Bring in the Robots!

Every time I hear about these robot English teachers I just cannot wonder if people are being blindly optimistic, or if they are being serious?  Articles keep mentioning the pros of these robots: less anxiety for the kids than a real person, ability to be used in rural areas, long term cost effectiveness, etc.  But why do none of these articles mention a single negative?

Robots cannot physically demonstrate how to do an activity or game (which is 50% of ESL lessons in elementary schools).  Robots cannot collect or hand out materials to students.  Robots cannot discipline or maintain control over children.  Robots cannot give students proximity (desks are often cramped in classrooms containing between 30 and 40 elementary school children).  This robot is also pretty short and cannot see over the first row of desks.  If the robot cannot see the students, then the students cannot see the robot... but do the students even need to see it if it is basically just a speaker box on wheels with a white face painted on it?

These robots made international news with the first robots finally making it into classrooms in Daegu.  They appeared AFTER all the elementary school children were let out for winter vacation.  Which means that all the government officials who came to witness this inauguration were in a classroom with pre-selected, well-behaved children with parents who were willing to let them come in over their vacation to be a part of the propaganda for the unveiling of these robots.  If you want to know what kids really think, put a robot in the class and then have a hidden camera film how they respond to it.  I guarantee it will not be positive.

Source:

SEOUL (AFP) – Almost 30 robots have started teaching English to youngsters in a South Korean city, education officials said Tuesday, in a pilot project designed to nurture the nascent robot industry.

Engkey, a white, egg-shaped robot developed by the Korea Institute of Science of Technology (KIST), began taking classes Monday at 21 elementary schools in the southeastern city of Daegu.

The 29 robots, about one metre (3.3 feet) high with a TV display panel for a face, wheeled around the classroom while speaking to the students, reading books to them and dancing to music by moving their head and arms.

The robots, which display an avatar face of a Caucasian woman, are controlled remotely by teachers of English in the Philippines -- who can see and hear the children via a remote control system.

Cameras detect the Filipino teachers' facial expressions and instantly reflect them on the avatar's face, said Sagong Seong-Dae, a senior scientist at KIST.

"Well-educated, experienced Filipino teachers are far cheaper than their counterparts elsewhere, including South Korea," he told AFP.

Apart from reading books, the robots use pre-programmed software to sing songs and play alphabet games with the children.

"The kids seemed to love it since the robots look, well, cute and interesting. But some adults also expressed interest, saying they may feel less nervous talking to robots than a real person," said Kim Mi-Young, an official at Daegu city education office.

Kim said some may be sent to remote rural areas of South Korea shunned by foreign English teachers.

She said the robots are still being tested. But officials might consider hiring them full time if scientists upgrade them and make them easier to handle and more affordable.

"Having robots in the classroom makes the students more active in participating, especially shy ones afraid of speaking out to human teachers," Kim said.

She stressed the experiment was not about replacing human teachers with robots. "We are helping upgrade a key, strategic industry and all the while giving children more interest in what they learn."

The four-month pilot programme was sponsored by the government, which invested 1.58 billion won (1.37 million dollars).

Scientists have held pilot programmes in schools since 2009 to develop robots to teach English, maths, science and other subjects at different levels with a desired price tag of five to eight million won.

Sagong stressed that the robots, which currently cost 10 million won each, largely back up human teachers but would eventually have a bigger role.

The machines can be an efficient tool to hone language skills for many people who feel nervous about conversing with flesh-and-blood foreigners, he said.

"Plus, they won't complain about health insurance, sick leave and severance package, or leave in three months for a better-paying job in Japan... all you need is a repair and upgrade every once in a while."

That last sentence was probably added by the author because the proponents of these robots complained about native English speakers so much during all of their interviews.  Koreans who are pro-robots are also anti-native speakers.  Nobody has to pretend like this is not true.

Robots do have potential, but a real person is still needed to be sitting behind a computer to operate them.  It is a webcam on wheels and I think Korea should have had this invented a decade ago if that is all it really is.  Also, I (as a human being) have difficulty speaking face to face with my Korean coteachers about lesson plans and school schedules.  How is some impoverished Filipino woman 3000 kms away supposed to effectively coteach with a Korean?  The ability for a lesson plan to break down just compounded exponentially.  In so many ways this just is not going to work.