In this project, our main aim is to help children with health issues attend and integrate into their classrooms by means of telepresence robots. Specifically, we intend to study:
- what kinds of resistances and obstacles there may be by teachers, principals, parents, children at school level;
- how the robot is perceived by kids in the classroom, what problems may arise, what benefits there may be, what practices and workarounds emerge and turn out useful, as well as how the kids (in quarantine, in hospital etc.) perceive the situation;
- how telepresence robots can be developed in order to support their use in schools; and
- how telepresence robots can be used to support intercultural exchange.
During the project, collaborating partners will work together to achieve the following goals:
- To carry out a needs analysis to understand the obstacles that might hinder our progress and to learn about teachers 'and other stakeholders' hopes and fears.
- To develop guidelines for schools on how to introduce TPRs into school organizations by taking all stakeholders into account and addressing possible resistance appropriately.
- To develop concrete recommendations for teachers on how to organize the inclusion of children who participate remotely using a TPR in their classrooms, including: (a) creating a sense of belonging and digital empathy and how to organize classroom activities to support inclusion, and (b ) practical considerations, such as recommendations regarding seating arrangements, distribution of responsibilities etc.
- To understand the needs of the children using the TRPs better and to inform the design of telepresence robot manufacturers regarding the specific requirements for the use of such robots in class.
- To inform the design of future TPRs
- To use TPRs for intercultural encounters and collaborative foreign language learning