Robot practice writing letters with children

Researchers in Switzerland have designed a special robot, which acts as a student for children to 'teach' them how to write words. Thereby helping to improve children's handwriting skills. This method is supposed to motivate learning as well as improve learners' confidence.

NAO CoWriter - Robot practices writing letters with children

Called NAO CoWriter , the product was developed by scientists from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL). Robot with a friendly, human-friendly plastic design.

In terms of features, the device is able to recognize words and try to write it down. The text will be displayed on a tablet screen. The child then identifies and corrects the robot's errors by rewriting specific words or letters. Séverin Lemaignan - one of the authors of the study, said their robot is based on a principle that has been recognized as a pedagogy: the Protégé effect.

"Robots are programmed to face difficulties in writing. The children at the time were reluctant to become teachers, with a tendency to help robots. And that's what we call the 'Protégé effect'. "Children will try to protect this robot and help it improve. If robots still do not improve their writing, the child will feel responsible for it. Based on this effect only." , we can really make robots and children interact with each other effectively, " explains Lemaignan.

The results of some previous studies have shown that when children have difficulty writing letters, they may lose confidence in themselves, eventually avoiding learning. This negatively affects the educational process of the child.

However, a solution like CoWriter , can help them regain confidence and motivation. Lemaignan said their robots were built to act as the worst students in the class. " Our idea is to introduce a new role for robots; robots are 'kids' who write the worst words in the classroom. At that time, the children who are self-inferior suddenly find someone even worse than them '.

Now scientists have developed a special algorithm and programmed them into a commercial robot called " NAO ", developed by the French company - Aldebaran Robotics. Their algorithm includes a large database of handwriting, allowing the robot to write clumsily when asked. This writing then gradually improved when it was designed by young 'teachers' .

CoWriter is still in testing phase . Experts want to verify whether the algorithms they offer meet the needs of children and get the desired results. To do that, robots are used in elementary school lessons, involving 70 students, aged 6-8. Scientists are also planning to conduct further research, hoping to prove the project's effectiveness.

The team hopes their work will be the basis for the use of innovative robots, to address challenges that are common in education.

On the other hand, Lemaignan also said that teachers who feel their work in the future will be threatened, do not need to be too worried.

" Many people ask whether this technology will soon replace teachers. Of course not. The bottom line is that robots play a role that teachers can't, that's the one who writes the letters. The teacher is still the follower. "The mistake of robots. They know what can be done, should do and have to do to solve the specific problems of the students. The problem only shows on the faces of the children."