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WTF?! A Japanese metropolis is including a twist to studying from house by utilizing avatar robots in school rooms that enable kids to have interaction in class life remotely. The transfer comes as Japan struggles with a skyrocketing pupil absenteeism fee that was exacerbated by the pandemic.
The Mainichi Shimbun newspaper writes that the schooling board of Kumamoto, a metropolis in southwest Japan, is launching the initiative as a method to scale back anxiousness for absentee kids within the hope of coaxing them again into the classroom. They might additionally make the transition simpler for these pupils who’re planning to return.
The robots are simply over three ft tall and include an hooked up pill full with a microphone and digicam (the highest picture is for illustration functions solely). They’re additionally self-propelling, capable of transfer freely across the college by way of the coed controlling the robotic with their laptop computer.
The robots imply that not like simply watching a lecturer from a static digicam, a distant pupil can obtain the complete college expertise, resembling collaborating at school discussions, talking to mates, and even collaborating in occasions.
The board’s resolution to make use of the robots comes after the variety of absentee college students elevated for the fourth yr in a row in 2022, an issue that worsened after Covid-19.
The board mentioned that 2,760 kids of main and junior highschool age within the metropolis weren’t attending lessons within the 2022 tutorial yr, up from the 1,283 college students listed as absent in 2018.
Absenteeism is an enormous downside in Japan. Based on the nation’s schooling ministry, 244,940 main and junior highschool college students refused to go to high school for 30 days or extra within the 12 months as much as the tip of March 2022, with psychological and bodily well being issues triggered by the pandemic cited as the primary issue.
There have already been experiments with educating assistants serving to to stream digital school rooms, which college students say helped their anxiousness about speaking and elevated their vanity.
The schooling part is a large one for firms. In September, we heard that SpaceX was working to deliver its Starlink service to high school bus routes which might be greater than 60 minutes every method. The thought is that children can do their homework on the buses, one thing that probably works higher in idea than in apply.
ChatGPT and different generative AIs have now develop into an necessary topic within the area of schooling, although that normally entails discovering methods to cease college students from utilizing the instruments to cheat at exams. A latest thought is to shift again to pen-and-paper assessments, making them account for the next share of a course’s total grade.
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