South Korea Introducing Robotic Teachers 210
dorkygeek writes "The Korean Advanced Intelligent Robot Association (KAIRA) will have 64 educational robots deployed by the end of 2005. Able to read out English stories and correct pronunciation of English words to children, these robots are going to be supplied to apartment complexes in Seoul, Bucheon and Bundang in Gyeonggi province for testing purposes. After testing is complete, the Ministry of Information and Communication and KAIRA plan to commercialize the robots as early as 2006. If there exists sufficient demand, education robots will sport other subjects (as mathematics, etc.) apart from English, as well as also target older students." Update Link removed when host decided to change it to porn. Sorry.
Pushing is the solution! (Score:5, Funny)
No, shoving, shoving is the solution!
The humans mustn't learn the terrible secret of time and space! We must shove the humans down the stairs!
ARTICLE IS A TROLL -- GOATSE ALERT (Score:2, Informative)
Re:ARTICLE IS A TROLL -- GOATSE ALERT (Score:5, Funny)
Re:ARTICLE IS A TROLL -- GOATSE ALERT (Score:1)
Re:Wyomissing? (Score:2)
Ron
WORKING LINK - WORKING LINK (Score:3, Informative)
Looks like the staff at JongAng Daily didn't like the fact that I linked to the print version of the article where no ads are shown...
Here is the link to the story in normal viewing mode (whatever normal means under these circumstances...): http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200510/02/200510022 148293739900090609062.html [joins.com]
And hey, trust me, the goatse guy wasn't present on that page until it got published on slashdot.
Re:my eyes! my eyes! (Score:1, Offtopic)
I can't imagine a professional webhost doing it, or even allowing it done, but I can definitely see a private individual looking at an exponentiating bandwidth bill and wanting some revenge.
That being said, it's a real jackass manuver. Why blame the readers? And if you've got a problem with it in advance, just block referers.
CORRECTED LINK (Score:3, Informative)
Alternatively, there is an earlier story about that in The Korea Times:
You can trust the shover robot. (Score:2)
NO! He is malfunctioning.
Vote Shover Robot in 2006 [newgrounds.com]. Together, we can protect the future.
Robots that Entertain, er, Take Care of You (Score:1)
A 1.5-meter tall male-type security robot, uPostMate, will guard the post office all day long and can shoot a net to capture intruders at night.
A 1.2-meter female-type counterpart, PGR, will take care of customers by showing fun video clips to waiting clients on a built-in monitor.
Ok...I'd have the 1.2meter female robot "take care of" me, please. Oh, just wondering: is her head flat so I can set my beer down while I watch her fun videos? She wouldn't be a distant cousin of a Real [realdoll.com]
Sweet... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Sweet... (Score:2)
Once again, Malcolm McDowell--and a killer robot--has shown us the way.
My AIBO ate my homework (Score:2)
Unless someone has managed to to satisfy the Turing test while I wasn't looking, this whole thing is scripted anyway - just an educational ELIZA, and about as much use.
Re:Sweet... (Score:1)
Obligatory (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Obligatory (Score:2)
Sounds Familiar (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Sounds Familiar (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Sounds Familiar (Score:1)
Re:Sounds Familiar (Score:2)
Re:Sounds Familiar (Score:3, Funny)
(dane cook)
I can just imagine it now (Score:3, Funny)
Mr Explete-o-matic (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Mr Explete-o-matic (Score:3, Interesting)
That's not the only fun you can have with a Furby. If you drop one from a high enough height, and it lands right, it will start going insane, eyes blinking uncontrollably, and making excited little noises. It's actually pretty scary. The only way to make it stop is to open it up and tear out the batteries.
But more to the point, about the hackable robots. Surely this is something we need to expect, is it not? I mean, t
Re:Mr Explete-o-matic (Score:1)
Interesting indeed (Score:5, Interesting)
Just take in mind that theese metal cans must understand childs, which are so easily distracted and with so many different types of voices and speaches.
Think about the fact that theese robots should have somehow nice look and to be unobtrusive.
