{"id":48767,"date":"2019-07-23T03:43:10","date_gmt":"2019-07-23T10:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=48767"},"modified":"2019-07-23T03:43:10","modified_gmt":"2019-07-23T10:43:10","slug":"how-a-robot-called-pink-helped-teach-school-children-an-aboriginal-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/how-a-robot-called-pink-helped-teach-school-children-an-aboriginal-language\/","title":{"rendered":"How a robot called Pink helped teach school children an Aboriginal language"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A cute human-like robot taught students in a small, rural school how to code while also helping them learn their local Aboriginal language.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Maitland Lutheran School<\/a>\u00a0is an independent, co-educational primary and middle school in the farming district of Maitland, Yorke Peninsula, in South Australia. It is located on the traditional lands of the Narungga people.<\/p>\n

The school has around 240 students from Kindergarten to Year 9, and 16% of them are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. Many of these students have Narungga heritage.<\/p>\n

The school\u00a0wanted to support its students<\/a>\u00a0to connect with the heritage of the Narungga people, in partnership with the local Aboriginal community.<\/p>\n

Past research has shown\u00a0digital technologies<\/a>\u00a0can help rediscover lost Indigenous languages. Technologies with culturally responsive ways of teaching\u00a0have also been shown<\/a>\u00a0to improve engagement and learning among Indigenous students in STEM subjects.<\/p>\n

So, the school\u2019s principal, David Field, decided to employ a small robot named Pink to help students understand their local culture and language. And it worked.<\/p>\n

By learning to program a humanoid robot, students developed 21st-century skills while also engaging with an Indigenous culture and language. The project also strengthened the connection between school, home and Country.<\/p>\n

Why did Pink work so well?<\/h4>\n

The Maitland Lutheran School had long wanted to connected its students with Narungga culture and language. About eight years earlier, the school bought paper dictionaries of Narungga, but children had shown little interest in them.<\/p>\n

The principal engaged the only\u00a0fluent speaker of Narungga<\/a>\u00a0to work with the school\u2019s teachers and students. The aim was to engage the school\u2019s Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students in learning about both innovative technologies and Narungga culture.
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