Let us first understand which humans tasks have been replaced by computers over last 50 years:
1. Reservations of flights/trains/car rentals
2. Payment of bills of all types
3. Directions and route-maps while driving
4. Resource and business management in enterprises (ERP, CRM etc.)
5. Communications (From face-to-face meeting/letters to mails to chats to text to video conference)
6. Controls and automation in factories and power stations.
7. And hundreds of others
All of above are repetitive tasks happening at multiple places. These used to be done by humans in past, and now by computers. Now let us see what is current teaching process:
1. Lecture on topic (same topic every year, almost same topic in every school, county and country etc)
2. Home work and class work (Again same stuff by every child)
3. Questions and answers (80% of questions asked by children would fall within all questions asked during previous 3 years)
4. Critical analysis, creative thoughts on new applications of subject matter
If you see 1,2 and 3 above, these are repetitive tasks and would certainly be replaced by computer based on history of last 50 years in other industries. The 4th one does require immense intelligence to be contextual which at present is not possible by technology.
1. Reservations of flights/trains/car rentals
2. Payment of bills of all types
3. Directions and route-maps while driving
4. Resource and business management in enterprises (ERP, CRM etc.)
5. Communications (From face-to-face meeting/letters to mails to chats to text to video conference)
6. Controls and automation in factories and power stations.
7. And hundreds of others
All of above are repetitive tasks happening at multiple places. These used to be done by humans in past, and now by computers. Now let us see what is current teaching process:
1. Lecture on topic (same topic every year, almost same topic in every school, county and country etc)
2. Home work and class work (Again same stuff by every child)
3. Questions and answers (80% of questions asked by children would fall within all questions asked during previous 3 years)
4. Critical analysis, creative thoughts on new applications of subject matter
If you see 1,2 and 3 above, these are repetitive tasks and would certainly be replaced by computer based on history of last 50 years in other industries. The 4th one does require immense intelligence to be contextual which at present is not possible by technology.
It is gross wastage of human energy that millions of human teachers across the world
teach the same stuff, let us say concept of addition or concept of force or concept of time. Rather, the best 10 explanations of the world could be recorded and reused in millions of schools.
Humans are best in doing new stuff. Machines are best in doing repetitive stuff that has large volume.
Hence teachers' repetitive tasks will and should be replaced by computers. Human teachers then can focus on creativity, innovation, critical thinking, inventions, individual attention and anything else that is new.
Thanks and Regards,
Rajeev
I agree..However, I don't think computers are just meant to replace repetitive tasks. Can't computers be used by students to understand the subject matter better? Can't computers facilitate a deeper exploration of many subjects?
ReplyDeletehmmm i think i differ. teaching is a very personal thing. doubts to be cleared. approaches to be changed. only a human can do that.
ReplyDeleteThe process of teaching- learning has two aspects - one is the actual imparting of knowledge and facilitation of learning in the student and second, is the administrative/ data collection/ assessment.
ReplyDeleteWhile the first requires a dynamic factor - one that is continually evolving and creatve, the second can be dealt with by machines that are programmed to perform these tasks. Thus leaving 'actual' teachers to facilitate the learning process better. So, the logical conclusion would be to hand over control to the machines for the routine tasks. That having been said, machines would then be aiding and taking over the 'teaching' process.
With the goal of education being to 'create and nurture' better human beings, can one hope to expect a machine to mould the character of a child? And if so, will the 'end product' be as to societal expectations? I seriously doubt so....Eveything else has become so meachanised, education must retain its humanstic touch, if humanity wants to remain humane...