Handwriting

• Social robots – robots that can talk and mimic and respond to human emotion – have been introduced into classrooms around the world.
• Because social robots have a body, humans react to them differently than we do to a computer screen.
• To understand how social robots could affect teaching, graduate student Raisa Gray and I introduced a 4-foot-tall humanoid robot called “Pepper” into a public elementary and middle school in the U.S. Our research revealed many problems with the current generation of social robots, making it unlikely that social robots will be running classrooms anytime soon.

Not ready for prime time

• Children and social robots are not allowed to freely interact with each other without the assistance, or intervention, of researchers.
• Only a few studies have used social robots in real-life classroom settings.

Limited social skills

• For example, the current generation of social robots cannot interact with a small group and, for example, track multiple people’s facial expressions.
• Also, unless a bar code or other identification device is used, today’s social robots cannot recognize individuals.
• This makes it very unlikely for them to have realistic social interactions.

Dialogue is preprogrammed

• To get the robot to perform, our students had to master the tutorials that came with the robot.
• Some students quickly figured out that the robot could respond only to certain basic routines.
• When a robot fails to answer a question, or responds in the wrong way, students realize the robot isn’t really understanding them and that the robot’s dialogue is preprogrammed.

Cannot move around classroom with ease

• Students who have seen YouTube videos of robotic dogs that run and jump may be disappointed to realize that most social robots can’t move around a classroom with ease.
• The teachers in our study were disappointed that Pepper couldn’t bring them coffee.

What social robots can teach kids

• While the social robots currently used in schools are finicky and limited in functions, they can still provide useful learning experiences.
• The opportunity to work hands-on with a social robot shows students how difficult it is to program robots to mimic human behavior.
• Social robots can also provide students with important learning opportunities about artificial intelligence.

Gerald K. LeTendre receives funding from Harry L. Batschelet II Endowed Chair within the College of Education, The Pennsylvania State University

• Dynamilis , the revolutionary AI-powered educational application from School Rebound SA, designed to enhance the writing skills of children aged 5-12 engagingly and playfully, is now available in the United States.
• View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231116381829/en/
  A student using Dynamilis to improve their handwriting.
• (Photo: Business Wire)
  Handwriting, a critical skill, has gained renewed attention with the recent California mandate for handwriting instruction in elementary schools .
• School Rebound introduced an early version of Dynamilis based on this research, harnessing these dynamic attributes to allow in-depth profiling of a child's handwriting style.

• Proficiency in both reading and written expression is heavily dependent on transcription skills, which encompass handwriting and spelling.
• Handwriting is one of the most fundamental transcription skills that students must master to become proficient writers.
• On January 20th, 2024, the virtual 2024 Handwriting Collaborative Conference for Educators, School-Based Specialists, and Parents will provide a full day of engaging online and on-demand presentations covering all aspects of handwriting skill development and instruction.
• These strategies will help educators, parents, and school-based specialists feel more confident and capable of teaching handwriting to support the needs of ALL learners.

• The thinker’s eyesight had been getting worse, to the point where he could no longer write by hand.
• In March of the same year he was able to continue writing thanks to this new instrument.

Embodied cognition

• This change –a reminder that “the medium is the message”– might be explained by new theories of embodied cognition.
• Modern cognitive science indicates that motor and sensory aspects of our behaviour have consequences that reach further than we may, at first, suspect.
• We need to take our bodies and senses into account in order to explain phenomena that are otherwise inexplicable.

Memory ability

• As an example, a 2021 study compared short and mid term recall of words learned either by typing or writing by hand.
• Recall was better when words had been learned with a pencil and paper.
• Some experts suggest that learning by pen and paper is better because it is more “embodied”.

Mental resources

• Typing puts more demand on our mental resources, causing difficulties when it comes to word memorisation tasks.
• Other authors have also suggested that more mental resources are used because writing is more complex when performed on the keyboard.

Planning and composition

• In several experiments, an improvement has been noted in overall written composition (quality, length and fluidity of text) after subjects completed handwriting exercises.
• In the same vein, a study has shown that students plan their texts more carefully when using pen and paper than they do when using a keyboard.

Longer and better quality texts

• For example, some meta analyses comparing hand written texts with those written on a computer found the latter to often be longer and better composed.
• However, some of these studies lack experimental rigour, which raises doubts about their clarity and general usefulness.

A disembodied mind

• But a disembodied mind that exists only in the virtual world is much like Plato’s cave.
• In real life, however, the mind performs its operations alongside the functioning of our entire body.

Implications for education

• Obviously, this does not mean that we should stop using keyboards, not even in infancy.
• However, we must be on the lookout for future studies on this topic, and act on their repercussions in the education sector as promptly as possible.