Marie Boden

Evolving spelling exercises to suit individual student needs

The principle of evolving educational content - stepwise and stochastic refinement of educational problems on the basis of a students previous success - is extended and evaluated for the domain of spelling. Experimental results, generated by an implementation in a classroom setting, show that the principle of evolving educational content is not only sensitive to an individual students ability but it also allows the student to take novel paths through an open-ended problem space. Learning outcomes are confirmed both quantitatively and qualitatively, and indicate that the technique transfers to a pedagogically challenging domain. We present how a problem space can be generated to effectively and automatically encompass a wider range of educational domains with little designer intervention.

Hand in Hand: Tools and techniques for understanding children's touch with a social robot

Robots that facilitate touch by children have special requirements in terms of safety and robustness, but little is known about how and when children actually use touch with robots. Tools and techniques are required to sense the variety of childrens touch and to interpret the volumes of data generated. This explorative user study investigated childrens patterns of touch during game play with a robot. We examined where the children touch the robot and their patterns of touch over time, using a raster-based visualisation of each childs time series of touches, recording patterns of touch across different games and children. We found that children readily engage with the robot, in particular spontaneously touching the robots hands more than any other area. This user study and the tools developed may aid future designs of robots to autonomously detect when they have been touched.

Children's Expectations and Strategies in Interacting with a Wizard of Oz Robot

This paper presents an analysis of childrens interactions with an early prototype of a robot that is being designed for deployment in early learning centres. 23 children aged 2-6 interacted with the prototype, consisting of a pair of tablets embedded in a flat and vaguely humanoid form. We used a Wizard of Oz (WoZ) technique to control a synthesized voice that delivered predefined statements and questions, and a tablet mounted as a head that displayed animated eyes. The childrens interactions with the robot and with the adult experimenter were video recorded and analysed in order to identify some of the childrens expectations of the robots behaviour and capabilities, and to observe their strategies for interacting with a speaking and minimally animated artificial agent. We found a surprising breadth in childrens reactions, expectations and strategies (as evidenced by their behaviour) and a noteworthy tolerance for the robots occasionally awkward behaviour.

Social Cardboard: Pretotyping a Social Ethnodroid in the Wild

Pretotyping is a set of techniques, tools, and metrics for gauging the interest in a product, prior to full-scale development [1]. This late breaking report describes a pretotyping case study of an ethnodroid - a robot that functions as an ethnographer - intended to engage with young children and record their learning progress. The central requirement for the project is that the robot will be able to interact socially with children aged 1-6 years in tablet-based tasks. We developed a simple robot made of MDF (thick cardboard), added tablets for the face and torso, and controlled a scripted interaction using Wizard of Oz (WoZ). Childrens engagement with the robot was tested in an early learning centre which provided a relatively structured environment (“in the lab”) and at a science fair which provided a relatively unconstrained setting (“in the wild”). The rapid testing revealed distinct effects in the childrens attitudes and behaviors in the two user contexts and provided insights into form, sensors and analyses for the design process.

Discovery table exploring the design of tangible and ubiquitous technology for learning in preparatory classrooms

In this paper we investigate how technologies can be designed to support learning in preparatory classrooms by augmenting existing learning objects. By following an iterative interaction design process of working with teachers and children within the classroom environment, we can better design technologies through the augmentation (rather than replacement) of existing learning activities. Our case study -- the Discovery Table -- uses a variety of technologies to allow everyday plastic symbols of letters and numbers to be placed on a technology augmented table in order to provide visual, audible and tangible feedback to the children. Discovery Table demonstrates a first step towards more fundamental work towards successful design for tangible learning.