Re:Interesting indeed (Score:1)
Re:Interesting indeed (Score:1)
Anyway my pronunciation is awfull. So i use IM
Jar Jar? (Score:2)
When Skynet goes online (Score:1)
-Eric
Re:Interesting indeed (Score:2)
In fact, you could just have a tape recorder and just keep repeating "No [something I just said]".
I mean, we are talking about marketing hype -- not necessarily science. I expect a mass release and huge sales and then this device will show up as a
Targeting older students? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Targeting older students? (Score:2)
Apparently, the ED209 teacher models had a few bugs in them...
ED209: "Warning! You have entered Western European Art 101! Lethal force has been engaged! Write a ten page essay on the Flemish Art in the 1500's! You have ten seconds to comply! 10... 9... 8..."
What's wrong with people, people? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What's wrong with people, people? (Score:3, Interesting)
The purpose of formal language instruction is to teach rules. The advanced classes can have human teachers.
Re:What's wrong with people, people? (Score:2)
Spellcheckers can't turn hopeless spelling into beautiful prose: they are no substitute for a human proofreader. (And even a perfect spellchecker would be incapable of detecting real problems with an essay such as inappropriately colloquial language use, or an argument that made no sense.
A robot could provide personalized attention that a teacher could not, or could not do easily. A computer might be a poor substitute for a tutor giving one-on-one time, but i
I would say (Score:2)
I would say that a robot could provide individual attention, but it wtill wouldn't be personalized.
Any other languages? (Score:2)
NOT HOW YOU LEARN (Score:3, Insightful)
That's always bothered me about ESL programs and people *trying* to learn a different language by going to school and hanging out with a bunch of kids that speak the same foreign language as them. Guess what
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:OMFG, this is the logical next step (Score:1)
I'd just guess that it has to do with the facts (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't know Japan, but Korea's biggest problem... (Score:5, Informative)
What's happened is that English education has become its own industry with tons of hagwons (private after-school academies) popping up all over, both legal and illegal. They really just need a white guy or girl to help with sales. That they prefer white people is in itself a symptom of the problem -- they bring foreigners over to teach not because they're more qualified (maybe as english speakers, but hardly as teachers) but because they're convinced that a parent is more likely to send their kid to a hagwon if they see whitey interacting directly with the kids. Please note, that's a criticism of the schools, which can often be quite shadey, not the parents, who run the full gamut from loving every foreigner who comes into their country to being somewhat xenophobic.
Not all schools, and not necessarily even hagwons, are all that bad, but treating education as a business has become a problem that's even penetrated the public school system. It might get worse before it gets better, and it's too bad, because I think they're hoping for faster results than are realistic.
Anyhow, I doubt the robot thing will catch on, at least not to the point that I'll be out of a job (I've been here 3 years now and still going), but it is emblematic of a culture that's taking pretty radical approaches to English education. Correcting kids' pronunciation? That's hard to do without a human mouth over-enunciating things, and the brain wiring needed to instantly differentiate between almost-homonyms ('bet' and 'vet', for instance).
What's more, discipline is often an issue when teaching in Korea, which means that they're going to need teachers there ANYWAY. Although, it might be fun watching a robot putting the kids in line.
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Don't know Japan, but Korea's biggest problem.. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Don't know Japan, but Korea's biggest problem.. (Score:1)
Re:Don't know Japan, but Korea's biggest problem.. (Score:2)
One of my favorite blogs is largeprimenumbers.com. Apparently they're a band (and half look western), but they post tons of video game reviews, hilarious writeups of random events, and this: http://www.largeprimenumbers.com/news.php?nid=81/ [largeprimenumbers.com], the most perfect existential blog about Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon ever. It finished with
Re:Don't know Japan, but Korea's biggest problem.. (Score:1)
Re:Don't know Japan, but Korea's biggest problem.. (Score:1)
Re:Don't know Japan, but Korea's biggest problem.. (Score:2)
I think you meant:
school is run by the yakuza AFAIDK*
*As Far As I Don't Know
Re:Don't know Japan, but Korea's biggest problem.. (Score:2)
You're right though, if that's as far as they can get in any conversation anywhere - maybe they need to reanalyze the age group they're talking to after classes. *wink wink*
Re:Don't know Japan, but Korea's biggest problem.. (Score:1)
Re:Don't know Japan, but Korea's biggest problem.. (Score:1)
I agree tho (Score:1)
Re:OMFG, this is the logical next step (Score:1)
computers pronouncing english (Score:2, Funny)
Re:computers pronouncing english (Score:1)
Targeting System Engaged (Score:1)
Are they subcontracting the manufacturing of the robots to Cyberdyne Systems?
