Talk-to-the-Robot: Speech-Interactive Robot To Teach Children Computational Thinking

Nada Sharaf, Ghada Ahmed, Omnia Ashraf, Walid Ahmed

2023

Abstract

Nowadays, technology is fundamental in almost every aspect of our lives. Our daily life is endowed with many devices as mobiles, laptops, televisions that depend solely on technology. Therefore, Computational Thinking is growing faster into a form of an imperative literacy that needs to be learnt by young children as well as Programming in order for them to be more prepared for the future. From an educational point of view, it is very essential to improve and develop computational thinking and problem algorithmic-solving skills of young students. This study investigates how successfully small kids between 7-11 years old can comprehend and use basic programming concepts. Through this study, children have to learn three major programming concepts (sequential, conditional, iteration) by using a robot in a maze game that targets these concepts. The robot has a voice recognition feature that can easily be used by children to direct the robot out of the maze by using the three different programming approaches. The experiment has 36 participants, then by means of a “between-group experiment”, the participants have been divided into two groups. One of which has learnt the concepts by using the robot to test the game (Experimental Group) while the other has learnt the concepts by using the traditional methods of teaching (Control Group). The results of testing the learning processes between the two groups have been compared and reported regarding the learning gain, engagement level and system usability scale. The experiment has proved that the group who uses the robot has achieved significantly better learning gain and better engagement than the group who has been taught by explaining the concepts on a paper. Accordingly, using an educational robot is considered to be an effective and operative method for teaching young children the basics of programming and computational thinking.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Sharaf N., Ahmed G., Ashraf O. and Ahmed W. (2023). Talk-to-the-Robot: Speech-Interactive Robot To Teach Children Computational Thinking. In Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 1: CSEDU, ISBN 978-989-758-641-5, SciTePress, pages 57-69. DOI: 10.5220/0011852600003470

in Bibtex Style

@conference{csedu23,
author={Nada Sharaf and Ghada Ahmed and Omnia Ashraf and Walid Ahmed},
title={Talk-to-the-Robot: Speech-Interactive Robot To Teach Children Computational Thinking},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 1: CSEDU,},
year={2023},
pages={57-69},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0011852600003470},
isbn={978-989-758-641-5},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 1: CSEDU,
TI - Talk-to-the-Robot: Speech-Interactive Robot To Teach Children Computational Thinking
SN - 978-989-758-641-5
AU - Sharaf N.
AU - Ahmed G.
AU - Ashraf O.
AU - Ahmed W.
PY - 2023
SP - 57
EP - 69
DO - 10.5220/0011852600003470
PB - SciTePress