Spatiotemporal Aspects of Engagement during Dialogic Storytelling Child–Robot Interaction

The success of robotic agents in close proximity of humans depends on their capacity to engage in social interactions and maintain these interactions over periods of time that are suitable for learning. A critical requirement is the ability to modify the behaviour of the robot contingently to the attentional and social cues signalled by the human. A benchmark challenge for an engaging social robot is that of storytelling. In this paper, we present an exploratory study to investigate dialogic storytelling -- storytelling with contingent responses -- using a child-friendly robot. The aim of the study was to develop an engaging storytelling robot and to develop metrics for evaluating engagement. Ten children listened to an illustrated story told by a social robot during a science fair. The responses of the robot were adapted during the interaction based on the childrens engagement and touches of the pictures displayed by the robot on a tablet embedded in its torso. During the interaction the robot responded contingently to the child, but only when the robot invited the child to interact. We describe the robot architecture used to implement dialogic storytelling and evaluate the quality of human-robot interaction based on temporal (patterns of touch, touch duration) and spatial (motions in the space surrounding the robot) metrics. We introduce a novel visualization that emphasizes the temporal dynamics of the interaction, and analyse the motions of the children in the space surrounding the robot. The study demonstrates that the interaction through invited contingent responses succeeded in engaging children, although the robot missed some opportunities for contingent interaction and the children had to adapt to the task. We conclude that i) the consideration of both temporal and spatial attributes is fundamental for establishing metrics to estimate levels of engagement in real-time, ii) metrics for engagement are sensitive to both the group and individual, and iii) a robots sequential mode of interaction can facilitate engagement, despite some social events being ignored by the robot.

IoT: Designing for Human Values

This one-day, embedded workshop will explore the design intersections of human values and internet of things (IoT) applications. In a day-long session we will configure and build small IoT devices (using the Particle platform), then deploy them to collect, share and publish the data they harvest throughout the conference. During the conference program we will reconvene to debate how a world of connected devices intersects with human values (such as privacy and transparency) and to articulate the specific challenges for designing a value-conscious IoT.

Lingodroids: Investigating Grounded Color Relations using a Social Robot for Children

Language can be a useful tool for social robots as part of their repertoire of social engagement. This late breaking report outlines preliminary studies into how a child can teach a robot lexicons for colors and color relations. The robot used is a minimal social robot, made from cardboard and foam, that interacts with the children through a simple color naming game. Distributed, non-parametric lexicons similar to those used in previous language learning robot studies are used to store links between words and colors. We visually present the resulting lexicons and highlight the issues that have arisen from this preliminary study and how they can be resolved for future studies. The results of this study indicate that children can teach a social robot lexicons, allowing the children and robot to develop a shared set of symbols for color.

Involving Everyone: Coding and Decoding Languages.

Through the use of humanoid robots, a rural school in South Australia has included both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in embedding the “sleeping” language of the traditional owners of the land (the Narungga people) into the classroom. Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students worked with virtual and real humanoid robots to develop in parallel both their programming skills and their understanding of the Narungga language and culture. This research is part of a larger three-year study investigating the impact of humanoid robots on students’ learning and engagement and draws on questionnaires, interviews and journals from the educators. The study demonstrated how pride and interest in Aboriginal culture can be partially reclaimed using these inclusive and adaptive technologies. Simultaneously, students and educators were learning two languages; the coding language required to program the robot and the Narungga language.

Spelling Bug: benefits of using adaptive technology for training spelling in primary school classrooms

We have developed, used and evaluated Spelling Bug, a computer program designed for teachers and students in primary school classrooms, in three schools in Brisbane over 1.5 years. We evaluated how learner-adaptive computer programs can be successfully integrated in primary classrooms in situ, using observations, interviews and computer-based data logs. The study found participating teachers felt time poor and they did not priorities learning to use new technologies. However, if they find add-on value they use the technology to complement traditional teaching. The response to using Spelling Bug was positive from both teachers and students. Students enjoyed a new task for working with spelling and they responded positively to the individual challenge the computer program set up for them. Teachers were pleased to find their students working independently and found time to support individual needs in the classroom. Retrieving information from a computer program gave support for teachers when making decisions on how to proceed with their teaching and presenting to parents.