Through a systematic analysis of the literature, this study analyzes the change in the teacher's role triggered by the integration of AI into educational systems. The picture offered by the systematic analysis of the literature conducted in this study reveals a less than total awareness of the urgency with which the challenges imposed by AI in the educational field must be addressed. We propose a manifesto to guide the evolution of the teachers' role according to the paradigm shift concept proposed by Kuhn in the scientific field.

We present a storytelling robot, controlled via the ACT-R cognitive architecture, able to adopt different persuasive techniques and ethical stances while conversing about some topics concerning COVID-19. The main contribution of the paper consists in the proposal of a needs-driven model that guides and evaluates, during the dialogue, the use (if any) of persuasive techniques available in the agent procedural memory. The portfolio of persuasive techniques tested in such a model ranges from the use of storytelling to framing techniques and rhetorical-based arguments. To the best of our knowledge, this represents the first attempt of building a persuasive agent able to integrate a mix of explicitly grounded cognitive assumptions about dialogue management, storytelling and persuasive techniques as well as ethical attitudes. The paper presents the results of an exploratory evaluation of the system on 63 participants.

This study investigates the effectiveness of a 6-month parent-mediated early intervention telehealth program for children with an autism spectrum disorder. The participants comprised a total of 27 parents. The findings showed that participation in the program promotes parents’ empowerment and reduce parental stress and a general improvement in the parents’ ability to stimulate children’s learning. Moreover, the study reveals an effect of parents’ age in mediating the relationship among the parents’ ability, stress, and empowerment levels. These results suggest that an early intervention telehealth program may help parents become aware of how to benefit from interactions with their children, promote their empowerment, and reduce parenting stress.

Building on our previous work presented at the Eurographics GCH conference, this paper further explores the characteristics of an “authentic experience”, developing a framework that can be applied to the development of XR and hybrid applications in the field of cultural heritage. While recognising the broader concept of authenticity, we have not focused on an in-depth analysis of it. Instead, we focus specifically on “authentic experiences”. Here, we have extended the definition of authenticity beyond realism or sense of presence, proposing instead a multi-dimensional approach to engaging users cognitively, emotionally, and sensorially (the “Self” dimension) and, at the same time, including two other fundamental dimensions (the “Others” and the “World”) intrinsically connected to the “Self”. We have then further detailed these three dimensions, which are the pillars of the perception of authenticity, identifying their “components” and “elements”. Finally, we transformed the elements into “actionable” design indications, setting the ground to further develop specific design (UI and UX) strategies for digital heritage and serious game applications.

The relationship between the development of 21st-century skills and game-based learning is a field to explore. Among the 21-st century skills, critical thinking is one of the most analyzed skills. This study aims to deepen the relationship between learning and disposition to critical thinking (DCT) in the context of Serious Games (SGs). In particular, starting from the evidence of previous work, that highlighted a positive effect of the DCT on game performance, this study analyzes how the DCT also affects the explicit learning gained by the players. This work highlights that the DCT has a crucial role in explicit knowledge acquisition and how the improvement of game performance is a direct consequence of DCT through a path analysis methodology.