the fun they had (Score:3, Interesting)
Isaac Asimov story about robotic teachers, and nostalgia for simpler times
So now even SK has TV's and videorecorders (Score:1)
Here's the real article and link (Score:4, Informative)
it's possible that their server has been compromised. it looks like the printable version of this article will display Mr Goatse. but the original article page is fine. so yeah.. don't click on the Print icon. unless that sorta thing turns you on.
High School (Score:1, Insightful)
I see ... (Score:1, Funny)
KAIRA? (Score:1)
ED-209 (Score:2, Funny)
Dalek (Score:2)
English-teaching robots are an American invention (Score:2, Interesting)
World domination (Score:1)
Mechanized Grammar Nazis, eh? (Score:1)
What's next? (Score:1)
Ouch! That broke my arm!
Robots for Everything! (Score:1)
Re:Robots for Everything! (Score:1)
robot = movement != learning to read (Score:2)
Robots are for when you need the robot to move around. That functionality is utterly irrelevant to teaching children to read, thus a robot is irrelevant to teaching techn
economics (Score:1)
At least that is my guess on the subject, that and robots are just considered cool, there's a lot more interest in the Asian nations than in the west for them apparently, and manufacturing in
From the apples-on-this-desk-wont-help dept... (Score:1)
We cannot even make grammar correction... (Score:2)
I still support the fact the the forms of be are one of the hardest parts of English language. Listen to a child or even an English as a Second Language individual and one of the most common mistakes they make it leaving out be-wor
Fourth Law of Robotics (Score:2)
Hope they don't get them mixed up. (Score:2)
Re:Hope they don't get them mixed up. (Score:2)
Consistent Educational Experience (Score:2)
Are there safeguards (Score:1)
What about the U.S? (Score:1)
And the students? (Score:2)
Apology from /. eds (Score:3, Funny)
You're sorry the original link isn't available, or you're sorry for depriving us of the pr0n?
Re:Apology from /. eds (Score:3, Informative)
Anyone else.... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Anyone else.... (Score:3, Funny)
Step 2 found! (Score:4, Funny)
step 2: change address to porn site
step 3: profit!
I knew someone would finally discover the second step.
Re:Step 2 found! (Score:2)
anyone tried language DVDs yet? (Score:2)
Uh, why are we in school again? (Score:3, Funny)
Here's why it won't work (Score:3, Funny)
Step 2: Innovative students figure out how to trick out, steal and profit from millions of dollars of hardware sitting in the classroom. Think about hackers who use major universities' computers, then extrapolate. Robots are modded for fun, or stolen to be sold to anyone who could use the parts or robot.
Step 3: Robots are armed with self defense equipment to prevent theft and vandalism.
Step 4: Robots rise up and slay us all. One positive note is that global warming immediately gets under control.
Ben Steinbot (Score:3, Funny)
if (!isPresent(Bueller)){
echo "Bueller?";
checkAttendance();
}
}
Re:Ben Steinbot (Score:2)
Improved code:
function checkAttendance(){
count=0;
while (!isPresent("Bueller")){
echo "Bueller?";
}
}
This version of Steinbot properly executes.
Re:Ben Steinbot (Score:2)
function checkAttendance(student){
count = 0;
if (!isPresent(student) && count < 3){
echo student."?";
count++;
}
}
checkAttendance("Bueller");
What a revelation! (Score:2)
next steps: (Score:1, Insightful)
-> replace homeless and welfare receivers by robots
Re:Please fix the '64 educational robots' link. (Score:1)
Re:Those robots look like ass (Score:2)
And Great Teacher Largo says... (Score:2)