Gerald LeTendre, Penn State University – Will We See Robots in Our Child’s Classroom?

Is ChatGPT the professor of the future?

Gerald LeTendre, Harry Lawrence Batshelet II Chair and professor of educational administration at Penn State University, examines the possibilities.

Gerald LeTendre is the Harry Lawrence Batschelet II Chair of Educational Administration at The Pennsylvania State University.  He was editor of The American Journal of Education, and served for eight years as head of the Education Policy Studies Department at Penn State. His current research focuses on how disruptive technologies affect teacher work roles and professionalization. This includes looking at attitudes towards robots in the classroom; how online education and disruptive technologies are shaping the professional status of teachers around the world; and how international and cultural differences can be effectively integrated into online teaching environments.

Will We See Robots in Our Child’s Classroom?

How would you feel if your child was being tutored by a robot? We have heard a lot of news about ChatGPT and Generative AI changing the nature of education, but consider what might happen if AI could move around the classroom, talk to students and respond to human emotions.

Researchers around the world are working on developing social robots for use in schools.  In Singapore, a Pepper robot was used to read stories to pre-schoolers.  Other applications that have been studied include helping students learn languages. Some experts believe these robots could become as common in schools in the future. Many companies are spending a great deal of money to develop robots for the home service, health care and educational sectors.

The current generation of social robots is not up to the task of taking on the role of tutor, much less replacing teachers.  The robots our team studied could not interact with more than one person at a time, recognize individuals, or navigate the constantly changing classroom space. However, linking AI to social robots holds promise that some of these basic problems might be surmounted in the years to come.

This raises real concerns. Both adults and children respond to robots differently than they do a computer or other forms of technology. Studies have shown that little children sometimes accept social robots as peers, and that even high school students want to form emotional connections with robots.  By embodying AI in robotic form, researchers could dramatically enhance a social robot’s ability to mimic human behavior. 

How do we prepare our children for a future in which AI may be embodied in a robot?  Social robots could be useful tools to teach children how the form and functioning of AI affects our perception.  As AI becomes a bigger part of our work and lives, educators need to prepare students to think critically about what it means to live and work with social machines.