A Robot In Every Korean Kindergarten By 2013? 136
kkleiner writes "Elementary school children in Korea in the cities of Masan and Daegu are among the first to be exposed to EngKey, a robotic teacher. The arrival of EngKey to Masan and Daegu is just a small step in the mechanization of Korean classrooms: the Education Ministry wants all 8400 kindergartens in the nation to have robotic instructors by the end of 2013. Plans are already under way to place 830 bots in preschools by year's end. EngKey can hold scripted conversations with students to help them improve their language skills, or a modified version can act as a telepresence tool to allow distant teachers to interact with children."
Re:This can happen only in Korea (Score:4, Informative)
Ragdoll is an American cat breed you dolt.
Uncommon in Europe, but very popular with American families because it will hadrly ever scratch back. It also has a strange, uncatlike characteristic reaction when you pick it up. It just goes limp until you put it down. As a result kids drag them around like ragdolls. That is where the name comes from.
It also tends to pretty much sit where you put it and you can pick it up from the same place a few hours later. Once again, I have seen a ragdoll make himself comfortable in a position that my old siamese would have never staid in.
Re:This can happen only in Korea (Score:1, Informative)
What the hell are you talking about? My wife and I have been teaching children here in Korea for six years. The children here can NOT be left alone as you suggest..the same sort of damage will be the result. The difference here was in supervised classrooms, where if children act out, the teacher is free to whack them with a switch (yes, they still have them here). The law about corporal punishment of students has changed here, in the past month, with mixed results.
I think that the machine will be gathering dust very quickly no matter where it shows up first.
BTW I've never used a switch on a child....but they knew I *could*.