A Playful Experiential Learning System With Educational Robotics

This article reports on two studies that aimed to evaluate the effective impact of educational robotics in learning concepts related to Physics and Geography. The reported studies involved two courses from an upper secondary school and two courses froma lower secondary school. Upper secondary school classes studied topics ofmotion physics, and lower secondary school classes explored issues related to geography. In each grade, there was an “experimental group” that carried out their study using robotics and cooperative learning and a “control group” that studied the same concepts without robots. Students in both classes were subjected to tests before and after the robotics laboratory, to check their knowledge in the topics covered. Our initial hypothesis was that classes involving educational robotics and cooperative learning are more effective in improving learning and stimulating the interest and motivation of students. As expected, the results showed that students in the experimental groups had a far better understanding of concepts and higher participation to the activities than students in the control groups

A Review of the Malabo Protocol on the Statute of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights – Part I: Jurisdiction over International Crimes

This two-part series examines the Malabo Protocol on the Statute of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights (ACJHR). When it comes into effect, the Malabo Protocol will empower the ACJHR to exercise jurisdiction over international crimes as well as introduce a regulatory scheme for corporate criminal liability. This is a milestone for the regional court and the African continent. Additionally, this is a significant innovation for international criminal law, which traditionally has not recognised the criminal liability of corporate entities

La trilogia di Giorgio Caproni: temi e stile

La tesi affronta l'analisi dell'ultima stagione poetica di Giorgio Caproni (1912-1990), aperta dalla raccolta Il muro della terra nel 1975 e caratterizzata da un'estrema essenzialità della parola e del linguaggio, che si accompagna all'acuirsi delle problematiche teologiche e filosofiche. Si indagano struttura, temi e fonti della cosiddetta trilogia caproniana (composta da Il muro della terra, da Il franco cacciatore, pubblicato nel 1982, e da Il conte di Kevenhüller, datato 1986) con uno sguardo alla produzione precedente e riferimenti alle poesie postume, raccolte in Res amissa dopo la morte dell'autore. Vengono delineate le caratteristiche fondamentali dell'itinerario percorso dall'ultimo Caproni: il rapporto sempre più stretto fra la poesia e la musica (in particolare il melodramma); la tendenza a trasformare le raccolte in "libri" dotati di una struttura narrativa e di un tema principale, attorno al quale tutti i componimenti ruotano come musicali "variazioni". Note dominanti di questa stagione poetica sono il drammatico confronto con Dio, disperatamente percepito come assente, la prigionia dell'uomo entro i confini della sua ragione (il "muro della terra"), il rovello del Male, incarnato dal simbolo della Bestia, e il mistero della Grazia. Fra le moltissime fonti che nutrono la poesia caproniana (da Agostino a Kierkegaard, dai poeti liguri a quelli del Novecento francese), si dedica particolare attenzione al legame con Dante, di cui Caproni offre una vera e propria riscrittura moderna. Nell'arco dei capitoli, si segue l'evoluzione dello stile caproniano, che oscilla fra la tendenza all'epigramma e i giochi paronomastici (il gusto per la boutade, il motto, la rima, la citazione "straniata") ed estremi esiti di rarefazione ed essenzialità, in una continua ricerca della soluzione che consenta di superare il muro della terra e, allo stesso tempo, quello della parola poetica

Long read review: Decolonizing politics: an introduction by Robbie Shilliam

In Decolonizing Politics: An Introduction, Robbie Shilliam explores the colonial and racist logics enfolded within the history of political thought while also identifying decolonising moves within the discipline. Recontextualising and reconceptualising the intellectual roots and routes of political science, this book is infused with new possibilities and optimism, providing practical solutions for scholars keen to go beyond power-laden racialised and gendered categories of thinking, writes Sudhir Chella Rajan. Decolonizing Politics: An Introduction. Robbie Shilliam. Polity. 2021

What robots want? Hearing the inner voice of a robot

The inner speech is thoroughly studied in humans, and it represents an interdisciplinary research issue involving psychology, neuroscience, and pedagogy. A few papers only, mostly theoretical, analyze the role of inner speech in robots. The present study investigates the potential of the robot's inner speech while cooperating with human partners. A cognitive architecture is designed and integrated with standard robot routines into a complex framework. Two threads of interaction are discussed by setting the robot operations with and without inner speech. Thanks to the robotic self-dialog, the partner can easily trace the robot's processes. Moreover, the robot can better solve conflicts leading to successful goal achievements. The results show that functional and transparency requirements, according to the international standards ISO/TS:2016 and COMEST/Unesco for collaborative robots, are better met when inner speech accompanies human-robot interaction. The inner speech could be applied in many robotics contexts, such as learning, regulation, and attentio

Good Old-Fashioned Artificial Consciousness and the Intermediate Level Fallacy

Recently, there has been considerable interest and effort to the possibility to design and implement conscious robots, i.e., the chance that robots may have subjective experiences. Typical approaches as the global workspace, information integration, enaction, cognitive mechanisms, embodiment, i.e., the Good Old-Fashioned Artificial Consciousness, henceforth, GOFAC, share the same conceptual framework. In this paper, we discuss GOFAC's basic tenets and their implication for AI and Robotics. In particular, we point out the intermediate level fallacy as the central issue affecting GOFAC. Finally, we outline a possible alternative conceptual framework toward robot consciousness

Cognitive Robots and the Conscious Mind: A Review of the Global Workspace Theory

Abstract Purpose of Review The theory of consciousness is a subject that has kept scholars and researchers challenged for centuries. Even today it is not possible to define what consciousness is. This has led to the theorization of different models of consciousness. Starting from Baars' Global Workspace Theory, this paper examines the models of cognitive architectures that are inspired by it and that can represent a reference point in the field of robot consciousness. Recent Findings Global Workspace Theory has recently been ranked as the most promising theory in its field. However, this is not reflected in the mathematical models of cognitive architectures inspired by it: they are few, and most of them are a decade old, which is too long compared to the speed at which artificial intelligence techniques are improving. Indeed, recent publications propose simple mathematical models that are well designed for computer implementation. Summary In this paper, we introduce an overview of consciousness and robot consciousness, with some interesting insights from the literature. Then we focus on Baars' Global Workspace Theory, presenting it briefly. Finally, we report on the most interesting and promising models of cognitive architectures that implement it, describing their peculiarities

A cognitive architecture for inner speech

A cognitive architecture for inner speech is presented. It is based on the Standard Model of Mind, integrated with modules for self- talking. Briefly, the working memory of the proposed architecture includes the phonological loop as a component which manages the exchanging information between the phonological store and the articulatory control system. The inner dialogue is modeled as a loop where the phonological store hears the inner voice produced by the hidden articulator process. A central executive module drives the whole system, and contributes to the generation of conscious thoughts by retrieving information from long-term memory. The surface form of thoughts thus emerges by the phonological loop. Once a conscious thought is elicited by inner speech, the perception of new context takes place and then repeating the cognitive loop. A preliminary formalization of some of the described processes by event cal- culus, and early results of their implementation on the humanoid robot Pepper by SoftBank Robotics are discussed

A calculus for robot inner speech and self-awareness

The inner speech is the common mental experience the humans have when they dialogue with themselves. It is widely acknowledged that inner speech is related to awareness and self-awareness. The inner speech reproduces and expands in the mind social and physical sources of awareness. In this preliminary work, a calculus based on a first-order modal logic to automate inner speech is presented. It attempts to make the existing inner speech theories suitable for robot. By making robot able to talk to itself, it is possible to analyze the role of inner speech in robot awareness and self-awareness, opening new interesting research scenarios not yet investigated