Most of the time when I hear from teachers, it isn't the teaching part that's challenging to them. It's the human interaction part or the administration part. At least they're trying a highschool,...
It will not replace the classroom teacher, but is programmed to provide learning support to both students and educators.
Most of the time when I hear from teachers, it isn't the teaching part that's challenging to them. It's the human interaction part or the administration part. At least they're trying a highschool, unlike what the opening slop image implies.
“They’ll be able to say, ‘Hey, I’m student number 1234,’ and then the robot will be like, ‘Hey, we were talking about this yesterday, do you want to continue that conversation?” [...] Unlike other Realbotix robots, Salamanca’s robot will not have advanced features such as facial recognition and recording.
Hilarious that they expect kids to identify themselves as numbers in order to receive attention. The robot has no ability to differentiate between teens' faces or voices or emotions. At least one kid will immediately figure out they can report another child's number to ask for outrageous things.
If a teacher loses their place during a lesson or needs a prompt on what comes next, Kiguel said, they can ask the robot for guidance because it has been loaded with the district’s curriculum.
Because the teacher doesn't have a copy of the curriculum and have made no preparation of their own?
Salamanca is the only incorporated city in the United States located entirely within a Native American reservation. The school district serves roughly 1,300 students, including 32 percent who identify as American Indian or Alaska Native and 79 percent who are economically disadvantaged.
Seventy Nine?!? Combine this with the fact that tech billionaires limit their kids' screen time and I am having very cynical thoughts about why Salamanca was chosen. What kind of company is this?!
The classroom marks a new venture for Realbotix, a Toronto-based robotics company formerly known as Tokens.com, that helped customers use cryptocurrency to rent “digital land” in the Metaverse. In April 2024, the company acquired Simulcra, the Las Vegas parent company behind RealDoll, which has spent decades creating hyperrealistic sex dolls and later expanded into sex robots that remain on the market today.
Oh.
[State Senator George Borrell] said investments in technology and STEM education could help show students they can pursue fulfilling, high-paying careers in tech while still building their futures in rural communities like Salamanca. [...] “I think this is a great way to get not just the kids but the teachers and the parents more comfortable with what the future may hold.”
This communicates that the kids can't even stay in their community doing a non-living wage paying teaching job. What high paying fulfilling job does this robot create? If they deem this a success and roll out more robots, how many teaching jobs does it replace or how much will wages be suppressed? The last quote is sincere: this is a way for everyone to be more accepting of the coming techno serfdom .
Oh boy. So, I'm working on my master's degree in Elementary Education right now, and I'm starting a career in education at 39 years old. I have less than 1 year of experience in schools, and I...
Oh boy.
So, I'm working on my master's degree in Elementary Education right now, and I'm starting a career in education at 39 years old. I have less than 1 year of experience in schools, and I start my first long term position in a little over a month. I have some context on what the education field is actually like. I have been looking at job postings and advertisements for AI, geared both at students and teachers, with a critical eye for some time now. On the flip side, I do not have any of the burn out or baggage that the teachers I am meeting have. COVID broke them in many ways, and the generation tribalism is making things significantly worse.
The first reaction I have to this "robot" is that Big Tech has looked at Education as a golden goose for decades. They can design hardware, software, and tooling that they claim is geared for a specific "curriculum" or "SLA" sign massive contracts, and throw these tools that are a huge hindrance at unsuspecting teachers with no training, oversight, or anything. Administrations, superintendents and districts are attracted to them, because they spend millions or billions on marketing that targets their "failing test scores". It draws funding, time, and other resources from the things we have know to actually affect student outcomes for over half a century: namely the student to teacher ratio in a classroom. If you want better student outcomes, then cap class sizes under 20. Not 30 with a TA, or 30 with a TA and a robot, or whatever the next tech mogul claims they can make successful.
I kid you not, there are a number of people who fantasize that we are going to train an AI in education, and that students are going engage with them directly on their own and become educated to be successful. If we do that, the same thing is going to happen as when we give all students a textbook with no instruction or guidance, and then test them on it a few weeks later. A few students who would succeed no matter what will actually do really well, a handful of others will probably figure out how to cheat the system, and the rest will be completely lost or never engage with the text.
I have a growing problem with "self directed learning" in this day and age, and a lot of it stems from the fact that while yes, some people can often figure out how to accomplish tasks and solve problems on their own given enough time, if they are explicitly taught proper methods and how to use the tools then they can accomplish the same things with fewer resources. If you leave a hammer, nails, screws and a screwdriver out, the student could very well start pounding in the screws with the hammer and never figure out what the screwdriver is. Apply this same concept to technology, and this is why we have students in college who don't know how to type on a keyboard, send emails, manage attachments, or understand a filesystem at the basic level. It's not that they're stupid, inept, or lack an attention span: it's that the system has completely failed to acknowledge their needs and their learning. It's the we have failed as adults and educators to follow the data we have had since the 1950s.
