Education with micro-robots and innovation in education

Knowledge-driven re-industrialisation in Europe calls for changes in education systems. We address those changes by focusing on the adoption of a context-based approach to place science and technology within young people’s daily lives and to promote their understanding of the relevant issues emerging in society. In particular, we propose the use of micro-robots labs in order to: (i) improve a context-based approach to technology education and (ii) spread the knowledge of working condi-tions, employment opportunities and industrial enterprises activities. We suggest action-research as a feasible practice to boost bottom-up changes in teaching and learning activities, and we focus on the university initiative Officina Emilia as an example. The paper proposes some concluding remarks focusing on hybrid places to foster innovation, involving not only teachers and experts on education, but also researchers in different technological domains and in the social sciences and humanities, manufacturing and services companies, civil society.