Encouraging collaboration between primary school children through a learning robot.

This research explored how collaboration can be elicited between primary school children in classroom activities with a mobile tablet-based robot: the surface bot. Collaboration is a 21st-century skill that children need to learn. A prototype was developed based on the learning-by-teaching approach, where children act as a tutor over a learning surface bot by providing feedback. In a first study, the engagement of 6 pairs of children (age 4-8) and their level of collaboration was examined. Children were observed to be engaged and adhere to their task as a tutor. The prototype enabled collaboration, but it was not enough to elicit it since children tended to take turns and act individually. Based on the results, and informed by literature, the prototype was improved to encourage collaboration. In a second study, 18 children (age 6-10) participated in pairs with the improved prototype. Comparing the results with the first study, indicated that the improved prototype indeed encouraged collaboration. In multiple cases, a division of roles was established, and some other indicators showed improvements. This research contributes to HRI research by showing how collaboration can be encouraged between primary school children using the surface bot.