NAO™, THE HUMANOID ROBOT IN PRESCHOOL CLASSROOMS

Possibilities offered by technology in the field of education are endless. At present, there are lots of different projects in which ICT, the use of educational software and digital materials are the main research topics in regard to the great technology boom that allows children from early ages interact with such elements. In addition, including education in processes related with the use of technologies has become an important issue, since it is necessary to update learning processes and leave behind those traditional ones with which children have been learning throughout a long time.

Moreover, robotics has been used for the development of algorithmic thinking in high school and university students where students have focus on programming and building robots by means of engineering and electronics, but few projects have been carried out with preschool students where the emphasis of the project is the process of interaction and educational support that a robot can give to preschool children.

This paper shows some classroom workshops using the interaction of humanoid robot NAO with preschool children who had never had previous contact with this type of technology. This experience starts out with the identification of children's reactions while interacting with a robot for the first time and its documentation. From this starting point, a number of strategies were designed where NAO leads some instructional activities that intend to develop communicative, physical and cognitive dimensions. Such activities are based on NAO interaction skills such as speech recognition, object apprehension, body language, oral speech for interaction, expression of emotions, among others.