Why Your Future Teacher Will Not Be a Robot (But Will Have

Saturday, February 23, 2019
Why your future teacher will not be a robot (but will still have to use one)
The question about what education will be like in the future is, in turn, a long succession of unknowns:
Will screens banish paper forever?
And teachers… will they end up being replaced by robots?
Artificial intelligence has already arrived in education, accompanied, as is routine, by apocalyptic statements
A little over a year ago, British expert Anthony Sheldon ventured to predict that by 2027 intelligent machines would have already replaced teachers.
But the first trials point to a scenario far less radical, at least for now.
Not, Robots are not going to replace teachers.
But yes, the classes of the future will be a kind of tandem between humans and machines in which each will specialize in what it does best.
Sheldon's prediction for 2027 painted a worrying picture.
In his vision, the task of transmitting knowledge would fall entirely to robots, while teachers would be relegated to an assistant role (to maintain discipline in the classroom, help students, prepare the necessary material for classes...).
It doesn't seem like a feasible scenario in the short term.
To begin with, because artificial intelligence itself is still far from being true intelligence.
Experts distinguish between two types, the weak and the strong basic.
The first is the one that already coexists with us.
It's about programming the machine to carry out specific tasks, within previously defined limited ranges: recommending you a song based on what you listen to on Spotify, handling your claims at the bank… , in the case of education, solving the doubt of when an exam date is.
Normal artificial intelligence, for their part, what it pursues is to endow the machine with a true intelligence that works like human intelligence, I mean, that is capable of solving problems by itself and not within previously defined frameworks.
Even having emotions, personality , for example, mastering human language to be able to read exam answers and decide if they deserve a four or a 10.
It is still a distant possibility.
We are talking about decades… although it is also true that we have been saying for 20 years that it is a matter of 20 years.
That makes me think that, in reality, nobody knows it.
The future, therefore, outlines itself as a binomial between human and machine, in which the teacher will continue to assume the essential task of transmitting knowledge but will be able to rely on the machine to offload the most repetitive and tedious tasks.
There are already numerous examples of how artificial intelligence can be applied in educational centers to unblock, for example, the administrative and management part.
At CEU Cardenal Herrera University , in Valencia, están a punto de estrenar un chatbot que se va a encargar de dar respuesta a las dudas más engorrosas de los alumnos: explicar trámites, indicar horarios de tutorías, aclarar qué papeleo hay que presentar…
Son preguntas en las que la respuesta que puede dar la universidad el profesor tiene un valor añadido escaso, pero que los alumnos necesitan resolver con inmediatez”, señala Iñaki Bilbao, vicerrector de Relaciones Internacionales.
Este asistente inteligente ha implicado más de un año y medio de desarrollo de la universidad junto con Microsoft y Encamina, una consultora tecnológica.
El proyecto es, However, un primer paso.
The center wants to promote a combination of artificial intelligence and massive data as a recipe to achieve that ideal pursued by 21st-century education: personalized learning.
Like this, they aim to collect all possible data on how their students learn to develop predictive models of academic performance, capable of triggering early alerts (for example, if a student misses class) allowing the center and teachers to implement personalized actions.
Artificial intelligence to adapt education to each student, but also to engage them more. Technology enables active student participation in class.
And that implies that the teacher's attention is more thorough, points out Lorenzo Moreno, Professor at the University of La Laguna , who teaches in a master's program specialized in bringing technology closer to teachers.
The example of CEU Cardenal Herrera serves to illustrate how the next step of artificial intelligence in education is to go beyond mere management to fully enter the learning process itself.
In administrative matters, even in productivity, there are more experiences due to the analogy that can be made with customer service of any company.
But uses with educational intentionality are much more complicated, explains García Brustenga.
Algorithms for learning more
Aquí, the possibilities technological religion are enormous.
