Gargi Baruah (Sub-editor)
Technology is taking over and has become a very crucial part of our everyday life. It’s almost impossible to function without relying on technology today whether be it communication, transport, education, healthcare, buying groceries, paying bills, etc. Technology has made our lives easier, letting us do many tasks and solve problems in just the click of a button, and it is improving continuously. Technology has also influenced the way we transfer and access information. New advancements are emerging day-by-day and it is surely impacting our lifestyles.
Robotics in education is a growing field and the future is here, where robots will likely be helping students in different subjects while engaging with them through human-like facial features and emotion-perceiving technology. Teaching assistants, personal tutors, small group leaders and peer learners are the few roles that robots may play in the coming years. Educational robots will be a help to children in gaining various knowledge and learning the basic skills of thinking at an early age. Robotics in education can be a help in developing the mental process that we use to solve problems of various kinds through an organized series of actions.
Robotics in education may also change the way students learn and make them more knowledgeable and efficient. We are already heading towards a future where people are fearing that technology will take up their jobs, ‘teaching’ being one of them. Robots have already been experimented and tested on whether they are capable of teaching or not. Over the past years scientist and experts around the world have invested heavily in technology and robots that can help in improving children’s educational experiences.
Where as to say, in India robots replacing teachers is not yet a reality but there’s a possibility that soon such a scenario might occur in the top schools in India. If not robots, digital learning might replace conventional learning, and it may no longer require as many teachers as we do today. As AI is taking over, technology is continuing to play a huge role in the teaching. Regarding the recent times and advancement in technology, we may soon see robots in place of teachers doing their jobs. Robots replacing teachers can have a drastic impact in society.
In conventional learning, there can be a bond between a teacher and a student, and a good teacher not only provides knowledge but also helps the students enhance themselves as an individual. Robots may lack in understanding the psychology of the students and it may get difficult in developing a teacher–student relationship. Although teaching in an advanced form of way will be beneficial for the students as they will be able to learn in a better way with the resources available to them, robots taking over education may also have some serious disadvantages as the interaction will be limited. A robot interacting with a student will be a lot different as compared to a human teacher. This is because teachers tend to understand the behaviour of the students as well as the mental health and the capacity of the brains to consume knowledge. Robots may lack these abilities to understand the students and determine if they are able to cope up with the techniques of the teachings. If robots actually replace teachers, it will not just lead to teachers losing jobs, but students might be at a huge disadvantage as well. Although it makes sense to take help of technology to enhance the way education is imparted to students, if we rely too much on technology or let it take over, it may only lead to disaster.