Hi there! I teach 2nd grade in a mid-sized city. This is going to be my 2nd year in Public Education but my 17th overall. I'm curious what brought you to Education at such a late point. I love...
Hi there! I teach 2nd grade in a mid-sized city. This is going to be my 2nd year in Public Education but my 17th overall.
I'm curious what brought you to Education at such a late point. I love working with kids, as you said it isn't the teaching that's hard, it's engagement. With students, with parents, with the community. Having some robotic assistant in class won't help, especially when we get scant training on the tools we already have. Most of what I've learned about our district software/hardware was all from fellow teachers crowdsourcing that knowledge.
I agree with what you're saying about Education being the Golden Goose. It's happened before and it'll happen again. The kids suffer for it and nobody knows (everybody knows) until a decade down the line when a generation is imperiled. Look at Sold a Story.
I think there's a good intention and proper way to do "self directed learning" however a majority of what people envision it as isn't it.
The classroom marks a new venture for Realbotix, a Toronto-based robotics company formerly known as Tokens.com, that helped customers use cryptocurrency to rent “digital land” in the Metaverse. In April 2024, the company acquired Simulcra, the Las Vegas parent company behind RealDoll, which has spent decades creating hyperrealistic sex dolls and later expanded into sex robots that remain on the market today.
This sounds like the build-up to a comedy movie or sitcom episode. "Everything was going according to plan, until a disastrous shipping mix-up results in a school getting a bunch of sex-bots to...
This sounds like the build-up to a comedy movie or sitcom episode.
"Everything was going according to plan, until a disastrous shipping mix-up results in a school getting a bunch of sex-bots to teach class. Hilarity ensues."
This is so much creepier than just making a robot-looking thing. At least the inventory checker robot at the grocery store is a flat panel on wheels with googly eyes. I also noticed skimming the...
The female robot, named Sally, will have a “lifelike appearance” with silicone skin and long brown hair, Kiguel said in an interview with New York Focus. It will be stationary in a seated position but have a wide range of upper-body movements and facial expressions.
This is so much creepier than just making a robot-looking thing. At least the inventory checker robot at the grocery store is a flat panel on wheels with googly eyes.
I also noticed skimming the article that their use cases were not exactly compelling. Wow, it can remind people things!?
This is certainly not "teaching students to use tech". I would disagree with but at least understand if they said "we're adding LLM usage to the curriculum", but "talk to the sex doll overstock" is not something that the "high-paying in-demand tech jobs" require. (Well, I suppose they might, but it's not what they're looking for on the resume anyways).
New York school pauses plan to launch AI robot teacher | AP News The state officials, teachers unions, and the community were all pissed, plus questions were raised about student data privacy.
Glad to see this paused for more reflection. Sounded like school district shinannigans from beginning to end: They already have tablets with AI to "help" them program Arduino or whatever : the sex...
Glad to see this paused for more reflection.
Sounded like school district shinannigans from beginning to end:
“Although you confirmed that the robot would not have any role delivering classroom instruction, a recent presentation to the board characterized the robot as a ‘tutoring platform,’ ” Rosa wrote in a letter to the district Friday.
“In most cases, our students need to travel 1-2 hours to have opportunities to see emergent technology,” he said Tuesday. “One of the intents of the robot is to help level the playing field and motivate students to continue studying robotics, AI, and STEAM related career pathways.”
They already have tablets with AI to "help" them program Arduino or whatever : the sex bot adds nothing except to boost sales and reduce teaching staff. For that kind of money they could have invited any number of tech savvy guests speakers to come help with the projects. I hate these kinds of people last thought processes.
Most of the time when I hear from teachers, it isn't the teaching part that's challenging to them. It's the human interaction part or the administration part. At least they're trying a highschool, unlike what the opening slop image implies.
Hilarious that they expect kids to identify themselves as numbers in order to receive attention. The robot has no ability to differentiate between teens' faces or voices or emotions. At least one kid will immediately figure out they can report another child's number to ask for outrageous things.
Because the teacher doesn't have a copy of the curriculum and have made no preparation of their own?
Seventy Nine?!? Combine this with the fact that tech billionaires limit their kids' screen time and I am having very cynical thoughts about why Salamanca was chosen. What kind of company is this?!
Oh.
