Thursday, April 20, 2017

What Makes Me Irreplaceable


“What do I do that a robot cannot? We should all have been asking ourselves that question for at least the past 10 years.”

I started thinking about what service I give to my students that they can’t get from a robot.

Here are some things I thought about:

Sincere verbal encouragement.
Explaining tone of voice and body language
Ability to explain something in different ways.
Laughing with my students.
Personal experiences that help explain a specific skill.
Ability to alter assignments according to the student’s needs.
Assess the student’s emotional status in order to be more effective when teaching.
Ability to discuss situations that involve emotions.
Give emotional support when needed.

A lot of the things I offer have to do with emotional support that I don’t believe a robot can give. I don’t think a robot can assess an emotional situation and adapt or adjust the lesson that I’m planning to teach.

I have taken online courses where there are times I would have liked to ask a person or had a question that the computer can’t answer. Sometimes the answer is not clear and unless I type it in exactly as the computer expects, I am unable to go forward. If there was a person that I could discuss my problem, I could have understood better what the computer was expecting.

I think that there are plenty of things that a robot can do that doesn’t necessarily need a human but I think education needs a human to support what a robot is doing. I don’t believe that we can only rely on a robot to teach everything that needs to be learned.

What do you do that a robot can’t? Please share.



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