A networked suite of mixed-technology robotic artifacts for advancing literacy in children

Abstract

Illiteracy is a global problem that impacts societal and economic growth and development, and is directly correlated with the financial success, health and overall well-being of individuals. Studies indicate that picture-book reading within a facilitated story-time setting is an important tool for language acquisition in children. We hypothesize that in an increasingly digital society, literacy can be cultivated in a robot-embedded environment that is, at once, physical, digital and evocative of the picture-book being read. Inspired by concepts of embodied interaction, our developing LIT ROOM is an intelligent, fine-tunable suite of architectural-robotic artifacts distributed at room-scale in a public library setting. Presented here are motivations for and design overview of this developing interactive artifact. Through a reconfigurable, co-adaptive learning environment, the LIT ROOM aims to augment the dialogical reading of picture-books within an engaging and exploratory space for the advancement of literacy and learning.