The Impact of Social Robots in Education: Moral Considerations of Dutch Educational Policymakers

Smakman, Matthijs; Berket, J.; Konijn, Elly A.

doi:10.1109/ro-man47096.2020.9223582

Cited by 12 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…It is also common to predict that robot teachers would be able to navigate complex, crowd-packed situations with ease and adjust their surroundings (11). However, the robot's ability to manipulate objects and to move independently is beneficial in some situations to the learning experience, such as when supporting physical experimentation or moving to the learner rather than to the robot, even though it is not always necessary in the context of education (12). Social robots and instructors face similar challenges, but the additional complication of having the robot operate near and with (young) learners adds complexities to navigation and manipulation that are often underestimated (13).…”

Section: Vantages Of Social Robot As Tutorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Social Robots in Education for Long-Term Human-Robot Interaction : Socially Supportive Behaviour of Robotic Tutor for Creating Robo-Tangible Learning Environment in a Guided Discovery Learning Interaction

Alam¹

2022

ECS Trans.

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The article discusses the possible applications of social robots in education, the technological and pedagogical challenges they possess, and the ways in which they may affect learning outcomes, concentrating only on robots intended to assist students in learning via social interaction. Author has highlighted three significant research problems : 1) Does robot tutors help improve students’ learning outcomes? 2) Does appearance and behaviour of robots have a significant role to play on academic engagement of learners? 3) What could be the potential roles of a robot in an educational setting? A statistical meta-analysis of previously published research articles is used to substantiate author’s claims. The larger aim of this article is to provide effective groundwork for future research by describing the expected outcomes of using social robots to offer education and identifying potential research areas for further inquiry.

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Section: Vantages Of Social Robot As Tutorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In an elementary school, Robovie was the first fully autonomous robot used in educational settings. Two Japanese grades (first and sixth) were targeted by the robot, which spoke English ( 72)- (75). Field testing for two weeks yielded positive results for children's English language skills.…”

Section: Robot As a Peermentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Robots in Education for Long-Term Human-Robot Interaction : Socially Supportive Behaviour of Robotic Tutor for Creating Robo-Tangible Learning Environment in a Guided Discovery Learning Interaction

Alam¹

2022

ECS Trans.

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“…Key stakeholders, such as teachers, parents, and policymakers, have also voiced concerns related to the potential social-affective bond that children may develop with a robot (Serholt et al, 2017;Smakman et al, 2020a, Smakman et al, 2020b. They report worries in the field that such a bond could harm children's socialemotional development (Smakman et al, 2021b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Robotic Tutors Compromise the Social-Emotional Development of Children?

Smakman

Konijn²,

Vogt

2022

Front. Robot. AI

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Social robots are reported to hold great potential for education. However, both scholars and key stakeholders worry about children’s social-emotional development being compromised. In aiming to provide new insights into the impact that social robots can have on the social-emotional development of children, the current study interviewed teachers who use social robots in their day-to-day educational practice. The results of our interviews with these experienced teachers indicate that the social robots currently used in education pose little threat to the social-emotional development of children. Children with special needs seem to be more sensitive to social-affective bonding with a robot compared to regular children. This bond seems to have positive effects in enabling them to more easily connect with their human peers and teachers. However, when robots are being introduced more regularly, daily, without the involvement of a human teacher, new issues could arise. For now, given the current state of technology and the way social robots are being applied, other (ethical) issues seem to be more urgent, such as privacy, security and the workload of teachers. Future studies should focus on these issues first, to ensure a safe and effective educational environment for both children and teachers.

