short-paper

Designing a relational social robot toolkit for preschool children to explore computational concepts

Authors:

Edith Ackermann,

Cynthia BreazealAuthors Info & Claims

IDC '15: Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children

Pages 355 - 358

https://doi.org/10.1145/2771839.2771915

Published: 21 June 2015 Publication History

Abstract

Designing toolkits for teaching programming concepts to children using robots has received growing attention in recent years. However, teaching preschool children computational concepts, such as non-determinism and event-based programming, presents particular challenges. We have developed a programming toolkit that is embedded in an interpersonal interaction context with a social robot. The toolkit enables young children to program social robots by "teaching" them to interact. In order to "teach", the children show the robot rules designed with reusable vinyl stickers. In doing so, children can experiment with computational concepts while having a playful interaction with the social robot. We present the purpose, context, and design of the social robot toolkit (SoRo Toolkit), and an evaluation performed with 22 preschool children. We show that children have an engaging experience designing and "teaching" social interaction rules to the robot, orchestrating give-and-take exchanges, and delighting in how the robot engages with them as they explore computational ideas.

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Cited By

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3721488.3721535
Busuttil LVassallo DSchembri P(2025)Computational ThinkingEffective Computer Science Education in K-12 Classrooms10.4018/979-8-3693-4542-9.ch002(27-54)Online publication date: 24-Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.4018/979-8-3693-4542-9.ch002
Wilson DSarwar SNajjar N(2024)Notional Machines for Inclusive Learning2024 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE61694.2024.10892884(1-9)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE61694.2024.10892884
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Index Terms

Designing a relational social robot toolkit for preschool children to explore computational concepts
1. Applied computing
  1. Education

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

IDC '15: Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children

June 2015

488 pages

ISBN:9781450335904

DOI:10.1145/2771839

Conference Chairs:
Marina Umaschi Bers
Tufts University
,
Glenda Revelle
University of Arkansas

Copyright © 2015 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Publication History

Published: 21 June 2015

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National Science Foundation (NSF)

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IDC '15

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IDC '15: Interaction Design and Children

June 21 - 24, 2015

Massachusetts, Boston

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IDC '15 Paper Acceptance Rate 24 of 103 submissions, 23%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 172 of 578 submissions, 30%

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IDC '25

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Reykjavik , Iceland

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Cited By

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3721488.3721535
Busuttil LVassallo DSchembri P(2025)Computational ThinkingEffective Computer Science Education in K-12 Classrooms10.4018/979-8-3693-4542-9.ch002(27-54)Online publication date: 24-Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.4018/979-8-3693-4542-9.ch002
Wilson DSarwar SNajjar N(2024)Notional Machines for Inclusive Learning2024 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE61694.2024.10892884(1-9)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE61694.2024.10892884
Sapounidis TRapti SVaiopoulou J(2024)“Effects of Educational Robotics on Kindergarteners’ Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking, and Creativity: A Meta-Analysis”Journal of Science Education and Technology10.1007/s10956-024-10149-134:1(73-87)Online publication date: 30-Aug-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-024-10149-1
Louka KPapadakis S(2023)Programming Environments for the Development of Computational Thinking in Preschool Education: A Systematic Literature ReviewTeaching Coding in K-12 Schools10.1007/978-3-031-21970-2_4(39-59)Online publication date: 28-Feb-2023
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M. MK. NP. S(2022)Review on Artificial Intelligence and Robots in STEAM Education for Early Childhood DevelopmentHandbook of Research on Innovative Approaches to Early Childhood Development and School Readiness10.4018/978-1-7998-8649-5.ch019(468-498)Online publication date: 11-Feb-2022
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Demir KÇaka CYaman Nİslamoğlu HKuzu A(2022)Examining the Current Definitions of Computational ThinkingResearch Anthology on Computational Thinking, Programming, and Robotics in the Classroom10.4018/978-1-6684-2411-7.ch011(224-252)Online publication date: 2022
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Williams R(2022)Constructionism, Ethics, and Creativity: Developing Tools for the Future of Education with AI2022 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC)10.1109/VL/HCC53370.2022.9832963(1-3)Online publication date: 12-Sep-2022
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Liu LOh HZhang LFang THuang MHao YWang JYao CYing F(2022)A study of children’s learning and play using an underwater robot construction kitInternational Journal of Technology and Design Education10.1007/s10798-021-09720-333:2(317-336)Online publication date: 29-Mar-2022
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Haseski HIlic UTuğtekin U(2021)Computational Thinking in Educational Digital GamesResearch Anthology on Developing Critical Thinking Skills in Students10.4018/978-1-7998-3022-1.ch019(345-376)Online publication date: 2021
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