Robot teachers a hit in South Korea. Is't a good idea?

The invention of a robotic teacher is an innovative and interesting idea. However, I strongly feel that robots should never replace a real life teacher. They may act as an effective assisting tool in a classroom, but our next generation of children should not be entirely taught by them.

Although in the given article, it states, “Elementary school children responded favourably to the robotic teachers… and helped raised interest in the language and boosted confidence of pupils.”, but for how long can these pupils stay interested and be confident if their only form of interaction and learning is with a lifeless and emotionless robot? A robot lacks the “human-touch” which is very vital in truly motivating a person. It cannot truly motivate a person until it is able to understand our devious and complex minds.Definitely learning is still able to take place through a robot, but the level of a meaningful learning experience will surely be reduced. Humans are relational beings - we will learn best when we interact and relate to each other. I read about the importance of human touch in an article called THE IMPORTANCE OF PHYSICAL TOUCH found in http://www.teachingexpertise.com/ . It states, “in order to connect with a person emotionally there needs to be physical contact in the form of appropriate touch - and I believe for a child to learn and for a teacher to teach there needs to be a connection between them. Touch is the one sense that develops us on a mental, physical and emotional level - the other 4 senses are supported by touch. It is the most basic and essential form of communication.” It also states in another article called ROBOTS COULD REPLACE TEACHERS in http://www.livescience.com/ ,"Scientists found that social interaction with a live human being is crucial for learning to take place in children."




I also fear that our younger generation would grow up to be people that have no moral ethics and feelings if schools were to really allow robots to teach them entirely. I do not believe a robot that has no sense of moral and ethics is able to teach us moral and ethics. We have discussed the importance of human/physical touch earlier, and if these robots are not able to do so, people are likely going to become less compassionate and more emotionally isolated, which isn't healthy at all. A human is still needed to teach and influence meaningful values and morals.
In closing, i would like to say that every individual in this world is made different and we need each other to complement and motivate each other. Take for example an autism kid. He/she will definately need another human being to guide and give him support. The human touch, care, love and support given to the child is something that a robot can never be able to do so. We still need real live teachers as they are going to be the ones who inspires and motivate when they pass on their life experiences and knowledge to us.

Commented by: Rebecca Ho Tsuey Zhen (107063N)

Sources: http://www.livescience.com/technology/090716-human-learning.html
http://www.teachingexpertise.com/articles/the-importance-of-physical-touch-1628