Robot English Teachers Provide High Quality Education

 On December 27, 2010 robot teachers began taking classes at elementary schools in Daegu. The egg-shaped robots are called ‘Engkeys’ and they were developed by scientists at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST)한국과학기술연구원 in an attempt to provide high quality English education to Korean students, who are known as some of the world’s most ardent English learners.

It may look like a scene from a sci-fi movie, but it’s real; KIST sent 29 robot teachers to 21 elementary schools in the southeastern city last Monday. The special four-month pilot education program is being sponsored by the government. A total of 1.58 billion won was invested in the project to provide high quality English education to Korea’s children and to nurture the nation’s stagnant robotics industry.

The Engkeys, which cost 10 million won each, are about one meter high and have TV display panels for their heads which show the face of a Caucasian woman. The robots are controlled by English teachers in the Philippines who can see and hear the children via a remote control system. The Filipino teachers can also reflect their facial expressions onto the robot’s face because cameras can detect their facial movements.

“We decided to use well-educated, experienced Filipino teachers since they are a lot cheaper than Western English teachers,” said Sagong Seong-Dae, a senior scientist at KIST. “The robot teachers have many great features for providing high quality education to the students; they can move around the classroom freely while talking or reading to the students since they have wheels. They can even dance to music by moving their body parts. They can also sing songs and play alphabet games with the children,” he explained.

The robot teachers are expected to reignite Korea’s robotics industry while also helping students to learn English in more interesting and effective ways. “The robots are still in the experimental stage, but they will largely back up human teachers and eventually have bigger roles,” Sagong stressed. “They may also be sent to remote rural areas where students don’t have an opportunity to learn from foreign English teachers.”

While the robot teachers won’t replace human teachers, they could be an efficient tool for improving the language skills of people who feel nervous about having conversations with foreigners. Many schools nationwide are considering hiring these robots on a full time basis if the scientists are able to upgrade them, make them easier to handle and more affordable. According to schools, the machines have many benefits compared to foreign teachers as they only need to be repaired and upgraded every once in a while. If the robot English teachers turn out to be beneficial, the Korean government plans to develop more robots to teach other subjects, including math and science at different levels.

Source:
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