Robots in Education

An Introduction to High-Tech Social Agents, Intelligent Tutors, and Curricular Tools

Fady Alnajjar, Christoph Bartneck, Paul Baxter, Tony Belpaeme, Massimiliano Cappuccio, Cinzia Di Dio, Friederike Eyssel, Jürgen Handke, Omar Mubin, Mohammad Obaid, Natalia Reich-Stiebert

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000388855
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Inclusive Education

Robots in Education is an accessible introduction to the use of robotics in formal learning, encompassing pedagogical and psychological theories as well as implementation in curricula. Today, a variety of communities across education are increasingly using robots as general classroom tutors, tools in STEM projects, and subjects of study. This volume explores how the unique physical and social-interactive capabilities of educational robots can generate bonds with students while freeing instructors to focus on their individualized approaches to teaching and learning. Authored by a uniquely interdisciplinary team of scholars, the book covers the basics of robotics and their supporting technologies; attitudes toward and ethical implications of robots in learning; research methods relevant to extending our knowledge of the field; and more.

1Introduction

If we teach today's students as we taught yesterday's, we rob them of tomorrow.

John Dewey, Democracy and Education,
New York: Macmillan Company, 1944

What is covered in this chapter:

• The changing nature of education;
• A short history of educational robots;
• Real robots versus fictional robots;
• What is covered in this book.

A modern learning scenario: Sarah attends a computer science class and works with Ozobot today. With Ozobot (see Figure 5.5), she catches Pokémon and thereby playfully learns about basic coding concepts. Ozobot is a small programmable robot designed to support lessons ranging from maths and science to art, offering a hands-on approach. At the same time, Ben attends a Spanish language class and interacts with Pepper, a robot that looks quite like a human with arms and a face that is intended to be perceived as friendly and cute (see Figure 1.3). They are talking about the lives of street children in Latin America. Pepper speaks slowly and without accent, and repeats patiently when Ben has not understood him. Pepper is available to support teaching and learning across different disciplines. Pepper speaks 27 languages and is able to recognize human emotions and interact socially.

The use of educational technologies to support learning and teaching has progressed from computer-aided presentations and online learning environments to one of the latest teaching technologies, that is, educational robots such as the Ozobot or Pepper presented above. Several schools and universities all over the world have already started to test the use of robots in the classroom. Rapid technological innovations that are categorized under the keyword “digitalization” are a reason for this development. Against the background of the digital transformation, the competent use of digital media plays an increasingly important role in the current educational discourse. Ever more frequently, the so-called 21st century skills come to the fore, which encompass, for instance, information, media and technology skills, collaboration and communication skills, as well as learning and innovation skills. The mission of education is, therefore, to provide new knowledge and competencies and support new forms of exchange in an increasingly interconnected world. Robotics is a driving force in this technological change and its importance in our future everyday life will increase steadily. For this reason, students must be given the opportunity to approach this topic and acquire knowledge about it to be prepared for present and future living and working environments. Even more importantly, research tells us that learning with robots is engaging for students of all ages and promotes students' interest in subjects they never thought they would be interested in. Thus, the use of educational robots can help to create a learning environment that keeps students engrossed in the content due to the novelty of the interaction medium.

In this book, we will outline first the various learning paradigms that underpin educational robots and then the potential of robots in education and the roles they can play in the transfer of knowledge. Further, we will discuss technical requirements and application potentials as well as possible associated challenges. Finally, we will consider how a robot's visual, social, and behavioural cues affect learning, and which research methods are appropriate to investigate human-robot interactions (HRIs) in the educational setting.

1.1 Teaching Technologies: The Digital Turn in Education

As mentioned above, education in the 21st century is changing. The role of robots in the future of education cannot be considered in isolation, but needs to be understood in the context of the digital changes that are currently being implemented. The central idea of this new approach to teaching and learning (T & L) is that knowledge delivery and knowledge acquisition are now largely mediated by digital technologies. A central way in which these transform education is that they enable educators to personalize learning and give students the ownership of their personal learning process.

One trend in the digital transformation of education that is experiencing immense growth is online learning. Instead of a text-based, static learning experience in a classroom or in a lecture hall, students work with the online learning elements that have been compiled for them in studios, workshops, or outside of the learning environment. These contents are usually delivered on the Internet using learning management systems (LMSs). One of the greatest advantages of this is that students can choose their own learning intensity and the speed at which they progress. Courses that are offered in such customizable formats have the potential to be scaled up dramatically in that a large number of students can consume the digitalized content in so-called massive open online courses (MOOCs).

