Can Buddy Reading with a Bot Help Struggling Students?
August 23, 2018
By: Sarah D. Sparks
Source: Education Week
Decades of research show students read better when they read with someone else, be it a parent, a peer, or even a puppy. Now a new study in the journal Science Robotics suggests social robots can join the ranks of successful study buddies.
University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers developed a social robot dubbed “Minnie” to guide one-on-one reading sessions with middle school students at home. Over two weeks, 10- to 12-year-old students were assigned to either print-based reading or at-home sessions with Minnie. The robot suggested books the children might like and listened while the students read, occasionally expressing interest, excitement, or fear at different parts of the story and asking questions of the student along the way.