Exploring parents' perceptions towards educational robots: Gender and socio-economic differences

Introduction An important recent trend in education has been towards the integration of different technologies, such as digital games (Chen, Chen & Liu, 2010; Chiang, Lin, Cheng & Liu, 2011; Lee & Chen, 2009; Lin & Liu, 2009; Liu & Lin, 2009) and educational robots (Chang, Lee, Chao, Wang & Chen, 2010a; Chang, Lee, Wang & Chen, 2010b; Wei, Hung, Lee & Chen, 2011), and the learning and teaching about design and implementation of educational robots (Liu, Lin & Chang, 2010). The development of educational robots, such as Topobo and LEGO Mindstorms NXT, gives students more chances to learning to build their own robots (Feng, Lin & Liu, 2011; Liu, 2010). Liu (2010) found that students perceived that educational robots were a useful learning technology and considered that learning to construct robots could help them develop important technological skills. Many researchers investigated the effect of integrating educational robots into educational fields, and they found that educational robots not only can enhance students’ learning motivation (Chang et al, 2010a; Liu et al, 2010) but also can improve students’ learning (Chang et al, 2010b). The findings from past studies showed that educational robots have become an important learning technology and a subject for students to study. The support and confidence of parents to help their children to learn with or learn to build robots are important for promoting the use of educational robots. The previous study (Liu, 2010) explored the students’ perceptions of educational robots, but the further investigation of parents’ perceptions towards educational robots has been lacking.