When manufacturers introduced robots, everyone was curious as to when machines could replace workers, including educators. In a nutshell, robots are machines designed to respond to environmental stimuli in a humanlike manner.
This technology is now widely used to help people in their everyday life. Most drivers use sat navs that inform them about their location and reroute them if needed. Automatic email delivered by banks to customers when they complete their transactions is also a good example of how big the role of robots is in our daily life. So machines already perform a number of everyday tasks but can they do this for teaching?
Robots Are Not Going to Replace Educators Any Time Soon
Today, there is a lot of discussion about the impact of robots on the field of education regarding their ability to replace instructors. Because of their unbelievable computational thinking, robots can respond to many unpredictable stimuli. Therefore, they can provide a completely personalized learning experience for schoolchildren. And, at first glance, the idea of replacing educators with robots looks very promising: robots can create a favorable opportunity for students to learn at their own pace.
Nevertheless, people still argue about whether robots can respond to all students’ questions. Moreover, opponents believe that too much of AI in classrooms can simply deskill youngsters, as we observe in the case with sat navs, where it discourages drivers from training their map reading skills, and so forth.
There are also those who question the ability of heartless machines to motivate and encourage students the way devoted teachers can do. “In fact, no technology can replace the encouragement and support a human can bring to the educational process”, – admits Matthew Longtin, a professional writer at Pro-Papers. And this is the main reason why machines will never be able to trigger the teacher shortage. Therefore, no one can say when robots will replace teachers because they will probably not.
In truth, there is no reason for academia to worry about machines taking over educational institutions anytime soon. While robots can help schoolers to develop their skills or assist those struggling with various difficulties, they cannot replace our irreplaceable educators. What they really can do is to support them and that will be it.
Schoolers Will Always Need Human Teachers
Only human educators can manage learning environments properly as well as give their schoolers motivation they often lack. In school, much time is dedicated to teaching kids social-emotional skills. While robots have proven to be able to teach children reading or solving math problems, training them the abovementioned skills is something which AI cannot perform as that kind of learning requires a human touch which can be provided by human teachers only.
Let’s face the truth: a good educator will never become obsolete. Modern youngsters may be a digital generation, but they still cannot locate and utilize digital resources on their own and thus always need a human teacher next to them. Even though educators may no longer be considered as content-area specialists, they still can guide students through their learning process by helping them to use an unlimited amount of digital instruments for gaining invaluable knowledge. Only human teachers can care about their students and motivate them to do their best. This is what will never go out of date.
And when it comes to discussions about AI and its ability to replace teachers, it is time to recollect that machines are not able to make students value a culture of excellence. They cannot push youngsters to excel. With no doubt, no one can deny the power of AI in the educational sphere – but it has nothing to do with them completely replacing human educators. Robots and teachers can greatly coexist. Moreover, machines can become good helpers for modern educators with ease.
How Robots Can Help Teachers
Although robots cannot replace human educators completely, they should be regarded as their assistants, who can free up educators from endless data provisions and give them more time for in-person interactions with their students. Moreover, machines will give those kids, who would rather not be “taught”, a window of opportunity to study at their own pace.
Techs have already proven to enhance education. And because of their great opportunities, many get a chance to enjoy home education by learning individually. However, as with in-class education, students learning from their homes still need another human being to motivate and encourage them, and, in due course, many of them feel the lack of someone’s support and thus fail to succeed academically. In schools, the support of caring educators greatly influences the student progress. Let’s face it: educators are schoolers’ mentors. They are their supporters and inspirators. In and beyond the school settings, these people are always there for their schoolers, and robots will never replace that too.
Anna Penhill is a head of digital marketing department of Pro-papers custom writing company, she helps various businesses with building content marketing strategies and increasing revenue via email marketing. She curates content management, works on marketing improvements, and edits blog posts. Anna is also a tutor at an academic website for PhD students.
She is a regular contributor to such websites as Bulawayo24, Studential, Bmmagazine and Accountingweb.
