Internet of things (IoT) experiences in developing interdisciplinary projects: Example of information technologies and science teacher candidates

With the technological developments of the digital age, teachers have been expected to have technological knowledge and required skills to use technology in meaningful pedagogical tools. Taking the attractiveness of information communication technologies, their ability to motivate young people and the fact that working and learning patterns of digital natives are changing into consideration, requirement of creating and researching new trends in education and training activities is apparent. Considering the new developments shaping the social structure and technology, Internet of Things (IoT) technology, which is one of the components of Industry 4.0 in today's technology, emerges as a remarkable subject under which multidisciplinary studies are carried out. Reconstructing the object definition, and increasing its importance, usage area, and density day by day, IoT technologies find their place in education and training studies. Associating the usage area of IoT technology with daily life is easy and simple, it is possible to process environmental data and input/output processes are concrete and this technology addresses many interdisciplinary fields and internet technologies are used; all these features make it possible to use IoT technology in the education field. In this context, this study examined the experiences of information technology and science teacher candidates in the Internet of Things education and interdisciplinary project development process. The study, which was designed as a a mixed method research model, was carried out with a total of 36 pre-service teachers, 19 from Science and 17 from Computer Education and Instructional Technology departmens, who studied at Marmara University Atatürk Faculty of Education in 2017-2018 academic year. In this research, pre-service teachers were given 7 weeks of Internet of Things training. Participants, developed Internet of Things projects in collaboration with group members consisting of teacher candidates from different disciplines In order to present at the end of the training. "Reflective Thinking Skill Scale towards Problem Solving", "Academic Motivation Scale", "Collaborative Learning Process Scale" and "Computational Thinking Skill Test" were used in the study in pre-test and post-tests as data collection tools. Also at the end of the training, the qualitative data obtained by "Open Ended Exam and Information Form For Knowledge Of Development Card And Peripherals", "Meeting Reports", "Iot Education Evaluation Survey" and "Group Project Report" were analyzed by content analysis and themes were formed. According to the findings obtained from the study, it was determined that the IoT education, which was provided without group discrimination, showed a significant increase in the reflective thinking skills towards problem solving, academic motivation level and computational thinking skill of the participants. Although there is a significant increment in Science pre-service teachers in computational thinking skills and reflective thinking skills towards problem solving there is no significant increment information technologies pre-service teachers. On both group, there were no significant increase of teacher candidates' scale collaboration learning skills. It was determined that the collaboration skills of the group members who attended the meeting during the project development process significantly increased compared to those who did not. According to another research finding, it was determined that the participants had positive perceptions about interdisciplinary IoT education and they were of the opinion that IoT education could positively support information technologies and science lessons. It has been determined that the participants are of the opinion that the IoT training will contribute to the project management process for career development, use of technology in education, cognitive skills and competencies, and employment opportunities. In research, it was also determined that the participants had difficulties in group work, software, hardware, time and finding ideas during the development of interdisciplinary IoT group projects. It was determined that, while the participants finding solutions to problems related to software and hardware among the encountered problems, they had difficulties in finding solutions to problems in group work, time and finding ideas. It was determined that groups who stated that they had problems in collaborating with the group decreased their cooperation process skills. It was also observed that the number of meetings held increased according to the number of difficulties encountered. This study is important in terms of serving as a model to faculties of education aiming to raise teachers who can develop projects with developing kits, embedded systems and sensors, can work in an interdisciplinary way and create the internet of things, can guide the students on this subject. The findings are expected to contribute the specialists working both in the Ministry of National Education and the faculties of education and to light the way to the studies to be carried out in the future.