey results of combined electrical safety lectures and Toyota training are
presented.
Attendees added in the surveys that the training should include more testing and tester training in the
context of new car systems (hybrid/electric cars). Attendees also required a similar type of training,
such as that offered with the Toyota facility, but with different car brands. In general, more time was
also required to complete all exercises
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Table 5: The final results of training. The opinion a=strongly disagree, b=disagree,
c=neutral, d = agree and e=strongly agree.
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During the two exercises we also kept up a conversation about what were the possibilities of working
with Arduino and automotive technologies. In this part we also considered On Board Diagnostic (OBD)
[23] technology, because the modern car (newer than 2002) has well documented OBD-II connection.
There were also a lot of discussion about how to use Arduino cars OBD-II connection and what kind of
possibilities there are to use Arduino, for example in motorcycle ignition systems. Arduino and similar
embedded systems are powerful enough to read, manipulate and write information in automotive
systems but the main question in this project is that the task must be useful and easy to teach to
vocational school students.
It was interesting to notice that all levels of the model, presented by [11], were presented in different
courses during the study. Vocational teachers already know a tremendous amount of information but
when considering electronics, programming and data bus technology, they were at different levels of
knowledge. They all wanted to know more about these technologies, but from very different
backgrounds, some rejected the information at once while others knew that of its importance and
wanted to know more.
It was written in many questionnaires that the vocational teachers hoped to learn more information on
electronics, programming and data bus technology from the automotive side than from a generic side.
In addition, the material should include more data bus technology, containing car data bus diagnostics
and analysis. In general, it was hoped that there would be more time for completing the exercises
Further education of automotive teachers is a challenging task. From a university point of view, the
topic and its understanding in general may be interesting. However, from a vocational school point of
view, the need for further education is basically a solution oriented topic processing approach. The
attitude amongst vocational school teachers may sometimes pose problems, if the instructor is a
university level general instructor, with wide knowledge of the topic and its implementations. For a
university instructor the automotive industry is only one application of the whole programming and
electronics topic area, but it seems that the vocational school teachers need an automotive specialist
to instruct the topic to them. Also the ‘we do not need this’ attitude is common with more experienced
teachers. In order to acquire new knowledge the individual has to have a motivation to learn. The
knowledge of mastering the art of programming and electronics requires higher education, for example
to learn the topic. In that sense, it is challenging to introduce programming to first timers in a one day
course whilst at the same time break the resistance to adapt to new technological ideas in their
profession.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This project was funded by Finnish National Board of Education, project OPH 40/506/2013. We also
thank project manager Minna Haapakoski for her endless support and patience.
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