Robot Teachers Roll Into South Korean Classrooms

By Meera Dolasia on January 13, 2011

A number of fortunate students at 21 elementary schools in the Southeast city of Daegu, South Korea are testing out a new kind of educator - A robot teacher. The 29 droids that have been deployed for a five-month trial, are the brainchild of The Korean Institute of Technology, which is trying to promote the integration of robots into people's daily lives.

Designed to teach English, the egg-shaped robots have been pre-programmed to read books, sing songs and play alphabet games. Just like human teachers, they can also roam around the class on their wheels, and even dance to music by moving their arms and heads.

While they appear to be completely autonomous, the robots are controlled by human educators from the Philippines, who can hear and see the children's reactions via a remote controlled device. The children can also observe the teacher's expressions, which are reflected on the avatar that is pasted onto the flat panel television atop the robot's neck.

The $1.4mm USD pilot program has been sponsored by the government to test if children respond better to robots than humans. Also, the cost of hiring English teachers remotely is far lower than bringing them into the country. They also believe that if the robots prove to be reliable and effective, they can be sent to remote regions, where the teachers are reluctant to go. An added benefit is that robots don't get sick, ask for vacations or pay or up and away for a better paying gig! A little maintenance and oil every now and again and, they are good to go. However, the officials do maintain that these robots will be assisting human teachers, not replacing them, anytime in the near future.

While the initial trials are going really well, there are still some hurdles that need to be overcome before the rolling eggheads show up all across South Korea. They still require a lot of handling and at a cost of about $8,000USD each, are a little too steep for mass deployment. If these relatively minor problems can be overcome, robot teachers will become a common sight across all schools in South Korea and maybe, other parts of the world too!

Sources: Dailymail.co.uk, heraldsun.co.au

659 Comments

gfda5/1/2012
interesting
silla4/24/2012
wow i love cars
mosk4/24/2012
wowwy
dab 4/5/2012
How did you do it . What things did you use to build it.
samsam3/26/2012
this could lead to computers taking over the world
princess023/26/2012
I don't like the Idea. I mean robots don't have the same emotions that at teachers have.Think about all the people who will lose their jobs if these new "teachers"or what ever you want to call them take over!
Sun3/13/2012
Actually I didn’t know we have this kind of robot teacher in Korea. As well as not many Korean would know about the fact that we have that kind of things. Means that it is not popular currently also it does not show its good effect to the children. If I had a children and I had a chance to my children to go to school which would be teaching with robot teacher, I would not let my children to go to that school. Firstly, for children, developing their emotion more than the educating the English or other subject is more important. Do you know what happen for children after I Pad appeared, mothers let the children to read a book using I Pad, and once the children start to read book with I Pad, they start to lose their pressure to read real books and start to lose the existence of book itself. And when they faced on real book, as they are used to I Pad, they turn the page same as they used I Pad, and when the page does not turn well, children get easily lose their patient and interest I am not sure how this robot teacher works during class and how this robot reacts on children’s behave. And how much Korean language this robot recognizes so that communicates with children. (Supposed that children cannot understand English Fully) What will be the different with just using video tape to teach English if it does not have emotion and reaction on one’s responds? Don’t you think children will get lose their interest. Of course when children firstly see the robot they will be very interested on the robot. I am not sure how long have this robot teacher being using for substitute of English teacher. And I don’t know the effect of the robot teacher. But I am sure that Daegu School which was firstly tried Robot teacher will be the last school used it. Of course I am surely confident with the aspect of saving money teaching English. Because Korea Government gives effort on educate English as well as invest lots of money to educating. Robot cannot be substituted to Human being. That is why people still try to be a teacher.
hahapoo2/20/2012
yoyoyo love it
hahapoo2/20/2012
love it
Awesome kid1/31/2012
that's insane I want a robot teacher I think we should have a robot teacher from mason