Android at the Blackboard

The "AV1" A robotic head on a loudspeaker is enough to allow pupils to participate in instruction. The “AV1” makes it possible. © No Isolation: Estera K. Johnsrud

The digital connection makes it possible to keep up with the material and maintain a connection with a student’s social milieu and friends. The robot from the Norwegian company “No Isolation” is called the AV1.

Educational robots can begin working even before primary school. For example, parents of kindergarten students in Singapore face a tricky decision: Do they send their child to a kindergarten where the children can play with the robotic telephone “RoBoHoN” and the robotic astronaut “Kirobo” – or perhaps to the “R2D2 Lab,” the “In3LABS,” or the Roboto Academy? One website in the Southeast Asian city-state even highlights “the 10 best robot classes” for children. The clear message: It is never too early to learn robotics. With the “Kibo Robot,” for example, four- to seven-year-olds learn to assemble their own robots and program them by assembling wooden blocks end-to-end. In play, children develop a basic understanding of technology – and much more, as Kibo’s scientist-inventor Marina Umaschi Bers notes. She compares programming with a playground. Children can try things out – and even create them.

Programming Starting in Primary School?

The children also work with one another on a team, developing character strengths. That’s why Bers makes the case for teaching programming in primary school – along with arithmetic, reading and writing. In some cases, robotics is already on the curricula of secondary schools.

A co-worker has now taken over at the robot-teacher Elias’s school in Finland. It is shaped like an egg and is very quickly identified as a robot as well: “What is 67 plus 52?” asks a robot named “Ovobot.” It stands on the work group’s table like an owl and looks at the students with large eyes. A math problem lights up on its display. Using voice recognition, the Ovobot poses questions and hands out points based on how well pupils answer. Teachers can use it in small groups that need drilling even as they continue to teach. The math robot unfortunately doesn’t have a dance in its programs.