Exploring the Future with NAO Robots

Over recent weeks, both our Year 9 German classes have had the opportunity to visit the Ballarat Tech School for an exciting session with NAO humanoid robots. 

As a communication subject, practising real interactions is at the heart of learning German. And when the Year 9's got tired of talking to each other — we went and talked to some robots instead! Using Choreographe software, students programmed the NAO robots not only to speak German, but also to listen for specific phrases and how to respond. As you can imagine, the Year 9 imagination had a lot of fun with this — from making a robot act like an elephant to dance routines.

This activity sharpened students’ pronunciation skills, since robots are far less forgiving than human listeners when words are mispronounced. It also encouraged them to anticipate responses, compare human and computer interactions, and reflect on how artificial intelligence is increasingly shaping our world.

A big thank you goes to Adrian Borg for co-designing this program — the first of its kind — which has now been rolled out to schools across the region. Both excursions left students not only with fun memories but also with valuable insights into how language, technology and creativity can come together in powerful ways.

Charlotte Ross-Harris

Languages