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Artris
Joined: 09 Jun 2009
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 Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 5:30 pm Post subject: EngKey: Robots to teach English |
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Interesting news. South Korea has rolled out 29 some robots to teach English. The long term plan, as stated, is to use the robots in more rural locations where it is harder to get a NET.
The robots are basically live video feeds to people outside the country: the Philippines in this case. Outsourcing at its finest!
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2930207
| Quote: |
| The 1-meter (3.28 feet) egg-shaped robot, named �Engkey� (an abbreviation of English key), spoke, asked questions and conversed in English with students, and even entertained the crowd by dancing to music. |
Note: yes, it can dance. I wasn't too worried until I heard it can dance. |
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Smee
Joined: 24 Dec 2004
Location: Jeollanam-do
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| Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 6:04 pm Post subject: |
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| If "English Fever" is as exceptionally high in South Korea as we observe and foreign correspondents note, and if communicative competence is as high a priority as the national curriculum has dictated for nearly a decade, it would behoove policy-makers to finally stop rash spending on gimmicks---like robots, expensive English-Only Zones, or inexperienced white people by the thousands---and start developing real solutions that produce results in the classroom, or at least ones that are suitable stand-ins until a generation of domestic English teachers can catch up to the roles in a communication-based English classroom for which they are currently unprepared. |
http://briandeutsch.blogspot.com/2010/11/time-magazine-names-koreas-english.html |
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TheUrbanMyth
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired
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| Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 6:14 pm Post subject: Re: EngKey: Robots to teach English |
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| Artris wrote: |
Interesting news. South Korea has rolled out 29 some robots to teach English. The long term plan, as stated, is to use the robots in more rural locations where it is harder to get a NET.
The robots are basically live video feeds to people outside the country: the Philippines in this case. Outsourcing at its finest!
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2930207
| Quote: |
| The 1-meter (3.28 feet) egg-shaped robot, named �Engkey� (an abbreviation of English key), spoke, asked questions and conversed in English with students, and even entertained the crowd by dancing to music. |
Note: yes, it can dance. I wasn't too worried until I heard it can dance. |
The article clearly states that these robots will not be used in regular classes only in after-school classes and that it can only handle small classes of about eight students max.
Since most public schools classes tend to be considerably larger and most FT's don't teach a lot of after-school classes (unless they directly work for an after school-program and even then they are in the minority) this is not a serious threat to NETS.
Also look at the price. 1.6 BILLION won for 29 robots. If the average salary for a new NET is 2 million then that is 26 million (with severance) for the full year. Multiply that by 29 and you are paying 754 million won. which is slightly less than half. For that amount of money you could hire DOUBLE the number of FTS...who are not as limited as the robot and whose availability does not depend on there being no technological glitches.
Once the novelty wears off it will be nothing more exciting then talking to your friend online with an online camera.
Nothing to worry about...the more things change the more they stay the same. |
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cmr
Joined: 22 Mar 2006
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| Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 7:10 pm Post subject: Re: EngKey: Robots to teach English |
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| TheUrbanMyth wrote: |
| Artris wrote: |
Interesting news. South Korea has rolled out 29 some robots to teach English. The long term plan, as stated, is to use the robots in more rural locations where it is harder to get a NET.
The robots are basically live video feeds to people outside the country: the Philippines in this case. Outsourcing at its finest!
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2930207
| Quote: |
| The 1-meter (3.28 feet) egg-shaped robot, named �Engkey� (an abbreviation of English key), spoke, asked questions and conversed in English with students, and even entertained the crowd by dancing to music. |
Note: yes, it can dance. I wasn't too worried until I heard it can dance. |
The article clearly states that these robots will not be used in regular classes only in after-school classes and that it can only handle small classes of about eight students max.
Since most public schools classes tend to be considerably larger and most FT's don't teach a lot of after-school classes (unless they directly work for an after school-program and even then they are in the minority) this is not a serious threat to NETS.
Also look at the price. 1.6 BILLION won for 29 robots. If the average salary for a new NET is 2 million then that is 26 million (with severance) for the full year. Multiply that by 29 and you are paying 754 million won. which is slightly less than half. For that amount of money you could hire DOUBLE the number of FTS...who are not as limited as the robot and whose availability does not depend on there being no technological glitches.
