Using Robot-Mediated Applied Drama to Foster Anti-Bullying Peer Support

Abstract

Applied drama refers to the use of theatrical practices in contexts such as education, therapy, or community-building. We present Robot-Mediated Applied Drama as a medium for safely exploring sensitive topics with children and propose to develop RE-Mind (short for Robots Empowering Minds): a pedagogical platform that aims to use role-playing with robots for fostering anti-bullying peer support among children. We borrow techniques from applied drama to build the human-robot interaction models used in this system. Specifically, we draw from Augusto Boal’s Forum Theatre: a theatrical exercise in which spectators of a drama are invited to become “spect-actors”. That is, they watch the performance twice; the second time, they stop the performance and change its direction and potential conclusion by suggesting different actions to the protagonist. This allows children to use the proposed system to first observe a bullying scenario between two robots, and then intervene by controlling a third robot that is a bystander to bullying, and by doing so practice their intervention strategies. Applied drama engages peers in situated learning and allows them to take reflective, participatory action. In this paper, we argue that using robots provides a buffer for participants to safely explore sensitive topics in a private setting. We present background literature to support using applied drama as an effective vehicle for learning and discuss related work on technology-based anti-bullying interventions. Finally, we define Robot-Mediated Applied Drama and discuss how social robots lend themselves well to this practice.