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33 Comments
- fotoman607, on 07/18/2009, -1/+17no
- Bloodwine, on 07/18/2009, -1/+17Robots will never replace teachers, unless we end up as a society that ditches critical thinking skills and relies solely on rote memorization.
- mark076h, on 07/17/2009, -0/+12Your just jealous because you never got any from your teacher.
- Strongo, on 07/18/2009, -0/+7human contact is a priceless lesson in school.
- DRT23, on 07/18/2009, -0/+4Remember Spock's academy in Star Trek?
Terminals where they learned everything. - masterstghm, on 07/18/2009, -0/+3How exactly would these robots provide discipline, mentor, guidance, etc. There's more to teaching than the books!
- t3rmv3locity, on 07/18/2009, -2/+5Hahahaha, have you been to an American grade school lately?
- orville1151, on 07/18/2009, -1/+4I think robots will eventually replace people.
- BassMastr, on 07/18/2009, -0/+3There isn't a job out there that doesn't have criminals practicing that profession in one way or another...
- SEN5241, on 07/18/2009, -0/+3The Old Glory Insurance Company is salivating at the prospect of a whole new demographic market.
Robot insurance plan for kids. - dlan4327, on 07/18/2009, -2/+4From the Comment: "Robots tend to sexually assault children a lot less than the teachers".
Citation needed. - analogkid01, on 07/18/2009, -0/+2Anytime anyone mentions the wonders of technology in the classroom, I think of astronomer Cliff Stoll, who posed this challenge: name three teachers who influenced you in school. Now, think about all the filmstrips you saw in school (which, at the time, were hailed as a marvelous teaching tool), and name the titles of three of them.
- Culyt, on 07/18/2009, -0/+2I wouldn't say that, robots will replace just about everyone eventually. Right now its just people in manual labour jobs, but they will start to take some more skill required jobs and eventually the ones that most people couldn't see not being done by a person.
They will also likly do it better than any person would. People have very set ideas about what some technologies are and how they work, robots are one of the main ones since people see things like Robbie the robot on TV and all those human looking robots that just look extreemly bizare.
Of course by then many of us might be robots ourselfs (or I guess androids, or mind uploads).
With that said I'm guessing school teachers will have quite some time left. I would however predict that we could see many lessons replaced with videos instead of the teachers doing it. Teachers will then be there to answer questions or simply to ensure students don't misbehave and do work.
The main problem with this approcah will be that teachers will not understand the subject as well since they no longer have to make lesson plans and students won't really beable to interupt the video (unless you give everyone a pause button so they can as a question), but on the flip side the video can be the best one avilable from the best teacher out of those in the entire school system. Students could also watch the video online when they want, although they will probably have to view it in school to ensure they do watch it, it would also aid home schooling sicne the parents can just ensure their child watches the video.
Of course if the system it done right then students can be encouraged to learn from birth rather than seeing school as some kind of chore. Start the videos when the kids are young to get them used to them. Jazz up the system somewhat, have some kind of point system like XP from games that translates into something like a virtual character than students can spend the points on or something. Maybe give real life prizes. Social networking components so students can work on stuff together. Less learning facts by route and more learning how to research needed information. - KingGorilla, on 07/18/2009, -0/+2Ned: No, no! The PTA has not disbanded.
We do have an emergency plan in case of a prolonged strike right
here.
[opens a briefcase]
Let's see..."Replace teachers with super-intelligent cyborgs. Or,
if cyborgs aren't invented yet, use people from the neighborhood." - AManWithNoName, on 07/18/2009, -0/+2God I hope not. Right now, the system is trying to pump the kids through like sheep more than enough to screw them up big time. If they're all taught by cold, unyielding robots, there will never be any hope for proper education again.
- chriscalifornia, on 07/18/2009, -0/+2The 60s called, they want their unrealistic outlook on the future back.
- cdfys, on 07/18/2009, -1/+2I teach middle school and I don't agree. Those middle school kids need nurturing just as much as the younger kids do. In some cases they need it more. You could say "those are the 'hell' years for just about any grade. ALL grades have their challenges. That's why teaching is a calling. Don't give me the bunk about those who can't, teach. Sure my students are challenging, but the challenges are what make the job rewarding. It all honesty it's not the students who ultimately make my job difficult and frustrating. It's more often than not the administration, the paperwork, the add-ons, the apathy from parents, the lack of community support. It's everything that takes away from my opportunity to nurture and teach these kids. You can put robots in a classroom, but without changing the other things you will have the same problems.
