Artifactual Affordances In Playful Robotics. ANR #CreaMaker. #CreaCube task

1. Artifactual Affordances In
Playful Robotics
George Kalmpourtzis, Laboratoire d’Innovation et Numérique pour l’Education,
Université Côte d’Azur, Nice, France
Margarida Romero, Laboratoire d’Innovation et Numérique pour l’Education,
Université Côte d’Azur, Nice, France
https://creamaker.wordpress.com/

2. Introduction
Aims of this study:
An initial analysis for the study of artifactual affordances of participants’
engagement in an Educational Robotics activity : the CreaCube task.

3. Problem
solving in GBL
and
Educational
Robotics
The introduction of educational games in learning
contexts has been examined through various studies
Problem solving has been identified as a key
component of game-based learning
While engaging into playful problem-solving tasks, in
the context of Educational Robotics, learners need to
explore the properties of the ER components and use
them as factors in their problem-solving process

4. Educational Robotics and Problem-Solving
Learners encounter unfamiliar technologies during playful problem solving
Learners confronted with Gulf of Execution (the difference between what
learners think these artifacts can help them achieve in a game and how
these artifacts really work)
By exploring the properties of different robotic components, learners
attempt to solve the playful problem-solving situation (execution bridge)
Players evaluate the effect of their actions on the ER components
(evaluation bridge)

5. Artifactual affordances in education
Affordances: affordances as intrinsic characteristics of objects, whether they are perceived or not by
animals or humans (Gibson, 1977)
Norman (1999) makes a distinction between perceived and real affordances
In the scope of education, affordances have been examined through various studies. Different types
of affordances have been identified (Kirschner et. al, 2004):
• Technological affordances: what learning technologies afford
• Social affordances: social-cultural interaction, relevant to the learning context
• Educational affordances, indicate how resource attributes could be used in a learning context
In playful Educational Robotics tasks, game elements of robots provide artifactual affordances, which
have a situated meaning, while learners try to identify the relation between the features of an artifact
and its potential application in a given situation.

6. CreaCube, a
playful
activity with
modular
robotics
The CreaCube activity aims to engage players in a playful
problem-solving challenge.
The materials and their capabilities are unknown to the
player-learner. As a result, players need to engage in the
exploration of the artifactual affordances.
Each cube affords different outcomes (energy, movement,
distance sensing, direction).

7. CreaCube activity objective
The aim of a activity was to build a vehicle made of four
pieces moving autonomously from a red point (point A)
to the black point (point B)
A B

8. CreaCube, a playful
activity with modular
robotics
Since affordances are not initially known to
player-learners, they are required to engage
in the playful activity of exploration (trial
and error interactions) as a key behaviour in
perceiving the affordances.

9. CreaCube, a playful
activity with modular
robotics
Learner-players should interact with all
robotic cubes to discover the artifactual
affordances they offer, and then assemble
the four cubes into a figure which will allow
them to succeed in the playful challenge.

10. Methodology
• The aim of this study is the identification and analysis of artifactual affordances in the scope of
a playful problem-solving task.
• Individual playful problem-solving sessions were conducted in which the CreaCube playful
robotic task was presented to:
• 15 participants
• of 25-50 years old
• One facilitator would arrange the different tangible elements on the desk when necessary,
while the instructions were provided by an audio message to all participants
• All participants heard the same recorded instructions message and were presented with the
same set of four different robotic modular cubes

11. Data collection and analysis
The recordings of the sessions were later analyzed to identify what types of
affordances were perceived by participants during the sessions.
A qualitative research methodology was applied, where the analysis took place in an
iterative manner in two passes, including an open coding phase, where preliminary
thematic categories were proposed and an axial coding phase.

12. RESULTS

13. Types of affordances identified (1/2)
Tinkerability: being able to tinker, hence experimenting through a divergent way of
problem solving, is defined as tinkering
Usability: the intuitiveness and ease of use of different objects
• Perceptibility: describes how easily the individual characteristics and elements of cubes
are perceived by players
• Operability: objects’ ability to be operable in the context which they need to be used
and by the players that use them
• Understandability: attributes’ ability to be understood (even if object attributes may be
perceived, they may not necessarily be understood)

14. Types of affordances identified (2/2)
Aesthetics: different objects provide a different perception on how they can be
used (CreaCube cubes had different colors and object attributes, each of which gave
a hint to players)
Playability: the fact that an item can afford play is not always obvious to players if
they engage in the CreaCube task with a performance goal instead of a playful
attitude
Feedback:The use of the audio recording message as well as the lack of hints on
behalf of the facilitator show that feedback (or lack of feedback), in the scope of
CreaCube did play a key role in playful problem-solving processes involving tangible
robotic components

15. Thank you!
George Kalmpourtzis & Margarida Romero
gkalmpourtzis@playcompass.com
More on the ANR CreaMaker project and the #CreaCube task
https://creamaker.wordpress.com/