Cubus: autonomous embodied characters to stimulate creative idea generation in groups of children

Creativity is an ability that is crucial in nowadays societies. It is, therefore, important to develop activities that stimulate creativity at a very young age. It seems, however, that there is a lack of tools to support these activities. In this paper, we introduce Cubus, a tool that uses autonomous synthetic characters to stimulate idea generation in groups of children during a storytelling activity. With Cubus, children can invent a story and use the stop-motion technique to record a movie depicting it. In this paper, we explain Cubus’ system design and architecture and present the evaluation of Cubus’ impact in a creative task. This evaluation investigated idea generation in groups of children during their creative process of storytelling. Results showed that the autonomous behaviors of Cubus’ virtual agents contributed to the generation of more ideas in children, a key dimension of creativity.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Creativity encounters between children and robots

Creativity is an intrinsic human ability with multiple benefits across the lifespan. Despite its importance, societies not always are well equipped with contexts for creativity stimulation; as a consequence, a major decline in creative abilities occurs at the age of 7 years old. We investigated the effectiveness of using a robotic system named YOLO as an intervention tool to stimulate creativity in children. During the intervention, children used YOLO as a character for their stories and through the interaction with the robot, creative abilities were stimulated. Our study (n = 62) included 3 experimental conditions: i) YOLO displayed behaviors based on creativity techniques; ii) YOLO displayed behaviors based on creativity techniques plus social behaviors; iii) YOLO was turned off, not displaying any behaviors. We measured children’s creative abilities at pre- and post-testing and their creative process through behavior analysis. Results showed that the interaction with YOLO contributed to higher creativity levels in children, specifically contributing to the generation of more original ideas during story creation. This study shows the potential of using social robots as tools to empower intrinsic human abilities, such as the ability to be creative.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

LRS1: UN ROBOT SOCIAL DE BAJO COSTO PARA LA ASIGNATURA “PROGRAMACIÓN 1”

Los robots sociales han generado efectos positivos en el contexto educativo a través de diferentes roles: tutor, compañero y aprendiz. Los estudiantes de la asignatura “Programación 1” se han mostrado desmotivados en los últimos semestres. En aras de motivar el aprendizaje de los estudiantes de “Programación 1” se propone la incorporación de un robot social dentro de la dinámica de las clases. La adquisición de robots sociales comerciales es muy costosa, por lo tanto, se construye un robot social minimalista con tres habilidades principales: hablar, cambiar la expresión facial (triste, normal y feliz) y mover el cuello (arriba, abajo, izquierda, derecha y centro). El robot social construido (denominado LRS1) fue incorporado como tutor en una actividad denominada “dictado” que  pertenece al normal desarrollo de la asignatura, cuyos resultados obtenidos favorecen la incorporación de un robot social de bajo costo para motivar el aprendizaje en la asignatura

Charismatic speech features in robot instructions enhance team creativity

This study examines whether a social robot can enable team creativity and increase team performance depending on its speaking style. The aim is to provide insight into human teams' creativity and performance when exposed to different ways of speaking by a social robot, that is, when the robotic creativity facilitator is using different acoustic-prosodic features. In one condition, participants received their instructions from the robot in a “charismatic” speaking style, in the other, the robot used a less engaging way of speaking. The results show that when the robot's speech is based on charismatic speech characteristics, it is significantly better at enhancing team creativity and performance than when its speech uses fewer charismatic speech characteristics. The robot's speaking style thus influences its effectiveness as team creativity facilitator

Evaluating Digital Creativity Support for Children: A Systematic Literature Review

Creativity, the process of creating something new and valuable, benefits children by improving their skills and development, encouraging interaction and engagement, and enabling the generation and expression of novel ideas. In recent years, interactive digital tools have emerged to support the user’s creativity in the open-ended creation of new artifacts. However, the question of evaluating the creativity happening in the interplay between children, digital tools, and products is still open. This systematic literature review investigated the evaluations of digital creativity support tools for children and identified 81 peer-reviewed relevant articles from the last 10 years. This research contributes to practitioners and researchers by providing an overview of the evaluations in a framework based on 10 factors (value, novelty, fluency, enjoyment, user feeling, collaboration, expressiveness, immersion, flexibility, and interaction), nine product areas, three approaches, and five methods. The review demonstrated that the evaluations differ widely, and the area lacks a standard evaluation framework. We propose the dimensions of our analysis as an initial framework for situating the evaluation of digital creativity support tools for children that the child–computer interaction community can further refine

Perceptions of future teachers on the inclusion of creative robotics in Primary Education

