Two Perth schools have recruited a special French-designed robot in a bid to help improve their students’ education experience.
The humanoid robot, NAO, will be employed in one school – Waikiki Primary School – to help teach students with autism functional and social skills, while also enhancing science lessons, Perth Now reports.
The $16,450 robot is also being used to assist senior students at Perth College with learning how to write computer code, while making conventional maths and science classes for juniors more enjoyable.
Perth College teacher Jesse Ussi believes the robot’s presence in the classroom will assist pupils with learning “21st century skills”.
“The robots themselves are one part of the whole picture we’re trying to paint,” he said.
The move by Waikiki Primary and Perth College comes in the wake of growing interest in robots as teaching aides.
Already in Victoria, NAO robots are employed to help children participating in physical therapy.
In South Australia, a three-year trial is investigating the usefulness of androids to help boost pupil engagement and academic performance.
A number of Queensland libraries also currently use NAO to assist with storytelling, teaching programming to visitors and educating children about cyber safety.
