Pocket labs supported IoT teaching

Abstract

© 2018 International Journal of Engineering Pedagogy. All rights reserved. IoT is both a concept and a specific platform with large variety of applications that rapidly become inseparable part of everyday life not only improving it, but making it more interesting and fun. ICT based, it is devoted to interactions with environment that are usually not available with traditional ICT equipment and platforms. IoT is at the same time both complementary and compatible with existing non IoT world, which offers computing power and resources to IoT, making it a unique and powerful combination. Pocket Lab is a relatively new teaching concept that supports students’ creativity and initiative allowing for carrying of and experimenting with real equipment at a time and place of choice, much like using of regular text books for studying. Although the IoT & Pocket Labs are not necessarily interconnected or mutually conditioned, this paper discusses such a real case of teaching practice, where the Pocket Labs are used for teaching of IoT. The paper deals with teaching experience of IoT as a university course. Obtained results and experience may be quite general except for university students profile defined with their previous education and knowledge. Besides the main goal of the course which is an introduction to IoT, some other aims were exploring the students’ motivation for studying of IoT as a new technology and emphasizing the importance of new original ideas and views being as important as mastering the IoT technologies.