ajneto@fc.ul.pt

Antonio Barros

PostDoc Researcher

Antonio Barros is an Assistant Professor in Mathematics, Statistics, and Informatics Department at State University of Pará in Brazil. He completed his PhD in Mathematics Education at Pontificia Universidade Católica de São Paulo in 2015, received a master degree in Computer Science from Federal University of Pernambuco in 1995, and a bachelor degree in Computer Science from Federal Universiy from Pará in 1988. His main research interest is in assistive (learning) technology prototyping with “hobbyist” robotics.

Publications

Projects

Photo taken from the Workshop with children. Two visually impaired children perform a goal-directed programming activity using a map located on the table. The activity consists of moving the robot to reach the duck. The map is made of 4 EVA foam tiles with two different colors. The child on the right is concentrated in arranging the blocks while the children at the left are touching the duck after the robot reached the duck. This child is smiling and has much of his body on the table.

Inclusive education

We aim to develop technological solutions to enable an inclusive education for children with mixed abilities. We have mainly developed enhanced tangible objects for the acquisition of abstract concepts, such as mathematics or computational thinking. Besides the benefit of decreasing cognitive load and reinforcing understanding, manipulatives also support collaboration, making children more prone to divide, explore and share supporting cooperative actions.