Citation

Veletsianos G, Scharber C, Doering A. Interact. Comput. 2008; 20(3): 292-301.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.intcom.2008.02.007

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In this article, we investigate the discourse between a female conversational pedagogical agent and 59 adolescents in the context of a social studies lesson. We note that previous pedagogical agent research has focused on the positive effects of agents, while failing to take into account the intricacies of learner-agent discourse, and subsequently missing the abuse suffered by pedagogical agents at users' fingertips. Our analysis indicates that learners readily misuse and abuse pedagogical agents while placing them in a subordinate and inferior role. We conclude by making recommendations on agent design and future research. 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.