Robot teachers

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

Do the preparation task first. Then read the text and do the exercises.

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.

Task 1

Exercise

Task 2

Exercise

Discussion

Would you like to have a robot as a teacher?

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B1 Intermediate

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.

I think that a society where robots and human can coexist is very wonderful. I think it will also improve the quality of human life. But if robots evolve further and take away most of the human work, how will we live in the future? I’m a little scared when I think about it. I think that as the text says in the future when robots will evolve, not only advantages but also disadvantages will come out. Problems are always associated with the changing times. I don’t know what will happen in the future, but I believe it will go in a good direction.

Yes. I wouldn’t like to have a robot as a teacher before I read this text. But I change my mind. I thought it would be a great way for robot to teach children in areas that could not be educated and if you don’t understand lesson, you can ask whenever you need. But after all, teachers are necessary because robots don’t understand human emotions. I think teachers can listen and give advice when students are in trouble. Therefore, I think it is good for robots to assist teachers.

My father is a teacher and it's true he's always overwhelmed by his job! He sometimes doesn't have time to talk with me! Even to his parents! But if i can help him, i always do because i really love him! Im 21 yo and i've already worked as a teacher before! when i was on my third year of college i taught calculus to first year students! my father was very proud of me because as he taught people! Now we're both teaching at the same university but he's is a real teacher and Im just a "form teacher"

I think robot cannot be used to teach people, and I have many reasons. I will just represent two important of them: Firstly, teaching needs managing of situations which probably occurs in the class and computers or artificial intelligences cannot support that. This is because that the robots just do things which are programmed. But we see something which needs being more creative. Secondly, empathy is very important. Nowadys, education is not just transferring information to students. It is more than saying formula and so on. It should be educative, so it should transfer emotions and skills which are very important for living in a society. I am sure that robot cannot do it correctly. Schools has this very important responsibility to make socialization. After family, schools with important components such as books, teachers, and other programs have to transfer and socialize students. Values like human rights, liberty, equality, human dignity and so on are part of those values which should change future generations. Transferring these values and making educated people by them are the main responsibility of education system. I think robot has a lot of shortages in this area. I agree completely with the idea which is stated above. Robots can just help teachers by writing reports, accounting marks, checking home works, and so on. Humans will be necessary for teaching at this time and for ever.

yes, I would like to because I agree with the above statement Anthony indicated when in the future Robots will take over the main job and teachers will be like assistants, I think high technology can quantify all the information as it can detect students behavior to quantify a percentage of students' attention and then can adjust the teaching skills to match for people.

There are many things to clear-up first in order to gain the trust, the suitability of teacher stepping less into the young students crusial times "school life" better that introducing a computer without the human sence of "logic human exceptions" computers cannot understand unless you set that specific pattern. Be that as it made, it is something that is yet to come and that we need to be ready for.

If robot replace teacher position, I think it will be better if robot help teacher's tasks like explained in the text above. There are some cases that only human can do it, not robot. Such as understanding the students feeling. But, robot can very helpful for teacher if it work as teacher's assistant or do technical things.

Oh no! I wouldn't like that for sure