- LoneWolf01, on 07/18/2009, -0/+1Remember how humans *didn't* do that? It's because we aren't as awesome as Vulcans.
- kaidovak, on 07/18/2009, -0/+1I wish more of those teachers would retire... finding work in the field can be tough as it's inundated with geriatric incompetents that just so happen to have earned tenure when their outdated methodology was still in fashion.
- inactive, on 07/18/2009, -0/+1Not really a fair comparison:
Hours spent watching films in school: ~20
Hours spent listening to a teacher: ~20000
That said, I think that if it's done right, multimedia-based learning could revolutionise education.
Done right = engaging, interactive, varied, and feedback-based etc. - Hirusan, on 07/18/2009, -1/+2Well, at least I'd have a competent teacher. Those are pretty rare these days.
- cdfys, on 07/18/2009, -0/+1I don't see robots being able to observe the kids for abuse at home, check to see if they possibly have a learning impediment, convey a true love of learning, reading, exploring, etc to a student, make the student feel that they matter or that they are important, make the student know that they care, make sure they're getting enough to eat, or not getting picked on at school, the list could go on.
I realize that not EVERY teacher does these things like they are supposed. But the ones that don't are vastly outweighed by the ones that do. But if you were to think about it, would you really give up the chance of having the one or two teachers who did for a robot? - Wilkings, on 07/18/2009, -0/+1WHAT WILL HISTORY MAJORS DO NOW?!?!?!?!?!
- donnikhan, on 07/18/2009, -1/+2Will robots replace (insert your intended career path here) in the near future?
- kaidovak, on 07/18/2009, -0/+1They're only the hell years if a teacher has no enthusiasm, motivation, or skill.
If the kids are apathetic, methods need to change. - pika2000, on 07/18/2009, -0/+1Errr, I thought they're robots already. I mean come on, I've seen a lot of teachers that just don't care anymore. They care more about their pension and benefits. Many will "teach" students anything, whatever on the piece of paper in front of them. Actually, they don't even "teach" anymore, they just blab whatever on the textbook/paper, something that even a robot can read. They see a kid being bored, just label the kid as ADD, give them drugs, done. If teachers themselves have no more critical thinking, then I don't see any difference replacing them with robots. Keep the good teachers to put out good teaching materials, and replace the bad ones with robots.
The classic way of "teaching" is dying anyway. - diggydougie, on 07/18/2009, -1/+2Better to put the robots in the 5-8 grades than early education. Those are the "hell" years for teachers. Young children need the nurturing and high schoolers need advanced skills.
- diggydougie, on 07/18/2009, -0/+1Personally I think that robot teachers are a really bad idea at any stage. Maybe after we get to the point where robots are everywhere (like computers are now) it might not be a big deal. But let's start with robots in the workplace and other places such as prisons first. I think that big robot prison guards would be pretty cool. No one cares if they are nurturing or caring.
- IamZed, on 07/18/2009, -0/+1In the future your child will have the undivided attention of an AI that will know everything encourage them to think to their maximum potential. It wont make a damn bit of difference in regards to where they will congregate to do it, or the amount of skilled teachers required to oversee.
- strosvas, on 07/18/2009, -1/+1I'm sure every texting acronym and every 4chan meme in history will find it's way into their "curriculum"--but at least they'll have spellcheck.
- inactive, on 07/18/2009, -0/+0I propose we dump all educational institutions (this business has lost a lot of allure for me since the dawn of internet anyway) and other constructs in the similar vein and design a knowledge acquiring process or learning system that allows people to "self teach" anything they please from cradle the to grave. Robots may work (although too expensive a construct to achieve similar or better objective IMO) because in order to be a good teacher the teacher doesn't need to have a very good critical thinking skills or big degrees. However, he/she needs a bank of right questions to ask to the student that will inspire creativity and imagination. Although, the evaluation system might be a little complicated to design but its all work-in-progress. Thoughts?
- K12Leadership, on 07/25/2009, -0/+0I read this thinking that it was meant to be "tongue in cheek". On closer inspection, the author seems to believe this is an actual possibility. The article mentions that social robots will teach "names of colors, new vocabulary words and simple songs"? Try some websites that already exist today that do all of those things (and more). And save the money on buying robots. Bottom line is that technology CAN be used in the education process and it has an critical role to fill in our schools. However technology will not likely take on the role of classroom teacher!
- inactive, on 07/17/2009, -12/+2Probably. Robots tend to sexually assault children a lot less than the teachers we have in our schools these days.
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