Robot teachers

Read an article about robot teachers to practise and improve your reading skills.

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Preparation

Reading text

If you think of the jobs robots could never do, you would probably put doctors and teachers at the top of the list. It's easy to imagine robot cleaners and factory workers, but some jobs need human connection and creativity. But are we underestimating what robots can do? In some cases, they already perform better than doctors at diagnosing illness. Also, some patients might feel more comfortable sharing personal information with a machine than a person. Could there be a place for robots in education after all?

British education expert Anthony Seldon thinks so. And he even has a date for the robot takeover of the classroom: 2027. He predicts robots will do the main job of transferring information and teachers will be like assistants. Intelligent robots will read students' faces, movements and maybe even brain signals. Then they will adapt the information to each student. It's not a popular opinion and it's unlikely robots will ever have empathy and the ability to really connect with humans like another human can.

One thing is certain, though. A robot teacher is better than no teacher at all. In some parts of the world, there aren't enough teachers and 9–16 per cent of children under the age of 14 don't go to school. That problem could be partly solved by robots because they can teach anywhere and won't get stressed, or tired, or move somewhere for an easier, higher-paid job.

Those negative aspects of teaching are something everyone agrees on. Teachers all over the world are leaving because it is a difficult job and they feel overworked. Perhaps the question is not 'Will robots replace teachers?' but 'How can robots help teachers?' Office workers can use software to do things like organise and answer emails, arrange meetings and update calendars. Teachers waste a lot of time doing non-teaching work, including more than 11 hours a week marking homework. If robots could cut the time teachers spend marking homework and writing reports, teachers would have more time and energy for the parts of the job humans do best.

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Task 2

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Discussion

Would you like to have a robot as a teacher?

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No, I wouldn’t. Because it is difficult for a robot to do the teaching job. The reason is that robots have no emotions. Human beings have emotions and can praise and scold students. Students can grow because teachers can do it. But robots can’t do that. However, robots can reduce the burden on the teacher. I think the robot can make tests and score, so I might be good for teacher support. In the future, robots can be used, and if they are used successfully, work efficiency will increase. I’m looking forward to a future where we can do that.

I think it's suitable that robots teach depending on the time and the circumstances. Programs are built into the robots and they have a great of knowledge, so they can teach classes for students to gain knowledge, such as how to solve calculations and history. However robots have no heart and can't read people's feelings, so I think it's difficult for them to teach Japanese language and moral classes to students. The school's online system adopts a function called "Automatic scoring" and it helps teachers with a lot of work. Therefore robots could do the same. It may be impossible for robots to play a leading role but I think it's a good idea to work as a teacher's helper.

Rightly, I wouldn't. Maybe for helping our homework or explaining about science is suitable for having a robot teacher. However, I believe that strong relationships with teachers, ability of empthaty, talking about our future are more important than having a robots teachers. It will be almost all area of our life, but in strong and effectively education or emotional issues depend on the people who you are facing. So I think I wouldn't like to have a robot teachers altough It would be a very different experience maybe.

In my opinion robots could help to teachers doing some activities such as cleaning the board, ordering the books but not teaching specific academic knowledge because the human contact, gestures and speaking can´t be replace for a machine. The feedback is very importat in the learning process.

Actually, I thought before that some robots or AI would have been teachers for humans. For instance, English teachers online could be replaced with humans, if it comes true we can take one-on-one lessons 24/7 at a low cost.

No I wouldn’t. Certainly, robots have a lot of knowledge more than people and teach more efficiently than people. Robots will teach us anything quickly. But, robot don’t have emotion. The profession of teachers doesn’t only teach study. Teachers is existence that listen to the student’s concerns and solve it. For example, robots can’t solve bullying because robots don’t know student’s feelings, but teachers can solve it. Also, there is possible that robots may not be able to understand what we say, but there is no possible that teachers don’t understand what we say. I think robots should be a teacher’s assistant, not teachers.

No, I wouldn’t. It is good that the teacher’s work is reduced. But We learn a lot of thing at school. We also learn language, courtesy and relationships. I think it is important for students and teachers to communicate in order to discuss the careers and classes. And I don't think that I can ask questions if the robot is a teacher. This is because the robot teaches according to the contents prepared in advance. Robots are very convenient in our lives. However, understanding people's feelings is very important. I listen to music when I am sad or I lose my confidence. The music is sung by humans, not robots. I think that it is wrong to leave everything to the robot.

Yes, I would. In fact, I have experience to take classes using kind of robot when I was a junior high school. It was chemistry classes. The teacher was programed robot and makes them talk about the content of classes instead of him. And sometimes he gave a comment. Frankly it was not bad. There were nothing waste of time and I felt it was an efficient way of studing. In addition, he looked comfortable because he didn't have to write or explain the blackboard. That's why, I agree with this opinion.

Yes. I have two reasons. First, we can ask a same question many times without hesitation. A robot teaches many things but they don't feel anything so asking for the same explanation is not frustrating for a robot. Second, robot teachers can help human teachers. It is a good point because human teachers have many tasks everyday.

Yes, I would, but not always. Because sometimes robots cannot replace people, I think. When I learn Speaking or Listening, it need a native speaker. But it is almost impossible for robots. However, when it comes to Reading or Writing, robots can write completely and collect quickly. So, robots are needed in the future, but not always.