In Robots in the classroom: Difference in student’s perceptions of credibility and learning between: “teacher as robot” and “robot as teacher”, the author Et. Al discusses that robots as teachers and teachers as robots are both effective and credible for classroom teaching. Both use social robots as a way to increase the use of HMC (human-machine interaction). However, the author discovered that the most credible form of HMC was when teachers were robots.
Through this study, the author the describes the importance of understanding these advanced technologies as they become more used in educational settings. The first study was with teachers as robots, which analyzed how teachers use computers to teach in classroom. This could be through telepresence, such as video conferences or lectures. The second study focused on robots as teachers, which were social robots that taught and interacted with students in a classroom through HMC interaction. To understand which method was becoming most integrated in the classroom, the author conducted a study to see which method was more credible.
The experiment consisted of 86 undergraduate students at a Midwestern U.S. American research university. The participants were between the ages of 18-30, with 60 being females and 26 being males. To conduct this study, the authors conducted a design consisting of teachers as robots or robots as teachers. At the end of this study they concluded that both methods were credible, but the most favorable was teachers as robots. Specifically, when they used telepresence as a source teach their students.
While reading this article, I was not surprised but interested in how prevalent a study in 2016 is in present times. Since the outbreak of COVID, using telepresences such as ZOOM, became the main source of learning for students during quarantine. While we were not physically able to be with our teacher, they were able to present themselves and their material through advanced technologies. This type of technology revolutionized the way students to this day work in educational settings. As well as impacts the way in which we are taught by our teachers.
Hi Caleigh. I can’t wait to talk more about this in class today but I find it interesting that technology keeps replacing the job’s of humans. I always ask myself when will technology become too much? Is society going to keep allowing technology to replace humans? I understand that technology and robots may “simply” our lives in some ways but I fear replacing teachers in the classroom is going too far.
It is interesting to have an experiment to discuss about teachers as robots and robots as teachers. The result is the same as what I expected, which the most favorable was teachers as robots. I think robots as teachers just seems creepy to me, and I want teachers still be human. I can accept a teacher with a robot at the same time, but personally now, I still do not prefer a robot alone to teach me.