The robot in the classroom: A review of a robot role

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020. The 20th-century was the age of computers and information communication technology; at the beginning of the 21st-century researchers are exploring the use of robots in the classroom. Our review investigates the implementation of copresent social robots with teaching purposes in a classroom setting in areas other than the teaching of subjects that are closely related to the field of Robotics. We are interested in anthropomorphic robots, with an active role in the classroom and capable of human-like activity. With a search of the WOS database and a subsequent manual search in 19 journals we identified 24 relevant articles which have been included in the analysis. Studies mostly include small number of participating learners. In all studies special conditions are established for the robot intervention in a classroom. Most often robots appear in roles as teacher, teacher assistant and Care-Receiving Robot. Robots interventions were conducted by NAO, Saya, RoboThespian, Bioloid, BAXTER, Darwin, NIMA-Robocop, Robosapien, TIRO. Social robots diverge from the computer-mediated communication technologies, as they are not mediating interaction but are partner in interaction. ITSs and ILEs assist teachers in teaching, while the teacher and a robot have a shared presence in the classroom. The copresent social robots perform a social role by interacting with students. Robotic activities are aimed at delivering learning materials and not primarily for individualised teaching, which encompasses the delivery of feedback and the tailoring learning activities for individual learner’s needs

Alginate: Pharmaceutical and Medical Applications

Due to their outstanding properties in terms of mild gelation conditions and simple functionalization, biocompatibility, low toxicity, biodegradability, non-antigenicity and chelating ability, as well as relatively low cost, alginates have been widely used in a variety of biomedical applications including tissue engineering and drug delivery systems. Smart alginate hydrogels for on-demand drug release in response to environmental stimuli and 3D bioprinting will play an important role in the future. These and the introduction of appropriate cell interactive features will be crucial for many tissue engineering applications. The focus of the present chapter is to highlight the great potential of the alginates as biomaterial for biomedical applications and to discuss the role that alginate-based materials are likely to play in biomedical applications in the future.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio