CASE STUDY: Co-designing a robot for Indigenous Australian language revival

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Opie the Robot is a technology deployed in classrooms in the southeast Arnhem Land community of Ngukurr, to help teach heritage languages including Rembarrnga, Marra, Ngandi, and Wubuy, using Kriol as the interface language. The robot was co-developed by the Ngukurr Language Centre and the University of Queensland (UQ), to teach languages that are among the oldest in the world. Opie uses recordings from some of the last known language speakers from the Roper River region to develop children’s language skills using fun, interactive language activities and memory games. The robot is an important support tool for teachers who typically only get one hour per week in each classroom to teach those heritage languages to children in the community. Opie has two tablets, one with expressive eyes for social engagement, and another for interactive activities. Opie can be flat-packed for transport, and assembled within remote communities.

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