At the Frontiers of English language teaching: The playful approach with humanoid robots

openL’obbiettivo di questa tesi è quello di scoprire e sperimentare i nuovi orizzonti per l’insegnamento dell’inglese grazie all’introduzione di nuove metodologie come la Didattica Ludica e la Robotica Educativa. La didattica ludica si presenta come una metodologia alternativa per l’insegnamento delle lingue dove il gioco e il divertimento vengono visti come elementi altamente educativi e in grado di ridurre ansia e stress negli studenti durante il confronto con lingue e culture diverse dalla propria. La Robotica Educativa si presenta come un metodo di insegnamento altamente efficace che prevede l’utilizzo di Robot Umanoidi per l’insegnamento dell’Inglese e delle lingue all’interno delle scuole e permette agli studenti di accrescere e migliorare le loro conoscenze e di imparare divertendosi. Lo sviluppo di questo progetto è dovuto non solo alla mia esperienza e al mio studio dell’inglese durante questi tre anni ma anche grazie all’opportunità offertami dall’IAS Lab di Padova ( http://robotics.dei.unipd.it/ ) e da Alberto Bacchin, ingegnere dottorando presso l’Università di Padova. Lo scopo della mia ricerca sarà quello di sperimentare l’utilizzo di questi modelli all’interno di una classe della scuola primaria.The aim of this thesis is to investigate experimentally the new frontiers of English language teaching, analysing new methodologies such as the playful approach and Educational Robotics. Educational Robotics is the term that indicates a new teaching method where robots are employed in a school class to help students put their knowledge into practice and learn new skills. This project was conceived during my three years of English studies and after some contacts with the IAS-Lab (Intelligent Autonomous Systems Laboratory) of the Information Engineering Department of the University of Padua. The focus of my research is to devise new teaching methodologies and apply them to a primary school class

Designing connected play: Perspectives from combining industry and academic know-how. In: Chaudron S., Di Gioia R., Gemo M., Holloway D., Marsh J., Mascheroni G., Peter J., Yamada-Rice D. Kaleidoscope on the Internet of Toys - Safety, security, privacy and societal insights, EUR 28397 EN, doi:10.2788/05383

Academics, designers and producers tend to consider the evolving Internet of Toys (IoToys) from within their individual disciplines. On the one hand, academics bring a long history of researching and theorizing play and communication practices to the task of considering young children’s use of connected toys. On the other hand, designers and producers of connected toys have detailed understanding of the possibilities and affordances of technology, as well as the technical mechanics involved in toy production. In other words, they know what it is possible to make, and what it is not possible to make. Industry also has an eye on trends in digital toy production and content, and how these are likely to evolve. This is because the digital play industry track data on technology usage and media consumption, and so on. These are things that academics are often a step behind in understanding because of a tendency to consider children’s use of an end product. However, my work across academia and the commercial toy and digital content industry has taught me that the amount of expertise companies have of child development and theories around play and communication practices is extremely varied and start-up companies in particular have little resource to conduct in-house research. This means that some connected toys are not as well made for young users as they could be. However, these crossovers have also taught me that sometimes academics call for changes to designs that are not easily possible or commercially viable. Therefore, regular collaboration between academia and industry would aid production of the best possible connected toys and content for young children