Dean's Keynote Series: Bringing Social Robots to Preschool
Associate Professor Michelle Neumann, Deputy Leader, Early Years Research Lab, Faculty of Education, Southern Cross University
Date and time: Wednesday 19th October, 3:30pm - 5pm
Abstract
Young children are growing up in a digital world that is constantly evolving and they are experiencing new technologies such as social robots. This presentation will introduce what social robots are and how they are being used to support learning in educational settings. It will also explore the potential benefits and barriers of using social robots for supporting early learning and consider ways in which bringing social robots to preschool could be disruptive or transformative to early years education. An overview of current research work in this field will be provided and future research directions and possibilities will be discussed.
Biography
Associate Professor Michelle Neumann is an academic in the field of early childhood education, emergent literacy, and educational technology at Southern Cross University (Gold Coast Campus). Michelle has had over 10 years’ experience working as a primary and secondary school teacher and is a registered teacher with Education Queensland. Michelle was listed in 2020 and 2021 as lead researcher in Australia, in the field of Early Childhood Education by the Australian Government. Her research interests are in early childhood education, particularly in early literacy, child development and learning, parent-child interactions, home and preschool settings, touch screen tablets, and social robots. Michelle is co-investigator on an ARC Discovery project “Parent involvement goes online: New ecologies of school-home relations”.
Video recording of this seminar
