4450 Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Robots taking over classrooms?

Robots taking over classrooms?

Via Artificial Intelligence and Robotics by Awesom-o on 3/4/10

The idea of machines or robots taking human jobs has been present in one way or another for many, many decades now, but English teachers in South Korea may finally have real cause for concern.

That’s right—Korean researchers have developed robot teachers that can be used in classrooms to help students with their lessons. The first wave of such robots has already been released as assistant teachers in schools lacking in educators, a project that will cost $45 million. Current plans are to install these AI helpers in 8,000 preschools and kindergartens by 2013.

The idea behind this next step in Korean education is largely fueled by the lack of English teachers in the country. Many students want to learn the language and continue their education abroad, and Korea is always bringing in foreign teachers to try and meet ever-growing demand. Using robots to fill in the spots might be expensive at first, but in the long term could save the system a lot of money. Robots don’t need salaries or retirement plans, after all.

For now, these robots are only acting as assistants, but if this experiment proves successful, could they start replacing real teachers and putting them out of work? The Korean Times interviewed and found out that Korean teachers themselves aren’t too concerned by this possibility. Robots can be programmed to read lectures or communicate learned phrases with the students, but are still a long way off from offering the human quality which constitutes great teaching.

The video and pictures make the bot seem more like a nanny than an actual teacher, and maybe the Korean teachers are right to dismiss any worries. You can’t quite see this thing operating in a larger environment, like a high school or even a middle school. But one always needs to take the first step.

Watching the below video of a little girl interacting with the robot clearly shows that there is still much work to be done before these English teaching robots are truly useful in the classroom.