Exploring the need of an assistive robot to support reading process: A pilot study

Reading is one of the main activities that readers are immensely practicing during their daily lives and this activity is accompanied with some challenges that may cause disengagement during the process.Recently, assistive robotics technologies have shown extensive powerful effects in assisting its users to tackle various domain specific problems.From that perspective, the main goal of this pilot study is to investigate the problems that readers encounter during reading process.In addition, it aims to probe the need of an assistive robot that makes reading process less challenging.A questionnaire survey was distributed to 100 students at Universiti Utara Malaysia and the analysis of the results showed that an assistive robot is promising to support reading process. Similarly, this study detailed the embodiment and the design aspects that need to be applied while designing an assistive reading robot

Perceived usefulness of robotics in the Primary Education curriculum for students with Specific Educational Support Needs

El uso de las herramientas tecnológicas está teniendo un crecimiento significativo en los diversos campos de conocimiento. En el ámbito educativo, ha emergido la robótica, que tiene una gran versatilidad para dar respuesta a las diversas necesidades del alumnado presente en las aulas. El objetivo de la investigación ha sido implementar una acción formativa en el Grado en Maestro en Educación Primaria y analizar la utilidad percibida de la robótica para el alumnado con NEAE. Se adoptó un enfoque cuantitativo con diseño no experimental comparativo-casual. Los participantes fueron 170 estudiantes del Grado de Maestro en Educación Primaria de la asignatura “Atención a las Necesidades Educativas Específicas”. Se diseñó ad hoc un cuestionario formado por 28 ítems, considerándose como dimensiones los objetivos, las competencias y las áreas del currículum de Educación Primaria. Los resultados pusieron de manifiesto que el 64.1% del alumnado percibe la robótica como totalmente útil para desarrollar los hábitos cotidianos de movilidad activa, autónoma y saludable. Asimismo, se hallaron diferencias significativas en las percepciones en función del conocimiento previo de algún robot, el género y la edad. Cabe concluir que la innovación implementada en la formación inicial docente fue satisfactoria.The use of technological tools is having a significant growth in various fields of knowledge. In the educational field, robotics has emerged, which has a great versatility to respond to the diverse needs of the students present in the classrooms. The objective of the research was to implement a training action in the Degree in Primary Education and to analyze the perceived usefulness of robotics for students with SEN. A quantitative approach was adopted with a non-experimental comparative-casual design. The participants were 170 students of the Degree of Teacher in Primary Education of the subject "Attention to Specific Educational Needs". A questionnaire consisting of 28 items was designed ad hoc, considering as dimensions the objectives, competencies and areas of the Primary Education curriculum. The results showed that 64.1% of the students perceive robotics as totally useful for developing daily habits of active, autonomous and healthy mobility. Significant differences were also found in perceptions according to previous knowledge of a robot, gender and age. It can be concluded that the innovation implemented in initial teacher training was satisfactory.El presente trabajo ha contado con una ayuda del Programa de Redes de investigación en docencia universitaria del Instituto de Ciencias de la Educación de la Universidad de Alicante (convocatoria 2022). Ref.: [5790]