Robots at School: Supporting Humanities Teaching Through Robots-Based Storytelling

Most robot-based activities are used to foster the acquisition of benefits in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) area. However, educational robotics also have a great potential to support the learning and teaching processes in other knowledge areas. This paper reports the findings of a study that explored the use of robot-based storytelling as a strategy to integrate robots into non-technical school subjects. A dramatization activity with robots about conflict resolution was conducted with 17 middle school students under the guidance of a language teacher. The experience was based on a novel technology called DramaBot that includes an intuitive script authoring environment and intelligent control of robot actors. The evaluation shows that, along with the expected benefits on technology skills and competencies acquisition, important benefits in the humanities are also acquired. This opens up to new areas of exploitation of robots at school, to back up also non-technical subjects.