We know that many manufacturing and even service jobs are under threats because of technology, now even teachers need to be concerned about their job security. The made-in-Korea Yujin iRobiQ (below) is one of the bots that's currently under training in teachers college. Upon graduation, they will become teaching assistants and will be deployed in more than 500 preschools by next year. The plan is have 8,000 of them in 2013 that is if they can handle the students in pre-schools and kindergartens.
This little toy PC can teaches languages via voice recognition and telepresence technology, it won't take over all classroom duties, but will do things like read stories and perform sing-along in English. They are made by the Korea Institute of Science and Technology and the objective is to make up for not enough accredited English teachers in Korea or avoid importing them from Canada. I think kids will be very comfortable with them, more so with real teachers. Kids today see technology very differently, which I am not sure if it is a good thing or bad. I really think this is a tool for education, imagine we can have one for every kid here as their learning buddy. They can teach languages, mathematics and history. I think this product have great market potential.
Japan is a little ahead in terms using droid. They have been deploying droids in elementary-school students in Tokyo. This teacher’s name is Saya, she is the result of 15 years of research. Started as a receptionist and now promoted to become a teacher, she is multilingual and can organize set tasks for the kids. She can call the roll and can get really angry when the kids misbehave. Not sure what she is programmed to do when she is pissed. I think Saya might call her boyfriend Hiroshi (a sumo wrestler) for help if the kids become unmanageabl.
