Have to admit that I was quite surprised to see that we should spend some time investigating bots as a teaching tool, I didn’t find the connection at the first, or second thought. Actually, I was surprised that bots are a hot topic still. Even my husband co-founded a start-up based on messaging and chatbots, I never thought bots could be used for people or helping in education. (I know, I know… ignorant alert!)
Until this week, I was not following bot on Twitter, for example, and I was not conscious of using it as a useful tool. Now, I would say that see their potential to encourage learning. I discovered that many museums are using Twitter bots to promote their collections. I can see how this can help people with limited resources and time to know and explore museum objects without leaving you home. Considering how is the world right now, that is very interesting…
But bots are not only useful when we have limited access to hove physically to the museums, for example. They can also play an interesting role when teachers want to introduce a topic, motivate students, and let them get familiar with a subject. Teachers can use it to introduce a future cultural visit. Using it to introduce new exhibitions related to the topic they are talking about in class, or maybe to spark interest. It was not on my to-do list, but after finding the MNAC (Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya) and checking some of their twits, I am looking forward to going.
As I have exposed, I see some interesting uses of having bots in class, but don’t think I am seeing all the potentiality of them… Are bots a basic AI that could substitute or at least transform the task of a teacher? Difficult to see that. I can imagine a chatbot that gives mathematical problems that students need to solve, or maybe a history bot that explains important facts. Maybe a foreign language bot that helps with grammar? After this first week, I definitely can project some opportunities of using bots when teaching. However, for me, this is so far from having a robot or automated teacher.
On the other hand, when I think about bots (or simple AI/robots) in education, I cannot stop myself from connecting the thoughts with collecting data and data analysis. At the end of the day, AI or an algorithm is using information stored in a specific database. Can we trust the data bots are using? If we begin to trust bots, without fact-checking, there is the potential risk for malicious misuse of information from those with the capability, and desire, to hack official information. We assume that teachers have some bias, but we also trust that if a teacher is in front of a class it is because they passed a trustful test (maybe an interview, exams, recognition from people of the community…). As a society, we have established some mechanisms of quality, control, and trust. Obviously, we can challenge them and question their utility and how they are formulated, but still, there is some QA process there. What is the control for bots? Why we should trust them? or what can be the protocols to make them more trustworthy?
‘As I have exposed, I see some interesting uses of having bots in class, but don’t think I am seeing all the potentiality of them… Are bots a basic AI that could substitute or at least transform the task of a teacher? Difficult to see that. I can imagine a chatbot that gives mathematical problems that students need to solve, or maybe a history bot that explains important facts. Maybe a foreign language bot that helps with grammar? After this first week, I definitely can project some opportunities of using bots when teaching. However, for me, this is so far from having a robot or automated teacher.’
I think one of the difficulties associated with ‘bots’ and ‘automation’ is that they are terms which imply replacing the teacher, when perhaps we need to measured in what we can really expect they might contribute (and I’m aware that I’m giving them some kind of agency in the way I have written this!) As you suggest, bots and automation might helpfully augment or supplement other educational activity – and I like your idea of a grammar bot – but that’s a long way from teaching a class of students. Going back to the Manifesto for Teaching Online, we playfully touch on this as you know, in the statement which proclaims that ‘We welcome our new robot colleagues’, which I think encourages us to be open to what a robot teacher might be, but without suggesting it replaces the (human)teacher.
‘As a society, we have established some mechanisms of quality, control, and trust. Obviously, we can challenge them and question their utility and how they are formulated, but still, there is some QA process there. What is the control for bots? Why we should trust them? or what can be the protocols to make them more trustworthy?’
Indeed. There’s a clear political and moral dimension to this isn’t there, something that we’ll explore in a lot more depth during the Data block that follows in a few weeks time. I think you’ll really enjoy the questions that Jeremy Knox and Ben Williamson will be asking at that point.
Finally, nice use of linkage in this blog, Lidia. And I enjoyed ‘visiting’ MNAC and from there I explored Montjuic Parc. Confession: I visited Montjuic many years ago but didn’t notice the museum as I was transfixed by Calatrava’s telecommunications tower. When travel restrictions allow and I next find myself in Barcelona I’ll be sure to drop in to explore – first-hand – some of the artefacts in the MNAC twitter bot feed!