This communicates that the kids can't even stay in their community doing a non-living wage paying teaching job. What high paying fulfilling job does this robot create? If they deem this a success and roll out more robots, how many teaching jobs does it replace or how much will wages be suppressed? The last quote is sincere: this is a way for everyone to be more accepting of the coming techno serfdom .
Oh boy.
So, I'm working on my master's degree in Elementary Education right now, and I'm starting a career in education at 39 years old. I have less than 1 year of experience in schools, and I start my first long term position in a little over a month. I have some context on what the education field is actually like. I have been looking at job postings and advertisements for AI, geared both at students and teachers, with a critical eye for some time now. On the flip side, I do not have any of the burn out or baggage that the teachers I am meeting have. COVID broke them in many ways, and the generation tribalism is making things significantly worse.
The first reaction I have to this "robot" is that Big Tech has looked at Education as a golden goose for decades. They can design hardware, software, and tooling that they claim is geared for a specific "curriculum" or "SLA" sign massive contracts, and throw these tools that are a huge hindrance at unsuspecting teachers with no training, oversight, or anything. Administrations, superintendents and districts are attracted to them, because they spend millions or billions on marketing that targets their "failing test scores". It draws funding, time, and other resources from the things we have know to actually affect student outcomes for over half a century: namely the student to teacher ratio in a classroom. If you want better student outcomes, then cap class sizes under 20. Not 30 with a TA, or 30 with a TA and a robot, or whatever the next tech mogul claims they can make successful.
I kid you not, there are a number of people who fantasize that we are going to train an AI in education, and that students are going engage with them directly on their own and become educated to be successful. If we do that, the same thing is going to happen as when we give all students a textbook with no instruction or guidance, and then test them on it a few weeks later. A few students who would succeed no matter what will actually do really well, a handful of others will probably figure out how to cheat the system, and the rest will be completely lost or never engage with the text.
I have a growing problem with "self directed learning" in this day and age, and a lot of it stems from the fact that while yes, some people can often figure out how to accomplish tasks and solve problems on their own given enough time, if they are explicitly taught proper methods and how to use the tools then they can accomplish the same things with fewer resources. If you leave a hammer, nails, screws and a screwdriver out, the student could very well start pounding in the screws with the hammer and never figure out what the screwdriver is. Apply this same concept to technology, and this is why we have students in college who don't know how to type on a keyboard, send emails, manage attachments, or understand a filesystem at the basic level. It's not that they're stupid, inept, or lack an attention span: it's that the system has completely failed to acknowledge their needs and their learning. It's the we have failed as adults and educators to follow the data we have had since the 1950s.
Hi there! I teach 2nd grade in a mid-sized city. This is going to be my 2nd year in Public Education but my 17th overall.
I'm curious what brought you to Education at such a late point. I love working with kids, as you said it isn't the teaching that's hard, it's engagement. With students, with parents, with the community. Having some robotic assistant in class won't help, especially when we get scant training on the tools we already have. Most of what I've learned about our district software/hardware was all from fellow teachers crowdsourcing that knowledge.
I agree with what you're saying about Education being the Golden Goose. It's happened before and it'll happen again. The kids suffer for it and nobody knows (everybody knows) until a decade down the line when a generation is imperiled. Look at Sold a Story.
I think there's a good intention and proper way to do "self directed learning" however a majority of what people envision it as isn't it.
This sounds like the build-up to a comedy movie or sitcom episode.
"Everything was going according to plan, until a disastrous shipping mix-up results in a school getting a bunch of sex-bots to teach class. Hilarity ensues."
I don't think it even has to be a shipping mix-up. They are going to leave this poor robit in a classroom of high schoolers.
This is so much creepier than just making a robot-looking thing. At least the inventory checker robot at the grocery store is a flat panel on wheels with googly eyes.
I also noticed skimming the article that their use cases were not exactly compelling. Wow, it can remind people things!?
This is certainly not "teaching students to use tech". I would disagree with but at least understand if they said "we're adding LLM usage to the curriculum", but "talk to the sex doll overstock" is not something that the "high-paying in-demand tech jobs" require. (Well, I suppose they might, but it's not what they're looking for on the resume anyways).
New York school pauses plan to launch AI robot teacher | AP News
The state officials, teachers unions, and the community were all pissed, plus questions were raised about student data privacy.
Glad to see this paused for more reflection.
Sounded like school district shinannigans from beginning to end:
They already have tablets with AI to "help" them program Arduino or whatever : the sex bot adds nothing except to boost sales and reduce teaching staff. For that kind of money they could have invited any number of tech savvy guests speakers to come help with the projects. I hate these kinds of people last thought processes.