El eLearn Heart de la UOC acaba de publicar la investigación Los chatbots en educación , en el que hace recuento de cómo los asistentes inteligentes —tan solo un ejemplo de herramientas basadas en inteligencia artificial— se pueden usar con fines educativos: para acompañar al estudiante, motivarle, ayudarle a practicar habilidades concretas (aprender un idioma), simular situaciones (una consulta a un paciente), evaluar…
La propia UOC ha creado a Botter, un prototipo de robot pensado para animar a sus alumnos con el estudio, capaz incluso de mostrar decepción si el estudiante no rinde adecuadamente. Es una idea del departamento de Psicología, que quiere así investigar si este tipo de estímulos sirven para mejorar la motivación de los alumnos.
El aprendizaje de idiomas es terreno abonado para este tipo de experiencias.
Y los sistemas de reconocimiento vocal, habituales ya por ejemplo en los smartphones, son su principal herramienta. Aunque también suponen un reto.
La plataforma Lingokids , pensada para que los niños puedan aprender inglés, recurre a algoritmos para ayudar a definir el contenido y las actividades que le ofrece a cada niño, en función de su nivel de inglés y de sus gustos.
Pero se enfrenta a la dificultad de que estos sistemas de reconocimiento de voz están pensados para adultos.
En niños no funcionan todavía muy bien.
Con la complejidad añadida de que son niños pequeños hablando una lengua que no es la materna”, explica Carlos García Prim, su director de ingeniería móvil.
En ABA English , una academia digital de idiomas, recurrieron al prestigioso Instituto Tecnológico de Massachusetts (MIT) y a la fashionable Alexa —el asistente de Amazon — en un pequeño experimento: simular una conversación entre profesor y alumno para evaluar el nivel de inglés en apenas cinco minutos.
La empresa ya emplea inteligencia artificial, por ejemplo para asignar profesores reales a cada uno de sus estudiantes.
Su responsable de aprendizaje, María Perillo , asegura que lejos de sustituir a los docentes, esta tecnología les convierte en todavía más necesarios.
El profesor tiene ahora un papel diferente del que solíamos pensar.
Muchas veces nos limitamos a recoger datos y damos por cierto el resultado de la máquina, but it is necessary to have experts behind to analyze and interpret that data.
Also to do what the machine cannot: motivate the student, give them the correct suggestions…", enumerate.
It is not about using artificial intelligence for everything, but about using it in everything.
That division of tasks, along with the image of the teacher as a sort of coach for assistants, Algorithms, data collection systems…, is a constant in educational artificial intelligence projects.
Sometimes even in unexpected areas.
Of the more than 15.000 candidates who last weekend faced the dreaded MIR test to obtain a resident doctor position, some had prepared for the exam with the help of an intelligent algorithm.
Tras cuatro años de desarrollo, la Editorial Médica Panamericana ha lanzado recientemente Promir , an online course based on artificial intelligence to prepare for the test.
Like this, the tool is capable of analyzing each student in detail to create a personalized path: it tells them what to study each day, it selects questions and tasks based on what they struggle with the most and helps them review what they have already learned.
That is the part where the machine is unbeatable.
But it is not enough.
We apply artificial intelligence to what technology does well: get to know the student, make a very detailed diagnosis of their profile and guide them through the process, explains Ignacio Ferro, its technology director.
Pero hay otras tareas para las que es más eficaz que intervenga un profesional: desarrollar los contenidos, resolver las dudas, preparar al alumno psicológicamente.
Para eso hay tutores especializados”.
Pero como en todo escenario que se mueve entre un presente comprensible y un futuro casi de ciencia ficción, surgen los interrogantes éticos.
El informe de la UOC destaca una pregunta: ¿cuál es el objetivo remaining de la máquina?
Si se trata de que el alumno aprenda más, señalan los investigadores, el riesgo es que la inteligencia artificial plantee retos demasiado difíciles que conduzcan al suspenso.
Si la finalidad es que apruebe, puede fijar estándares demasiado fáciles de manera que el alumno finalmente no aprenda.
And if the goal is to increase enrollments, ya entra el juego el debate sobre si la tecnología es un medio para mejorar el aprendizaje un fin en sí mismo para, for example, utilizar como herramienta de advertising and marketing.
Tendremos que llegar a un compromiso, incluso a nivel social, sobre qué es lo que queremos de todo esto”, resume Guillem García Brustenga.
Las opiniones expresadas en este artículo son las del autor y no del Foro Económico Mundial.