Read the passage below and answer the questions that follow:
Scientists have theorized for decades that robots would make the perfect helper and companion. Now a handful of public schools in the US are putting that idea to the test.
This year, robots will be teaching everything from math to vocabulary to nutrition inside classrooms in California and New York, a move the researchers call a first in American Education.
The Los Angeles experiment, scheduled to start later this spring, will use a robotic “dragon” to teach first-graders about healthy lifestyle habits. Students will help show the robot how to prepare for a race; the hope is that by sharing tips with the dragon, they take their own lessons to heart.
Researchers see the classroom robots not as replacements for teachers but as whimsical assistants programmed to push kids’ buttons. But some see the mechanization as the latest example of technology undermining the importance of human connections in the classroom.
The robot educators, most of which are small enough to perch on a table, don’t replace teachers, exactly. Kids generally take turns with them in special sessions in a library or on the side of the classroom. The robots are programmed to mimic human behaviours: swiveling their heads when students speak, crying out when overeager kids get physical, and gesturing as they talk.
“How can you get the kids to do more math? They don’t want to. But they do want to play with the robots,” said Maja Matari, professor of computer science, neuroscience and pediatrics at USC, who is helping to lead the project in Los Angeles. Robots in the experiments are teaching and reinforcing lessons over several weeks, researchers say, even though it seems they are merely serving as electronic playmates.
The New York robot experiment relies on a basic insight: Children don’t like admitting mistakes but they enjoy pointing out someone else’s. The idea was to “use that to our advantage,” said
Sandra Okita, an assistant professor at Teachers College, Columbia Univeristy, who is leading the experiment.
She programmed her robot – a $14,000 android nicknamed “Projo,” with glowing eyes, bulging triceps and a futuristic-looking white and orange spacesuit – to make carefully calculated errors when working with students. As the children correct their 2-foot-tall partner, she hopes they become more aware when they make the same mistakes.
“I think the imperfect robot is good for humans,” Okita said, “It has to be a give-and-take relationship where you influence the robot and the robot influences you.”
But some critics remain skeptical that robots could ever become true companions.“It could be the greatest robot in the world, said Sherry Turkle, a professor at MIT. A robot teacher still won’t understand what is going on in these human interactions.
In Los Angeles, some parents have bristled at the thought of robots supplanting teachers. “I don’t think they’ll take over the world but they may take all our jobs,” laughed Victor Sanchez. Still, he counted the robots as an example of the school’s innovations. “That’s what we’re promoting,” Sanched said.
(a) Suggest a title for the passage. Give reasons why you think your title is appropriate.
(b) What is the main purpose of the Los Angeles experiment?
(c) Do you think such an experiment would actually “undermine the importance of human connection in the classroom”? Discuss.
(d) How can an “imperfect” robot help children correct their own mistakes?
(e) What is the criticism against robots in the classroom?