Once the novelty wears off it will be nothing more exciting then talking to your friend online with an online camera.
Nothing to worry about...the more things change the more they stay the same. |
I agree with you... except with your numbers when you compare the cost of those robots with the teachers' salaries because the way you say things it's as if the government would have to pay 1.6 billion every year for those robots. Hopefully they last longer than that!  |
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AsiaESLbound
Joined: 07 Jan 2010
Location: Truck Stop Missouri
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| Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 8:52 pm Post subject: |
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| Well, there goes your after school classes starting in 2011 at some schools. Next thing you know, newer models will roll out and you are completely out of work a year or five later or it makes the job market offer fewer decent paying full time positions. Computers and outsourcing have the same effect across too many career fields to count so this robot teacher stuff is nothing new when you look at it from a non-technical standpoint. It means fewer jobs, decreasing pay, and further decreasing opportunities in an increasingly mechanized commercialized depersonalized world. |
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TheUrbanMyth
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired
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| Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 9:07 pm Post subject: Re: EngKey: Robots to teach English |
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| cmr wrote: |
| TheUrbanMyth wrote: |
| Artris wrote: |
Interesting news. South Korea has rolled out 29 some robots to teach English. The long term plan, as stated, is to use the robots in more rural locations where it is harder to get a NET.
The robots are basically live video feeds to people outside the country: the Philippines in this case. Outsourcing at its finest!
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2930207
| Quote: |
| The 1-meter (3.28 feet) egg-shaped robot, named �Engkey� (an abbreviation of English key), spoke, asked questions and conversed in English with students, and even entertained the crowd by dancing to music. |
Note: yes, it can dance. I wasn't too worried until I heard it can dance. |
The article clearly states that these robots will not be used in regular classes only in after-school classes and that it can only handle small classes of about eight students max.
Since most public schools classes tend to be considerably larger and most FT's don't teach a lot of after-school classes (unless they directly work for an after school-program and even then they are in the minority) this is not a serious threat to NETS.
Also look at the price. 1.6 BILLION won for 29 robots. If the average salary for a new NET is 2 million then that is 26 million (with severance) for the full year. Multiply that by 29 and you are paying 754 million won. which is slightly less than half. For that amount of money you could hire DOUBLE the number of FTS...who are not as limited as the robot and whose availability does not depend on there being no technological glitches.
Once the novelty wears off it will be nothing more exciting then talking to your friend online with an online camera.
Nothing to worry about...the more things change the more they stay the same. |
I agree with you... except with your numbers when you compare the cost of those robots with the teachers' salaries because the way you say things it's as if the government would have to pay 1.6 billion every year for those robots. Hopefully they last longer than that! |
Well, given the way I and other teachers have seen Korean kids trash classroom stuff...I wouldn't put even money on these robots lasting a full year.  |
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Gamecock
Joined: 26 Nov 2003
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| Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2010 4:04 am Post subject: |
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The best part of this is that Korean parents would go ballistic if the school tried to bring in a Filipina teacher with "black skin," regardless of her English ability, but if the teacher speaks through a robot with the face of a caucasian woman, it's all good! Hehe.
And why can't they make a robot that the Korean teacher in the classroom can control? It seems a little ridiculous to have it remotely controlled from another country. Classic! Only in Korea! |
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Troglodyte
Joined: 06 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2010 5:00 am Post subject: |
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| Gamecock wrote: |
The best part of this is that Korean parents would go ballistic if the school tried to bring in a Filipina teacher with "black skin," regardless of her English ability, but if the teacher speaks through a robot with the face of a caucasian woman, it's all good! Hehe.
And why can't they make a robot that the Korean teacher in the classroom can control? It seems a little ridiculous to have it remotely controlled from another country. Classic! Only in Korea! |
The reason for this was mentioned in another article.
| Quote: |
| "Well-educated, experienced Filipino teachers are far cheaper than their counterparts elsewhere, including South Korea," he told AFP. |
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101228/wl_asia_afp/skoreaphilippinesroboteducationtechnologyoffbeat |
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Savant
Joined: 25 May 2007
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| Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2010 5:49 am Post subject: |
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| Gamecock wrote: |
| And why can't they make a robot that the Korean teacher in the classroom can control? |
Isn't there one currently in use? I believe it's known as the NET |
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ashke516
Joined: 01 Mar 2005
Location: on the beach
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redaxe
Joined: 01 Dec 2008
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| Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2010 8:12 am Post subject: |
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| Troglodyte wrote: |
| Gamecock wrote: |
The best part of this is that Korean parents would go ballistic if the school tried to bring in a Filipina teacher with "black skin," regardless of her English ability, but if the teacher speaks through a robot with the face of a caucasian woman, it's all good! Hehe.
