Extending an Educational Math Game with a Pedagogical Conversational Agent: Facing Design Challenges

Summary, in English

We describe our work-in-progress of developing an educational game in mathematics for 12-14 year olds, by adding social and conversational abilities to an existing “teachable agent” (TA) in the game. The purpose of this extension is to affect cognitive, emotional and social constructs known to promote learning, such as self-efficacy and engagement, as well as enhancing students’ experiences of interacting with the agent over an extended period of time. Drawing from the EnALI framework, which states practical design guidelines, we discuss specific design challenges and exemplify research considerations as to developing the agent’s visual representation and conversational module. We present some initial findings from using prototype agents with students from the target group. Promising developments seem to reside in pronouncing the agent’s personality traits and expanding its knowledge database, particularly its range of conversational topics. Finally we propose some future studies and research directions.

• Författare: Björn Sjödén; Annika Silvervarg; Magnus Haake; Agneta Gulz
• Avdelning/ar: Kognitionsvetenskap
• Publiceringsår: 2011
• Språk: Engelska
• Sidor: 116-130
• Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie: Communications in Computer and Information Science
• Volym: 126
• Dokumenttyp: Konferensbidrag
• Förlag: Springer
• Ämne: Learning
• Nyckelord: pedagogical agents; conversational agents; teachable agents; social learning; educational game; EnALI
• Conference name: Conference on Interdisciplinary Research on Technology, Education and Communication
• Conference date: 2010-05-25 - 2010-05-27
• Status: Published
• Projekt: Thinking in Time: Cognition, Communication and Learning
• ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt: ISSN: 1865-0929; ISBN: 978-3-642-20073-1