Taiwan Built AI Robot as Smart Learning Partner

Children in kindergarten are enthusiastically interacting with an AI robot

The Industrial Development Bureau of the Ministry of Economic Affairs has led the “Smart City Taiwan” project in response to the government’s goal to promote industrial upgrading and transformation and smart technologies. Through public-private-people partnership mechanism, the Smart City Taiwan project utilizes smart technologies to drive smart services (healthcare, governance/safety, transportation, agriculture, education, and tourism and retail) in 22 cities/countries across Taiwan. As of today, about 300 businesses have participated in the project, offering 223 smart services to 8.54 million people. These smart services have successfully solved the pain points of the general public and have also been introduced to foreign countries.

Take education for example. For young children, a variety of stimulant interactions can be triggers for learning. In an ever-changing world, parents have less time they can spend on their children’ learning; also, the development of young children in school relies merely on the subjective judgment of teachers, which can be inaccurate; besides, teachers keep track of children’s conditions in writing and use written teaching materials. With the emergence of all-encompassing education, such lack of flexibility has become the most troublesome issue for parents and teachers. To solve this issue, AI Digital Co., Ltd., supported by the Industrial Development Bureau, M.O.E.A., has first worked with Hsinchu City Government to introduce an AI robot, Kebbi Air S, and smart teaching aids (including tablets and tablet pens) to kindergartens. With smart technologies, young children can learn smartly. The introduction of a variety of smart teaching tools has made it easier and more intriguing for children to learn foreign languages and programming in company with Kebbi Air S.

In addition to the boast of STEAM education, AI Digital Co., Ltd. has created a theatre-style English learning environment and somatosensory interaction to add fun to children’s learning. Teachers can prepare their teaching materials with digital aids and receive feedback on adaptive learning from AI analytics, finding the most suitable English learning mode with a variety of practical listening, speaking, reading, and writing courses. Kebbi Air S is not only a smart learning partner, but a smart home helper. Through Google Assistant It can play music and report weather conditions by voice control; it can also make calls or video calls and even activate remote control when connected to the exclusive APP. Last, Kebbi Air S can send the children’s learning conditions back to the cloud to record and analyze the learning progress in real time. For children with special needs, Kebbi Air S can also help teachers intervene as soon as possible. In sum, Kebbi Air S is a teaching assistant and a smart learning partner that is poised to help children explore more possibilities.

Building on the project results in Hsinchu City, Ai Digital Co., Ltd. has been working with other city governments. As of today, Hsinchu County Government, Taichung City Government, and Keelung City Government have purchased the learning systems or software and hardware from Ai Digital Co., Ltd. For example, Hsinchu County Government has introduced the digital solutions of Ai Digital Co., Ltd. to 58 public kindergartens and special education classes of elementary schools in the county, benefiting a total of 3,076 teachers and students. Ai Digital Co., Ltd. continues to prime teachers for a combination of online and offline teaching in the post-pandemic era, availing teachers of a diversity of smart teaching resources to cultivate the next generation better.

Author:
Jia-Ying Chen from ISTI,
Taiwan Smart City Development Project Office of Industrial Development Bureau, M.O.E.A.

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