Page 210 - Socially Intelligent Agents Creating Relationships with Computers and Robots

Designing for Interaction 193

ment before participating regularly in the ongoing prototyping and evaluation
procedures. Design and evaluation was a continuous process, the one natu-
rally leading into the other with the expectancy and the result that the class-
room would meet the needs of the teachers and children very successfully. The
NIMIS classroom eventually included a small network of computers, invisible
but for the small touch sensitive screens (WACOM tablets) and pens which
can lie flat on the desk and are thoughtfully laid out to encourage collabora-
tion and group work around a small table. There is also a large touch sensitive
screen especially modified for use by small children, which they can operate
with their fingers. The software, designed to encourage collaboration, literacy

Figure 23.1. The classroom nearing the end of its development

development and story writing is distributed allowing pupils to create stories
together and exchange ideas and reflections across the network, whilst at the
same time communicating by natural means. The software was designed to
meet a range of attainment levels in order to empower learners and support
diversity and development. Creating shared stories or reflecting on them and
supporting each other in the writing allows children to understand different
perspectives which also helps to develop empathy. Features to encourage the
creation of stories with different perspectives is also embedded in the software
structure. This takes the form of thought and speech bubbles, real and fantas-
tic situations and characters and word banks with speech synthesis, which link
the known to the unknown in both sound, picture and text. An empathic agent
modelled on the helpful support of teachers in one to one situations from the
study on empathy is embedded in the software and can also add to the positive
ambience of the classroom. The agent can offer affirmation followed by sup-
port based on knowledge of the child, the creation of stories and the features,
which the child has chosen. To get a holistic view of the classroom and to
evaluate the human and technological aspects of the classroom in combination
we used a variety of data collection methods. These included video recordings
of lessons, teacher diaries and interviews, children’s interviews, researchers