Using Telepresence Robots in the Classroom
▶Summary
Telepresence robots (TPRs) hold great promise for classroom inclusion, yet face hurdles to widespread adoption. Resistance from teachers and parents, cultural differences, and varied robot capabil...
▶Objectives
The project’s main objective was to provide practical guidance for integrating children with health challenges into classroom activities using TPRs; specifically we aimed to: 1. Carry out a needs analysis across Europe to understand the obstacles better, as well as teachers' and other stakeholders' hopes and fears. 2. Develop guidelines for schools on how to introduce TPRs and addressing possible resistance. 3. Develop concrete recommendations for teachers for inclusion of children who participate remotely using a TPR in their classrooms, including how to create a sense of belonging and digital empathy, organize classroom activities to support inclusion, practical physical considerations. 4. Understand the needs of the children using the TPRs better and to inform the design of TPR manufacturers regarding the specific requirements for schools. 5. Enable children across European countries to share their interest in environmental topics, enhance their foreign language skills and develop a curiosity for other cultures. The goal was to facilitate the effective use of affordable TPRs in European classrooms, preventing them from being underutilized.
▶Activities
Telepresence robots (TPRs) hold great promise for classroom inclusion, yet face hurdles to widespread adoption. Resistance from teachers and parents, cultural differences, and varied robot capabilities pose challenges. While TPRs offer remote participation, they lack full social presence compared to in-person interaction. In this project we studied what the benefits are of participation by means of TPR and evaluated the effects of introducing this technology on the students' well-being and in what situations TPRs can be employed. What was missing were therefore concrete guidelines for schools in Europe on how to introduce TPRs into a school context, concrete recommendations for teachers on how to include children on TPRs into the classroom activities, design recommendations for robot manufacturers and a purchase guide for schools as to what robot functionalities they should pay attention to, and finally concrete teaching materials.
▶Impact
The concrete results are: >249 stakeholders trained; one training video; five brochures that facilitate the uptake of TPRs in schools across Europe, addressing children, their parents, teachers, school principals and poliy makers as well as robot manufacturers; five scientific reports/publications, one of which was awarded the best paper award at an international conference, and one PhD thesis. Furthermore, we established a LinkedIn profile, which we have used for regular updates and to reach out to various communities, and a website where all material is available for download. The materials created promote the inclusion of children with health issues and foster innovative learning practices, including collaborative online international learning. The brochures cover best practice recommendations for introducing TPRs in classrooms, addressing obstacles and reservations, guidelines for increasing belonging and digital empathy, usability recommendations, and teaching materials for intercultural exchange using TPRs in foreign language learning.