While many people view public education as the best route to socialize and teach young children, there’s an increasing number of parents placing their kids in homeschooling every year. You’ll certainly recognize a variety of benefits of doing this, but the fact remains that something is “lost in translation” between public and at-home options. Fortunately, it appears as if robots in homeschooling environments are picking up the slack.
The Issue of Homeschooling
To understand how robots in homeschooling environments are changing education, you must first know the issues with at-home educations. While public school proponents sometimes claim that homeschooled children are left at a disadvantage, the statistics prove otherwise. In fact, children who are taught in this environment attend college at equal or higher rates than their counterparts.
It’s also worth noting that studies have shown that homeschooled children exhibit fewer behavioral problems. When it comes to their teachers, though, there are some significant differences. In many states, for instance, no certification or training is required to teach your children. In fact, there are even states that don’t predicate at-home teaching on having a high school diploma.
None of this is to say that parents who homeschool can’t provide a quality education. There are some subjects, however, where artificial intelligence (AI) can benefit everyone.
The Benefit of Robots in Homeschooling
If you have children and decide to homeschool them, you can rest assured that, statistically speaking, they’ll be just fine. In fact, you’ll be in good company. The number of homeschooled children grows at a rate of 2-8 percent yearly. When doing this, however, it’s important that we all recognize our limitations. Fortunately, robots have evolved enough to help overcome these limits.
One only need to consider foreign languages to realize how important robots can be to homeschooling. Only one-in-five Americans can speak multiple languages, but many states actually have a foreign language requirement in their curriculum. Fortunately, the ROYBI robotic system uses artificial intelligence to teach children a variety of languages that parents may have no experience in.
It’s also worth noting that the system is constantly evolving – as AI certainly should – to teach other subjects. The new educational focus is on STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics), and ROYBI is constantly adding new material in these subject areas.
Where Do We Go from Here?
As robotic technology continues to evolve, many are now debating whether artificial intelligence could completely replace teachers in the classroom. If this were to occur, homeschool parents would also have the option to use robots to fully teach their own children. While the cost may seem prohibitive, consumer robots such as ROYBI have made it possible for AI to be brought into the home. Of course, some worry that this would remove even basic socialization – such as interaction with parents – from the equation.
Fortunately, it seems as if AI is moving to a point where it can interact on an emotional level with children. ROYBI, for instance, can recognize facial gestures and respond appropriately to perceived emotions. This is obviously no replacement for actual human interaction, which should never be removed from public or homeschooling environments, but as machine learning continuously allows robots to behave more realistically, these artificial interactions will become important aspects of the learning process.
The Future is Now
Homeschooling grows in popularity every single day, and while success rates are impressive, it’s important to remember that parents can’t do the job of several teachers. With artificial intelligence and robotic technology improving, though, there’s little doubt that everything taught in schools can one day be learned at home. While there’s debate over whether in-home learning can provide an equal or superior education, robots in homeschooling may one day make this fact indisputable.
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