EELLAK: The University of West Attica (formerly ATEI of Athens and ATEI of Piraeus ), the Hellenic Association for the Use of ICT in Education , members of the educational community and the Open Technologies Organization (EELLAK) are organizing the 1st Panhellenic Educational Robotics & Physical Computing Open Technologies Competition 
The Competition is aimed at groups from Primary and Secondary Education schools (Primary, Middle, High and Vocational High Schools) which are invited to express initial interest in participating in the competition by completing the relevant form.
The Panhellenic Educational Robotics & Physical Computing Open Technologies Competition aims to introduce hardware and software that open horizons into education, encouraging students' creativity, without barriers to their ingenuity and initiative and of course, without 'closed' products of specific companies.
The use of open technologies in education has benefits for students, as it contributes to the production of innovation both in teaching media (open software and hardware, open robotics and engineering technologies, open educational content, etc.) and in the teaching process, while it helps to develop students' algorithmic and critical thinking, to change teaching practice, the learning process and communication, as well as to shape attitudes and future career choices.
The use of open technologies offers the teacher, as well as the student, the opportunity to become an active participant in the creation of knowledge. At the same time, the use and exploitation of open digital resources and standards, integrates those participating (teachers, students, academic-research community executives, parents, etc.) into a broader community, with primary goals of free access to the use and production of knowledge, good practices and innovation, without promoting mass consumption products of specific companies. With the daily use of open software and hardware, local know-how increases and the local economy of providing products and services benefits.
The competition concerns the creation of projects (artifacts) using open hardware and software technologies (Open Design, Open Software & Open Hardware), and the production of relevant open educational resources. The topics may include automation projects, lighting-sound, sensors-environment, smart objects, early warning devices, autonomous vehicles, wearables, entertainment applications, health-wellness, laboratory equipment, educational uses and educational applications and IoT applications.
With open source software and content platforms such as Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, SUGAR, Moodle, Ubuntu, as well as open hardware technologies developed in Europe such as Arduino, Raspberry Pi and RepRap, the way we learn is changing daily.
More information about the competition is available at robotics.ellak.gr
