First data collection for our exploratory field study
The main focus of our second work package was to do focus group interviews with schoolchildren in order to get deeper insights in how kids interact with conversational agents. We are very happy that we found two secondary schools in the greater Münster region that were interested to serve as associated partner schools in our project, namely the Laurentianum in Warendorf and the St. Antonius-Gymnasium in Lüdinghausen.
In the first week of April, the time had finally come and we made our way to Warendorf and Lüdinghausen to start our data collection! We visited two 6th grade classes with around 20-25 pupils each. First, introduced ourselves and the AI-Bility project and also showed several videos with different conversational agents (Cozmo and Nao). We also did a live demo with a Google nest hub. After that, we divided the class into three groups and assigned two researchers per group. The researchers the continued with our interview questions and recorded the conversation with the kids. After the focus group sessions, we gathered again in the classroom, answered open questions, and let the kids play with the Google Nest Hub.
Of course, because it was the week before the Easter holidays, we also brought some chocolate eggs. Overall, we really enjoyed talking to the kids and already discussed answers and insights on our way back to Münster. We have several hours of recorded audio material that now needs to be transcribed and coded. We are really looking forward to it!