And why can't they make a robot that the Korean teacher in the classroom can control? It seems a little ridiculous to have it remotely controlled from another country. Classic! Only in Korea! |
The reason for this was mentioned in another article.
| Quote: |
| "Well-educated, experienced Filipino teachers are far cheaper than their counterparts elsewhere, including South Korea," he told AFP. |
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101228/wl_asia_afp/skoreaphilippinesroboteducationtechnologyoffbeat |
You missed the point, it's not the fact that they're using Filipino women to do the teaching on the cheap, it's the fact that instead of showing the Filipino woman's face, they need to hide it behind an "avatar" of a Caucasian woman.
| Quote: |
The robots, which display an avatar face of a Caucasian woman, are controlled remotely by teachers of English in the Philippines -- who can see and hear the children via a remote control system.
Cameras detect the Filipino teachers' facial expressions and instantly reflect them on the avatar's face, said Sagong Seong-Dae, a senior scientist at KIST.
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They care so much about showing the students a white face, that they're spending extra money to invent extra technology to make the machine detect the teacher's facial expressions and mimic them on the avatar. |
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AsiaESLbound
Joined: 07 Jan 2010
Location: Truck Stop Missouri
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| Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2010 3:42 pm Post subject: |
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| redaxe wrote: |
| Troglodyte wrote: |
| Gamecock wrote: |
The best part of this is that Korean parents would go ballistic if the school tried to bring in a Filipina teacher with "black skin," regardless of her English ability, but if the teacher speaks through a robot with the face of a caucasian woman, it's all good! Hehe.
And why can't they make a robot that the Korean teacher in the classroom can control? It seems a little ridiculous to have it remotely controlled from another country. Classic! Only in Korea! |
The reason for this was mentioned in another article.
| Quote: |
| "Well-educated, experienced Filipino teachers are far cheaper than their counterparts elsewhere, including South Korea," he told AFP. |
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101228/wl_asia_afp/skoreaphilippinesroboteducationtechnologyoffbeat |
You missed the point, it's not the fact that they're using Filipino women to do the teaching on the cheap, it's the fact that instead of showing the Filipino woman's face, they need to hide it behind an "avatar" of a Caucasian woman.
| Quote: |
The robots, which display an avatar face of a Caucasian woman, are controlled remotely by teachers of English in the Philippines -- who can see and hear the children via a remote control system.
Cameras detect the Filipino teachers' facial expressions and instantly reflect them on the avatar's face, said Sagong Seong-Dae, a senior scientist at KIST.
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They care so much about showing the students a white face, that they're spending extra money to invent extra technology to make the machine detect the teacher's facial expressions and mimic them on the avatar. |
The real benefit of this robot teacher with a white face operated by a Filipino teacher is you don't have Westerners walking around in Korea embarrassing the bleep out of Koreans in their every day life. It's extremely embarrassing when Koreans see us in their country and demanding goods and services to facilitate our living. Korea is only for the Koreans. |
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happiness
Joined: 04 Sep 2010
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| Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2010 4:47 pm Post subject: |
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| ashke516 wrote: |
| leave in three months for a better-paying job in Japan... ." |
like K-teachers never change jobs. K-Hagwon teachers flip all the time! |
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geldedgoat
Joined: 05 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2010 5:35 pm Post subject: |
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| ashke516 wrote: |
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101228/tc_afp/skoreaphilippinesroboteducationtechnologyoffbeat_20101228051921
Last line in the article really stood out to me:
"Plus, they won't complain about health insurance, sick leave and severance package, or leave in three months for a better-paying job in Japan... all you need is a repair and upgrade every once in a while." |
...this didn't come from The Onion? |
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