Development and Evaluation of an Internet of Things Project for Preservice Elementary School Teachers

Programming education is gaining more attention in elementary schools, especially through the use of visual programming tools and development boards. However, the elementary school teacher education in Taiwan allows only limited time periods for training in visual programming and the use of development boards. Development boards are ideal for creating internet of things (IoT) projects, and project-based learning (PBL) is an effective teaching strategy in programming education to promote active learning. Therefore, to sustainably cultivate 21st-century teachers, this study developed an IoT PBL activity for preservice elementary school teachers in Taiwan, so as to improve their attitude toward programming and to enhance their content knowledge of programming teaching, including in computational thinking concepts and knowledge concerning the micro:bit and IoT. This project aimed to engage preservice elementary school teachers in using the micro:bit and electronic modules to create cardboard games with IoT features. A preliminary evaluation was conducted within a teacher education course to verify the project’s feasibility. Consequently, the preservice elementary school teachers participating in this project could develop various IoT cardboard games through teamwork. Their scores on the assessments of computational thinking concepts, development board knowledge, and attitude toward programming showed significant improvement after the project activity. They also expressed highly positive feedback on the project. These findings verify that the proposed PBL activity could be feasible for elementary teacher education.