R2D2: Your New Class teacher!

While robots in classrooms are still very new, some early examples of success are emerging

- Kristyn Sommer & Marie Bodén

C3PO, R2D2 and Wall-E: three distinctly memorable robots that captured our hearts as they rolled and beeped across the silver screen. But pint-sized and friendly, humanoid robots are now more than just fictional characters. They’re finding their way into new roles as teachers, ready to shape the way students learn in the classroom. And the evidence we have to date points to robots as fantastic teachers.

CHILDREN TEACHING ROBOTS

From as young as 12-months-old, toddlers are learning new words from robot instructors (who also happen to sing and dance along with them). By primary school, children are capable of learning features of new languages taught to them by humanoid robots.

Robots appear to get the job done as teachers, but how do they shape up as playmates? Kids find robots engaging – so much so that even when the robot ignores them, children persist in trying to get the robot’s attention.

Children tell secrets to robots. Children even feel peer pressure from robots, going so far as to give the wrong answer to a question if that’s what all the robots did before them. And what happens when the roles are reversed and the children became the teachers?