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“…The members of this group find it problematic that data about children can easily be shared via the robot with third parties, such as the government. This is an interesting finding as earlier research (Smakman, Berket, et al, 2020) suggests that government policymakers have considered such data sharing to be a potential benefit of the use of social robots in education. The Sceptic cluster also had the least favourable attitude towards making robots widely available.…”

Section: Rq3 Which Socio-demographic Characteristics Influence the At...mentioning

confidence: 53%

“…Lastly, for the domain temperament/personality, children's personality attributes become increasingly differentiated during primary school. In earlier research, social robots have been reported to potentially influence several aspects of the social-emotional development domains, such as social competence (Peter et al, 2021) and attachment (Coeckelbergh et al, 2016) Key stakeholders, such as teachers, parents, and policymakers, have also voiced concerns related to the potential social-affective bond that children may develop with a robot (Serholt et al, 2017;Smakman, Berket, et al, 2020;Smakman, Jansen, et al, 2020). They report worries in the field that such a bond could harm children's social-emotional development .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robots in education

Smakman

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The challenges facing primary education are significant: a growing teacher shortage, relatively high administrative burdens that contribute to work-related stress and an increasing diversity of children in the classroom. A promising new technology that can help teachers and children meet these challenges is the social robot. These physical robots often use artificial intelligence and can communicate with children by taking on social roles, such as that of a fellow classmate or teaching assistant. Previous research shows that the use of social robots can lead to better results in several ways than when traditional educational technologies are applied. However, social robots not only bring opportunities but also lead to new ethical questions. In my PhD research, I investigated the moral considerations of different stakeholders, such as parents and teachers, to create the first guideline for the responsible design and use of social robots for primary education. Various research methods were used for this study. First of all, a large, international literature study was carried out on the advantages and disadvantages of social robots, in which 256 studies were ultimately analysed. Focus group sessions were then held with stakeholders: a total of 118 parents of primary school children, representatives of the robotics industry, educational policymakers, government education advisors, teachers and primary school children contributed. Based on the insights from the literature review and the focus group sessions, a questionnaire was drawn up and distributed to all stakeholders. Based on 515 responses, we then classified stakeholder moral considerations. In the last study, based on in-depth interviews with teachers who used robots in their daily teaching and who supervised the child-robot interaction of >2500 unique children, we studied the influence of social robots on children's social-emotional development. Our research shows that social robots can have advantages and disadvantages for primary education. The diversity of disadvantages makes the responsible implementation of robots complex. However, overall, despite their concerns, all stakeholder groups viewed social robots as a potentially valuable tool. Many stakeholders are concerned about the possible negative effect of robots on children's social-emotional development. Our research shows that social robots currently do not seem to harm children's social-emotional development when used responsibly. However, some children seem to be more sensitive to excessive attachment to robots. Our research also shows that how people think about robots is influenced by several factors. For example, low-income stakeholders have a more sceptical attitude towards social robots in education. Other factors, such as age and level of education, were also strong predictors of the moral considerations of stakeholders. This research has resulted in a guideline for the responsible use of social robots as teaching assistants, which can be used by primary schools and robot builders. The guideline provides schools with tools, such as involving parents in advance and using robots to encourage human contact. School administrators are also given insight into possible reactions from parents and other parties involved. The guideline also offers guidelines for safeguarding privacy, such as data minimization and improving the technical infrastructure of schools and robots; which still often leaves much to be desired. In short, the findings from this thesis provide a solid stepping stone for schools, robot designers, programmers and engineers to develop and use social robots in education in a morally responsible manner. This research has thus paved the way for more research into robots as assistive technology in primary education.

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The Impact of Social Robots in Education: Moral Considerations of Dutch Educational Policymakers

Cited by 12 publications

References 13 publications

Social Robots in Education for Long-Term Human-Robot Interaction : Socially Supportive Behaviour of Robotic Tutor for Creating Robo-Tangible Learning Environment in a Guided Discovery Learning Interaction

Social Robots in Education for Long-Term Human-Robot Interaction : Socially Supportive Behaviour of Robotic Tutor for Creating Robo-Tangible Learning Environment in a Guided Discovery Learning Interaction

Do Robotic Tutors Compromise the Social-Emotional Development of Children?

Robots in education

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