The @MOKKnowledge Founder and CEO presented her thoughts on Robot Teachers, Universal Credit and the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on the Teaching Profession at the 2017 Language Show exhibition, held on 13th October 2017 at the Business Design Centre, Islington. Due to popular demand the blog that first appeared on the Language Show website is now available on the Museum of Knowledge website.
Does Disruptive Technology Impact Education in a Positive Way?
With a greater emphasis on technology across sectors, the focus of the Museum of Knowledge is to explore how technology affects the educational sector and in particular we examine its social impact. Innovative language learning is at the heart of the Museum of Knowledge as is the use of organic technology. Organic technology is defined by the Museum of Knowledge as follows; the deployment of technology that enables predominantly human control.
Organic Technology: The Museum of Knowledge ethos
The Museum of Knowledge believes in organic technology with diversification in the workforce a must. The company’s philosophy centres around the usage of technology aimed at enhancing the work of a human workforce and not to control this workforce predominantly via an aggressive technology strategy. This also ties into our socially aware ethos. The museum’s team is creating technology solutions for a tightly defined consumer base. As an organic technology company, the platform aims to support local working communities around the world in the creative services industry as defined by the DCMS (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) and luxury hospitality and technology brands.
The Museum of Knowledge explores robust solutions for language learning and education as a whole but the usage of disruptive technology is limited to organic technology. This is because the museum’s team of researchers believes that we should not work in isolation to dethrone competitors. The Museum of Knowledge is a private museum dedicated to language excellence.
Robot Teachers to replace conventional Teachers within ten years
Is the “Eton or Wellington style for all” educational methodology upon us? Sir Anthony Seldon, the Vice Chancellor of Buckingham University declared in August 2017 in the Daily Telegraph that Robot Teachers will replace conventional teachers “within ten years.”
Grouping students by year in a personalised fashion is said to be one of the key benefits of Robot Teachers with this machine learning technique thought to enable “Robot Teachers to learn to read the brains and facial expressions of students to whom they will be able to seamlessly adapt.”
The discipline of Robot Teachers that will never tire, never require a promotion or pay rise, never require training inductions nor the rigours of undertaking a one-year PGCE (Post Graduate Certificate of Education) course is undeniable. Simple programming of Robot Teachers that will control the educational landscape is all that will be needed via artificial intelligence. This dominant machine learning mechanism would in turn cause the demotion of traditional teachers to mere classroom assistants.
The Rise of the Robot Teacher: The Implementation of machine learning
Current programming capabilities of “Robot Teachers are geared towards Mathematics and Science with Humanities-specific Robot Teachers following thereafter.” The implementation of machine learning for language learning may be applied across several languages with a focus on language learning techniques and the development of key disciplines such as reading, writing, speaking and listening skills.
The key questions traditional educational institutions should be asking are;
- Is there a need for Robot Teachers in the parameters of learning a language?
- Can Robot Teachers add real value in the classroom and will they be welcome amongst traditional teachers as well as pupils?
- What is the primary objective of implementing Robot Teachers into schools and across disciplines such as language learning?
From the perspective of the technology industry the plan is to use Robot Teachers primarily to meet the following objectives;
- To address absenteeism, vacation time and sickness payments that educational institutions have to pay out to conventional teachers.
- To address complaints made by teachers with regards to their general levels of fatigue.
- To automate key roles within teaching such as marking and the identification of special-needs students.
- To automate repetitive roles in teaching such as the preparation of lesson plans and other instructions.
Artificial Intelligence: Closing the social mobility gap
Artificial intelligence for the educational sector also aims to address “the needs of students according to their ethnicity with Robot Teachers adapted to convert script into the student’s accent or local dialect.”
Meeting the needs of diverse communities is said to be one of the biggest challenges within the educational sector whereby diverse student types cannot be properly taught by a solo teacher who will not have an in depth understanding of students from various ethnic and linguistic backgrounds. Robot Teachers are also said to be more objective than conventional teachers who may be tempted to exercise biased behaviour in relation to decisions affecting a student’s potential and progress with these biases based on a student’s social class, gender or ethnicity.
- Will Robot Teachers democratize and assist in closing the social mobility gap?
- Are conventional teachers failing students and are conventional schools failing to adequately close the social mobility gap and if so, how?
The merits of Robot Teachers: Cause and effect
The issue of Robot Teachers and their merits of course raises ethical questions regarding classroom structures, the role of a traditional teacher and the extent to which teachers are prepared to adapt. Robot Teachers are also being introduced to adapt learning materials to the needs of individual students through machine learning interactivity. So here we will examine in our exclusive Language Show Live 2017 presentation the following issues;
- Who really benefits from artificial intelligence within the educational sector?
- Can the fragile educational eco system support a new market that could be potentially flooded with Robot Teachers?
- Does the existence of Robot Teachers support the notion of Employee Replacement theories?
- Will students learning a language benefit from Robot Teachers and if so how?
- Does the school, department or learning institution dedicated to language learning as a whole benefit from Robot Teachers?
- Is it time to admit honestly that the primary benefactor of Artificial Intelligence in education will be the billion dollar funded technology companies and their investors or will its adoption really present positive benefits for the industry, linguists and those students who undertake language learning modules?
- How will Robot Teachers affect jobs and salaries of the mainstream linguistic educational sector and how will the arrival of Robot Teachers impact society as a whole?
- What are the ethical considerations and boundaries that must be considered if Robot Teachers are introduced into schools and departments dedicated to language learning?
- Can Robot Teachers be used to instil British values, French values or even Spanish values into students that current schools are unable to do via traditional teaching methods?
Embracing Language Learning for Business after Brexit: @MOKKnowledge Seminar
These questions and many others were addressed exclusively at the Museum of Knowledge, Language Show Live seminar at the Business Design Centre, Islington on 13th October 2017 at 16h00. The Museum of Knowledge “Embracing Language Learning for Business after Brexit“ seminar including Q & A session took place in Room 3 at the Language Show London Exhibition 2017, Business Design Centre, 52 Upper Street, Islington, London, N1 0QH.
The @MOKKnowledge Founder and CEO presented her thoughts on this exciting topic and embracing all opinions during our live Q&A session and debate. For those who were not able to attend, the Museum of Knowledge will publish thought leadership extracts of the presentation insights on the Museum of Knowledge site.
Source: Sir Anthony Seldon and Eton or Wellington style for all references, Daily Telegraph “Inspirational” robots to replace teachers within 10 years, 11th September 2017, Henry Bodkin