Children born in the Information Age are digital natives; this characteristic should be exploited to improve the learning process through the use of technology. This paper addresses the design, construction, and evaluation process of TITIBOTS, a programming assistance tool for mobile devices that allows children in the early childhood to create programs and execute them using robots. We present the results of using TITIBOTS in different scenarios with children between 4 and 6 years old. The insight obtained in the development and evaluation of the tool could be useful when creating applications for children in the early childhood. The results were promising; children liked the application and were willing to continue using it to program robots to solve specific tasks, developing the skills of the 21st century.

Learning how to program in early age helps children to develop some capabilities as logical thinking, problem solving, and creativity. Incorporating robotics in programming children can help to learn in a concrete and funny way, collaborating with each other. The research project presented in this paper describes the first prototype that implements a programming environment for robots using mobile devices, for children in early childhood-4 to 6 years old. This prototype is fully functional and allows Bluetooth communication one by one. We expect that our research will contribute to human-computer interface field, providing a new nontraditional interface to support the learning process of programming in preschoolers.

By using techniques such as the Wizard of Oz (WoZ) and video capture, this paper evaluated the performance of the Nao Robot in the role of a personal assistant, which was valuated alongside the impact of the assigned gender (male/female) in the perceived performance of the robot assistant. Within a sample size of 39 computer sciences students, this study assessed criteria such as: perceived enjoyment, intention to use, perceived sociability, trust, intelligence, animacy, anthropomorphism, and sympathy, utilizing testing tools such as Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and Godspeed Questionnaire (GSQ). These methods identified a significant effect of the gender assigned to the robot in variables such as intelligence and sympathy.