Kindergarten Student’s Exploration of Storybooks with a Social Robot as Peer-Tutor: A Pilot Study

Abstract:

As technology rapidly advances, so does its incorporation into education. Digital devices such as tablets, computers, and cell phones have become an essential part of students' lives, and at times research has shown them to be beneficial for assisting with learning. Previous studies report that innovative technology in the classroom is also associated with students' motivation to learn. Research studies focused on intelligent tutoring systems have suggested that using socially interactive robots in the classroom may increase students' motivation, and cognitive skills, compared to classrooms that do not use a robotic peer-tutor. However, little is known about social robots and their potential role in early literacy learning in younger students. This research study placed socially interactive robots in a kindergarten classroom in a local Atlanta school as a peer-tutoring system. It included a robot named Jibo and a tablet in an integrated station, with a storybook game app, developed by the Personal Robots Group at MIT. The game presented the school's reading curriculum, allowing students to explore their classroom storybooks, and identify words for reading and meaning with various support features. This included word identification via touching the text, image identification via touching a picture, automatic story reading, along with Jibo asking them questions about the story, and assisting them in these processes. Using preliminary data from one station and ten kindergarten participants, this pilot study aimed to develop an initial data framework and analysis approach to understand how students initially explore their storybooks with such a robotic peer-tutor. We hypothesize that kindergarten students who spend extended time in a specific storybook increased their engagement levels based on support features. Initial data review and analysis are currently ongoing. Different aspects of the data are being tracked to understand how kindergarten children approach their storybooks using this system. A few examples of children's data will be given to provide a sample of the types of information being gathered and analyzed. Such research may help lead to the successful integration of such social robots, as peer-tutors, into elementary school classrooms to encourage higher literacy levels and improve learning experiences