YOUR ROBOT TEACHER

Do you think that at some point in your education you’ll have a robot teacher? A teacher who knows everything in the subject s/he teaches, can answer all your questions and never gets angry? Would that be great or not? Robot teachers have been the new trend in some schools around the world. Inventors and investors believe that teachers today will be replaced by robot teachers with the help or artificial intelligence technology. Hundreds of kindergarten classes in China are now using a small robot named KeeKo. The robot is standing 45 cm tall and weighing 4.5 kg. Keeko costs $1,500 and is a hit among school kids. There are about 600 kindergartens around the country using Keeko robots to teach children. The robot can tell stories to the students, asks and answers logic problems and reacts to students with facial expressions. When kids answer questions correctly or successfully finish their work given by Keeko, the robot flashes its “heart-shaped eyes”. Some experts predict that robots will replace teachers by 2027. The idea of robot teachers may sound appealing on some levels because teachers are expensive. On the other hand, robots do not require pay or health care. These experts also claim that robots will treat students fairly as they will never have any prejudice or negative feelings towards students.

However, most studies have shown that robots can never replace teachers because teachers inspire students. They say that education is not just about knowledge; it is also about inspiring and leading others. A true teacher does not only tries to transfer information; he or she creates a safe environment for students to reach information. Teachers also inspire students to think for themselves. An experiment at high schools proved some of these challenges. The school failed because many of the students weren’t actually participating in the lesson. They said that listening to a robot was boring. They also said that they were not motivated by the robot teacher at all. Students need warmth, encouragement and personal attention. They can only learn the social skills by only human teachers. So even if there are more robot teachers in education in the future, teachers will never be replaced by them.