{"id":650,"date":"2020-06-18T15:00:28","date_gmt":"2020-06-18T18:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/humanas.blog.scielo.org\/en\/?p=650"},"modified":"2023-05-09T12:28:56","modified_gmt":"2023-05-09T15:28:56","slug":"will-there-be-robot-teachers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/humanas.blog.scielo.org\/en\/2020\/06\/18\/will-there-be-robot-teachers\/","title":{"rendered":"Will there be robot teachers?"},"content":{"rendered":"

V\u00e2nia Gomes Zuin, Associate professor at the Federal University of S\u00e3o Carlos, S\u00e3o Carlos, SP, Brazil, and visiting professor at the University of York (UK) and Leuphana University, Germany.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ant\u00f4nio Alvaro Soares Zuin, Full professor at the Department of Education at the Federal University of S\u00e3o Carlos, S\u00e3o Carlos, SP, Brazil and visiting professor at the Goethe-Universit\u00e4t, Frankfurt, Germany.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Image: Wonderlane on Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

The paper \u201cA autoridade pedag\u00f3gica diante da tecnologia algor\u00edtmica de reconhecimento facial e vigil\u00e2ncia<\/em>\u201d (The pedagogical authority facing the algorithmic facial recognition technology and surveillance<\/a>), published in the Educa\u00e7\u00e3o & Sociedade<\/em> journal (vol. 41), addresses ways in which the teacher, as a pedagogical authority, becomes a key element for students\u2019 formation (Bildung<\/em>). The concept of authority, surveillance and control should be reflected upon in the classroom in the age of digital culture, based on data obtained from algorithmic facial and body recognition technologies, which urges us to question where, who or what holds this pedagogical authority nowadays.<\/p>\n

Currently, practices can be found to replace a teacher\u2019s \u201cfunctions\u201d with machines that correct tests or exams in universities in increasingly flexible modalities of classroom and partial-classroom teaching, as well as distance learning. Furthermore, an application called \u201cProfessor Uber\u201d (ubereducation) was developed enabling teachers to work on an hourly basis, being paid according to the class given. Analysing this, to what extent is all this beneficial or detrimental to the student’s teaching-learning and formation process?<\/p>\n

Robots can also be used for various purposes, such as algorithmic search and filtering technology and information classification, applying them to a wide range of knowledge areas. As far as the educational sphere is concerned, there is no denying the pedagogical potential derived from software, whose algorithms allow information and images on any subject to be obtained in less than one second. Therefore, the amount of insights that can immediately be gained from relationships established in the classroom between teachers and students can never be neglected.<\/p>\n

Human beings, as social beings, and algorithmic technologies need to go at the same pace focusing on the search process and discussing digitally obtained information and images. Technology will indeed help the function of the teacher, but it will never replace the act of teaching. We will move towards a new level in teacher-student\/student-teacher relationships, as an updated form of pedagogical authority. A teacher’s work requires professionals to have \u201calmost superhuman\u201d levels of empathy and organisation, therefore it would be a great challenge to create robot teachers. What needs to be reinforced is that relationships will change, but the teacher will never be replaced by a robot.<\/p>\n

The podcast features an in-depth discussion on the subject including current pandemic issues and future prospects.<\/p>\n