Insights from Interviews with Teachers and Students on the Use of a Social Robot in Computer Science Class in Sixth Grade

TL;DR

This study explores teachers' and students' perspectives on integrating social robots into sixth-grade computer science classes, highlighting openness but also diverse requirements that pose design challenges.

Contribution

It provides initial qualitative insights into user needs and perceptions, informing future development of social robots for educational settings.

Findings

Both teachers and students are receptive to using robots in class.

Requirements for robots vary significantly between teachers and students.

Design challenges arise from heterogeneous user needs.

Abstract

In this paper we report on first insights from interviews with teachers and students on using social robots in computer science class in sixth grade. Our focus is on learning about requirements and potential applications. We are particularly interested in getting both perspectives, the teachers' and the learners' view on how robots could be used and what features they should or should not have. Results show that teachers as well as students are very open to robots in the classroom. However, requirements are partially quite heterogeneous among the groups. This leads to complex design challenges which we discuss at the end of this paper.