Robots are a cool aspect that kids enjoy seeing in movies and as toys, but now robots are turning out to be more real than ever before. In China, some Kindergarten classrooms now have a robot teacher in place to help students learn.
What are These Robot Teachers?
This robot is a short, rounded educator with a screen for a face. It is just under two feet tall, and it moves around on two tiny wheels, so it is not created to represent or replace a real teacher by any means, but it can certainly help out in classrooms.
The robot is named Keeko, and it has made an appearance in over 600 kindergartens so far. It can interact with students by telling them stories and challenging them with logical problems. Whenever a kid answers one of Keeko’s questions right, its face will respond with heart-shaped eyes to congratulate them.
Pros of Robot Teachers
By having a cute little robot in the classroom, kids can easily become more engaged in learning. Since a robot is new and exciting, it would likely hold the attention span of young kids much longer than an adult would be able to.
In China, robots are being created to make lots of activities easier, such as grocery shopping and providing companionship to the elderly. Helping out in schools is just another thing that robots can make easier.
Robot teachers are programmed with modern methods of teaching, so it is easy to keep them up to date with new concepts and teaching styles. Their primary function is to serve as an assistant teacher, so teachers can gain extra help around the classroom without an additional teacher needing to be hired.
Cons of Robot Teachers
As cool as robot teachers are, they will never be able to replace a human teacher. This is because children need social human interactions to properly grow and learn, so even though robot teachers can benefit their learning, kids cannot rely solely on robots to teach them. Plus, if schools ever converted to an education system run completely by robot teachers, then lots of teachers would be without a job and would need to find a new career path.
Robots also do not have human emotions. While they can teach kids as a teacher would, they cannot sympathize with the kids and talk to them emotionally. However, human interactions are essential, so students need a human to teach them so that they can gain emotional intelligence instead of just learning facts from a robot.
Conclusion
While there are both pros and cons to robot teachers, we should have them in classrooms as long as they don’t get in the way of things. They should never be used as a replacement for teachers, but instead, they should be used as a learning tool to help out in the classroom. Not all schools will be able to afford these educational robots, but if given the opportunity, it could be an interesting teaching method to try out, especially for younger grade levels. However, robot teachers should never be a requirement for a classroom since teachers typically do just fine teaching on their own.