In fact, there are many education institutions that consider MOOCs as a key to T & L in a modern world. However, it has become obvious that this format suffers from extremely low accomplishment rates, often below 5%. Khalil and Ebner (2014) mention lack of time, lack of learners' motivation, feelings of isolation, and the lack of interactivity are the central problems in such online T & L scenarios. The promise of scale, in which one tutor teaches thousands of students and even non-academics for free, has not been fully achieved (Neubök et al., 2015). The high production costs of professional online courses resulted in the need to charge considerable enrolment fees (Hollands, 2014). These problems also persist in closed online courses that are being offered by established universities to earn micro-certificates (Handke and Franke, 2013). Therefore, online courses are unlikely to be the solution to the problems of traditional T & L. We need an additional component, where the knowledge acquired digitally is deepened and practised. This opens up new opportunities for on-site teaching, where in-class scenarios become competence-oriented and no longer primarily focused on knowledge transfer. Therefore, a two-phase T & L scenario has been proposed: self-guided online content delivery and content acquisition and guided depth of knowledge. Not only does this scenario, which has for a long time been associated with the term “flipped” or “inverted teaching” (Baker, 2000; Lage et al., 2000), allow students to apply their own learning style and their own time frame, but also a high degree of individualization in the online phase. Even more so, it relies on a subsequent in-class phase where the newly acquired knowledge is deepened and practised.

A big enhancement to online education that can be used both in class and online has come with the emergence of virtual and augmented realities, allowing learners to get an immersive learning experience. Virtual reality (VR) is a computer-generated simulation of environments in which users can interact in a three-dimensional and realistic way, and in which they feel present using electronic equipment such as helmets or clothing equipped with sensors (Biocca, 1992; Steuer, 1992; Zhou and Deng, 2009). Current prominent VR systems are, for instance, the cave automatic virtual environment in which projections are displayed on the walls of a cube (CAVE, Cruz-Neira et al. (1992)) or head-mounted displays equipped with LCD screens (HDM, Santos et al. (2009)). Augmented reality (AR) combines real-life objects and elements with VR components (Azuma, 1997). Compared with VR, in AR virtual elements co-exist in real-life environments allowing for merging education in the virtual space and the real world (Bower et al., 2014). Mobile devices with GPS increase learners' mobility and interaction with each other, and enable the user to experience the real world authentically supplemented by virtual elements such as images, texts, or videos. AR textbooks are an example for such applications in education. Lecture notes are supplemented by visualizations, 3D models, or simulations creating a new interactive way of learning. A big advantage of VR and AR applications in education is that they allow for real-life experiences in an immersive way. Recent work shows that the use of VR and AR systems in education can have a positive impact on learning outcomes such as increased motivation and interest, or higher performance and creativity (Alhalabi, 2016; Bower et al., 2014; Makransky and Lilleholt, 2018; Wu et al., 2013). However, pedagogical issues and challenges arise from the implementation of both online learning as well as VR and AR applications in education. Innovative instructional approaches compared with conventional teacher-centred, delivery-based methods are required.

Consequently, the teacher's role has changed from a deliverer of knowledge to that of an academic assistant, or as King (1993) put it: “From Sage on the Stage to Guide on the Side”. This new role is challenging. It involves answering questions, supervising research in class, group work with the students, and controlling technology, such as Audience-Response-Systems (ARSs) or learning-apps, that is, a number of activities where several competencies are required, such as content-specific competencies and media/technological competencies. A single academic is often not capable of sufficiently taking over all these roles, especially in classes with more than 25 students (Handke, 2017). But even in smaller classes, the permanent switch between content and technology may distract the academic guide from cooperating with the students. As a consequence, we need more assistants to take over these tasks, ideally one for each student. This would approach the ancient ideal of Socrates wandering the streets of Athens while conversing with a student.

Today, however, there is a new option. One of the latest teaching technologies that will shape education in the not-so-distant future, and what is to be discussed in this book, is the rise of robots for T & L. Among all these technologies, we believe that robots have a particularly great potential to shape the future of education and lead students to success. Relevant learning experiences with educational robots (be it robots as tools or as social agents) such as coding, programming, or collaborating through and with them, can, for example, inspire creativity, train problem solving, and empower self-regulated learning—skills students need to be successful in today's and tomorrow's working life. Educational robots as social agents can, at least to some extent, take over some of the tasks which humans have to perform, thus giving the academic guides new freedom for individual advice and consultation. This use of robots, which does not replace humans but where robots become their new assistants, is an essential part of the digital turn. While the roles played by the teacher and that of the robot will change the learning experience, robots will not make teachers obsolete. The programming of the robots, content creation, and maintenance will even result in many new jobs.

One could argue that virtual agents that are based on screens or mobile applications could accomplish this task as well and would not require expensive hardware. In this book, we will argue that the unique physical embodiment and the interactive capabilities of social robots are key to forming a social yet empathetic bond between the learners and the robots, and that this bond improves the learning experience. Other mechanical robots may not be able to converse with a human, but through their form factor or manipulative modular structure, they provide a platform to learn about engineering and sciences. Therefore, in this book we include chapters on both types of robots, as a social agent and as a tool.

What about the past? Have there been examples of robots that accompanied human teachers in education before the digital turn? Furthermore, are there examples of using robots in T & L environments beyond the ones described? The following passages will first provide a general overview and will then look at the potential of robots comparing science and fiction, and precisely, what belongs to the imaginary and real world.

1.2 A Brief Definition of and Introduction to Educational Robots

Educational robots subsume all those robots that can be used in the context of education. Depending on their interaction styles with humans, they can be classified into robots that can be used as tools or as social agents. In their role as tools, they are use...