Lions and Tigers and Robots...Oh My!
OK. So robots are now in the classroom. They’re everywhere else so why not in school. True, they are not very sophisticated but it will only be a matter of time before you won’t be able to walk through the cafeteria without stepping on one of these buggers.
It’s obvious how useful computers have been for education. But it continues to be a hard push to get all educators up to speed on the technology. I’ve been telling people for years that computers will prove invaluable to autism education. In 2005, I even made a 5-minute staff development video to push teachers to start using their computers more effectively. It was a tongue-in-cheek clip about a new robotic teacher named Geefur McIntosh. Geefur was the first Prototype Intra-Kinetic Servo Link Intelligence Provider. His nickname was PINKSLIP (get the joke?). Everybody laughed at the presentation and then scratched their heads at the idea of a robot really assisting in an educational setting. That was five years ago. And now, South Korea is planning to install 8,000 robot assistants in elementary and preschools.
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/07/10/science/1247468416553/robotic-teaching.html
What’s the advantage of a having a robot assistant work with Spectrum kids? Well, first of all, a robot will never become frustrated or cross with the children. It would never raise its’ voice in anger or criticize, blame or belittle. Robot assistants always cooperate and follow directions. They are never sick, tired, preoccupied or having an emergency appendectomy. A robot would always be alert to each child’s unique needs as mandated by their IEP. It would provide the ultimate in providing ABA training, assessment and record keeping. Being hooked up to the Internet, would allow it to draw from an infinite resource of meta information to provide appropriate prompts in the form of pictures, sounds, video and music. It would also be capable of continuously assessing each child’s comprehension of the current activity and instantly adjusting the content or its presentation to better meet a child’s needs at that moment.
Once the robot assistant got to know a child, it would always be able to interpret that child’s unique speech idiosyncrasies, emotional quirks and behaviors. It would never tire of doing repetitive practice work with a child. It wouldn’t become flustered or overwhelmed. A robot would always be alert to the circumstances that had set a child off and would have recorded all events in its’ memory for later playback and human review.
Robots could be created in many forms to fit the circumstances. One might appear child-like or resemble a cuddly animal pal. Another might take the form of a talking school desk that scrolls PECS symbols across its surface or transports the physically impaired. A sports model could provide custom-tailored Adapted Physical Education assistance or instantly recognize when a child is seizing. Robots could accompany classes on community outings. Or, provide auditory, visual or tactile cues and prompts for practicing social skills (I’m on a roll. Somebody better stop me).
What can robots do today? Not much. But this is a relatively new field for researchers that, I believe, will prove fantastically productive. Remember. Robots can’t replace good teachers; they can only complement sound learning activities.
Would you like to know more about how computers and robots will improve education for autism? Leave me a comment here.
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You can also reach Michael at http://mLeventhal.gizapage.com
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