Teachers´ views on the use of empathic robotic tutors in the classroom

In this paper, we describe the results of an interview study conducted across several European countries on teachers´ views on the use of empathic robotic tutors in the classroom. The main goals of the study were to elicit teachers´ thoughts on the integration of the robotic tutors in the daily school practice, understanding the main roles that these robots could play and gather teachers´ main concerns about this type of technology. Teachers´ concerns were much related to the fairness of access to the technology, robustness of the robot in students´ hands and disruption of other classroom activities. They saw a role for the tutor in acting as an engaging tool for all, preferably in groups, and gathering information about students´ learning progress without taking over the teachers´ responsibility for the actual assessment. The implications of these results are discussed in relation to teacher acceptance of ubiquitous technologies in general and robots in particular.