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Education for Handicapped Children, “Here Comes Robo Jjang!” (December 24, 2013)
- Date : 2014-03-25
- Views : 7734
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Public Relations Team
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“Robot Jjang,” a robot made for the purpose of providing educational support has been developed to help handicapped children in need of special attention. Robot Jjang is made for students requiring extra care, children with ADHD* or autism who cannot adjust to general public school curriculum and environment.
Starting October 14, 2013, KIST has been operating the Robo Jjang system at Hwaseong Primary School (Principle Eui, Sung-jung). The robot system is connected to “smart” (high tech) devices, and the actual robot is developed by the Institute of Special Education & Rehabilitation Science at Daegu University (led by Director Lee, Hyo-shin) to help students in socializing with their peers and help them to focus on class materials.
Robo Jjang is like a friend who assists handicapped students alongside the special education teachers in classrooms. The robot is recognized by students as a reliable friend who lends helping hand and so, students’ concentration in class and their performance improves significantly. The number of students who need special care including handicapped students and those requiring special care now accounts for almost 10% in each class becoming a serious social issue. However, in reality, there are growing concerns as it is difficult to allocate enough teachers to care for these special children due to limited education for teachers in handling handicapped children, not enough welfare budget, and challenges in developing appropriate education for these students.
Putting intelligent robot technology into a real classroom interacting with students is a very rare case across the globe. However, this has become possible thanks to diversified intelligent robot technology created by the Bionics Research Team led by Dr. Kim, Moon-sang of KIST who has extensive experience in using robots as assistant teachers in English classes at the institute and supporters in dementia prevention exercise for senior citizens.
Robo Jjang is capable of expressing various emotions and movements. Also, it encourages students to actively engage in classroom activities and maintain interest. The robot is being controlled remotely by an expert from a distance. And by using “smart device,” feedbacks from students can be collected after class.
The importance of Robo Jjang contents, which is encouraging socialization, significantly contributes to autistic children with their inability to recognize social identity, self-control, efficient communication skills, building and maintaining meaningful relationships, decision making and responding to problems: 26 key social skills most autistic children find difficult to learn. In addition, other interesting events including songs and games are presented to students to keep their focus and interest in classroom learning.
Staffs from Daegu University and Hwaseong Primary School who are in charge of the program said the robot program was highly effective in enhancing socialization and school education as students who used to face limitation in communicating within the existing education framework, showed strong interest and paid keen attention to Robo Jjang.
Dr. Kim, Moon-sang of KIST who developed Robo Jjang said, “The robot system developed for handicapped children is extended to the 2nd phase research, which consists of commercialization opportunities in European markets starting with a global cooperation with Denmark scheduled in 2014.”
* ADHD: Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder is a psychiatric disorder with significant and consistent problem of attention, hyperactivity and impulse acting.