Interactive drama with robots for teaching non-technical subjects

Abstract

Educational robotics has great potential as a learning tool at all levels, from kindergarten to the university. It provides rich opportunities for collaborative knowledge building and skills acquisition through the manipulation of and interaction with robots. Despite the remarkable progress in this field, the scope and impact of robot-based activities have primarily focused on the teaching of technical school subjects (i.e., computer science, mathematics, and physics). This work proposes to support the learning and teaching of non-technical school subjects through drama-based activities with multiple robots. This approach provides a multisensory learning environment where students can learn through representations or simulations of ideas, events, stories, phenomena, or processes using multiple robot actors. Based on the drama process used by teachers, we propose steps to create and perform plays with robot actors in an educational context and discuss different alternatives for its implementation. Finally, we discuss the challenges of creating plays with multiple robots for educational purposes.