Learning programming with robots: a study on students' participation in a virtual community of practice

Nowadays, students learn from the world through a variety of physical and virtual spaces. As one of the priorities of the 21st century is to develop capacities associated with computational thinking and digital literacy, the use of robots in the teaching of programming is becoming more and more usual, since it promotes the development of problem solving, communication and teamwork skills. The purpose of this paper is to analyse and discuss the concept of participation in a virtual community created for the learning of programming with robots. Based on the situated learning theory and the underlying concepts of communities of practice, as well as the effects of technology thereon, we seek a better understanding of learning in these virtual spaces.