UWE Bristol Engineering showcase 2015

James Ferrand
Robotics Beng(Hons)
Project Supervisor
Dr. Paul Bremner and Dr. Matthew Studley
Benefits of Robots in Education
This study explored the effectiveness of robots in an educational setting. The effects of robots using gestures and how it can help be used as an educational
tool will be explored. This is a relatively new area of study. The Study discussed why humans use gesturing in addition to speech, the different types used and
the effects they can have. There are a variety of different types as described in multiple published literature. The types used are established by Kendon (2004).
Iconic gestures present imagery of an established concept or action, whereas Metaphoric are based on creating a new image in the observers mind. Deictic are
pointing style gestures, and Beats are timing based. Other studies show that age has an effect on the interpretation and use of gestures, older adults tend not
to use iconic gestures and interpret co-speech less (Cocks and Morgan, 2011). Whereas younger humans are more influenced by gestures when interpreting
multimodal speech (Vocal and gesture synchronised).
Project summary
The project is to understand the learning
effect of a robot using gestures in an
educational setting.
Teaching uses gestures as an additional teaching tool (Goldin-Meadow et al.
2013), mimicking gestures used as part of an explanation which can help
with deeper learning. Robots are starting to appear in the classroom in
various forms and uses. In a few cases Robots are used to teach children.
Robots who use gestures can make them appear more human, if a correct
gesture is used at the correct time then the appearance of human qualities
are increased.
The Experiment was performed in a
local nursery. The Preschool group
participated being the eldest group.
They have understanding of
numbers so suited the math based
test and lesson.
A pre and post-test was conducted
around each lesson where the
children were asked to recognize a
set of numbers.
The robot
here is
producing a
number 2
gesture.
4 Conditions were set for this experiment. Robot and
Human teacher. For each of these the teacher would
be using either gestures (tracing) or pointing only.
Two sets of numbers were used over 2 weeks.
Set A: 1,2,3,4,5, 21,22,43,24,45,41
Set B: 1,2,3,4,5, 35,34,52,31,54,50
The test was run over two weeks and the children
experienced a different set of numbers each week.
Project Objectives
Compare the effects of a robot using gestures and pointing
only. See if the robot created a better learning effect
compared to that of a human.
Project Conclusion
The results concluded that the robot was less effective
due to distracting the child from the information being
processed. Additionally the robot is unable to produce the
same effect due to not gaining the trust of the children
due to the emotional connection of teachers.
The children enjoyed the experience of the robot but
found the human condition more comfortable and
beneficial.
The children's attention was also greater with the human
teacher compared with the robot.
Overall the robot did not perform as well as the human
teacher. This is due to the robot not being a human staff
member of the nursery and therefore not a respected in
the child’s mind.
5
4
3
2
1
0
-1
-2
Gesture
Pointing
Mean
Learning
Robot
Human
The results shown that the robot had a negative
effect on the children’s learning. This had many
possible reasons.
The human teacher performed better overall. The
robot pointing only had a marginally bigger result
than the human pointing only.
The children paid more attention to the human
than the robot.
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Gesture
Pointing
Mean
Attention
Loss
Robot
Human