En una sociedad cambiante y compleja como la actual, el desarrollo del pensamiento creativo resulta fundamental para la resolución de problemas y la toma de decisiones. Por ello, las metodologías STEAM están cada vez más presentes en las aulas con el propósito de fomentar la creatividad de los estudiantes a través, entre otras herramientas, de la robótica creativa. En este contexto, esta investigación tiene por objeto conocer las percepciones de maestros de Educación Primaria en formación sobre la inclusión de la robótica educativa en esta etapa educativa, sus pros y sus contras. El estudio, de carácter descriptivo-inferencial, usa una muestra de conveniencia de 121 estudiantes del Grado en Educación Primaria de la Universidad de Granada. Para la recogida de los datos se utilizó una versión adaptada de un cuestionario previamente validado. Los resultados de la muestra en su conjunto reflejan valoraciones favorables con respecto a la introducción de la robótica educativa en la etapa de Educación Primaria. Por género, destaca la valoración más positiva de las chicas con respecto la de los chivos atendiendo a los beneficios de la introducción de la robótica en el currículo. Nuestros resultados coinciden con los de la mayoría de estudios previos acerca del tema.In today's changing and complex society, the development of creative thinking is essential for problem solving and decision making. For this reason, STEAM methodologies are increasingly present in the classroom with the aim of fostering students' creativity through, among other tools, creative robotics. In this context, this research aims to find out the perceptions of Primary School teachers in training about the inclusion of educational robotics in this educational stage, its pros and cons. The study, of a descriptive-inferential nature, uses a convenience sample of 121 students of the Degree in Primary Education at the University of Granada. An adapted version of a previously validated questionnaire was used to collect the data. The results of the sample as a whole show favourable evaluations with respect to the introduction of educational robotics in the Primary Education stage. By gender, the more positive assessment of girls compared to boys stands out in terms of the benefits of the introduction of robotics in the curriculum. Our results coincide with those of most previous studies on the subjecArt-education-technology (Code 458)Teaching Innovation ProjectsBest Practices of the FIDO PlanUniversity of Granad

Boosting children's creativity through creative interactions with social robots

Creativity is an ability with psychological and developmental benefits. Creative levels are dynamic and oscillate throughout life, with a first major decline occurring at the age of 7 years old. However, creativity is an ability that can be nurtured if trained, with evidence suggesting an increase in this ability with the use of validated creativity training. Yet, creativity training for young children (aged between 6-9 years old) appears as scarce. Additionally, existing training interventions resemble test-like formats and lack of playful dynamics that could engage children in creative practices over time. This PhD project aimed at contributing to creativity stimulation in children by proposing to use social robots as intervention tools, thus adding playful and interactive dynamics to the training. Towards this goal, we conducted three studies in schools, summer camps, and museums for children, that contributed to the design, fabrication, and experimental testing of a robot whose purpose was to re-balance creative levels. Study 1 (n = 140) aimed at testing the effect of existing activities with robots in creativity and provided initial evidence of the positive potential of robots for creativity training. Study 2 (n = 134) aimed at including children as co-designers of the robot, ensuring the robot’s design meets children’s needs and requirements. Study 3 (n = 130) investigated the effectiveness of this robot as a tool for creativity training, showing the potential of robots as creativity intervention tools. In sum, this PhD showed that robots can have a positive effect on boosting the creativity of children. This places social robots as promising tools for psychological interventions.Criatividade é uma habilidade com benefícios no desenvolvimento saudável. Os níveis de criatividade são dinâmicos e oscilam durante a vida, sendo que o primeiro maior declínio acontece aos 7 anos de idade. No entanto, a criatividade é uma habilidade que pode ser nutrida se treinada e evidências sugerem um aumento desta habilidade com o uso de programas validados de criatividade. Ainda assim, os programas de criatividade para crianças pequenas (entre os 6-9 anos de idade) são escassos. Adicionalmente, estes programas adquirem o formato parecido ao de testes, faltando-lhes dinâmicas de brincadeira e interatividade que poderão motivar as crianças a envolverem-se em práticas criativas ao longo do tempo. O presente projeto de doutoramento procurou contribuir para a estimulação da criatividade em crianças propondo usar robôs sociais como ferramenta de intervenção, adicionando dinâmicas de brincadeira e interação ao treino. Assim, conduzimos três estudos em escolas, campos de férias, e museus para crianças que contribuíram para o desenho, fabricação, e teste experimental de um robô cujo objetivo é ser uma ferramenta que contribui para aumentar os níveis de criatividade. O Estudo 1 (n = 140) procurou testar o efeito de atividade já existentes com robôs na criatividade e mostrou o potencial positivo do uso de robôs para o treino criativo. O Estudo 2 (n = 134) incluiu crianças como co-designers do robô, assegurando que o desenho do robô correspondeu às necessidades das crianças. O Estudo 2 (n = 130) investigou a eficácia deste robô como ferramenta para a criatividade, demonstrando o seu potencial para o treino da criatividade. Em suma, o presente doutoramento mostrou que os robôs poderão ter um potencial criativo em atividades com crianças. Desta forma, os robôs sociais poderão ser ferramentas promissoras em intervenções na psicologia