Video expired Fri 9 Nov 2018, 9:30pm AEST
School of the future: what can our kids learn from robots?
Posted Thu 9 Nov 2017, 9:30pm
Updated Fri 10 Nov 2017, 8:05am
There are calls tonight for a major rethink of the way teachers teach and the way children learn to better prepare them for the impacts of artificial intelligence and other advances in technology. We're taking you inside one primary school that's embracing technology in the classroom revealing the lessons kids can learn from robots and it turns out they can teach the machines a thing or two as well. Kyle Taylor produced this report.
TEACHER: Today, what we're going to do is we're going to test our new robots and we're going to test them on different surfaces to see how they move and do some problem-solving around how we can fix our designs to make them even better.
What was our concept? Form and function.
STUDENT: So we're learning about how things move in science and we're trying to figure out how they can move and what makes it move.
STUDENT 2: The motor helps it move.
STUDENT: And it can't roll on bumpy surfaces like bubble wrap.
STUDENT 2: But they can on smooth surfaces.
TEACHER: Let's watch our robot.
STUDENT 3: Maybe it goes faster.
STUDENT 4: The light changed.
TEACHER: What happened?
TEACHER: Show them again.
STUDENT 3: Oh, yeah.
STUDENT: We're trying to make it roll by pressing that button and then it rolls. Maybe because it's running out of battery.
UNITY TAYLOR-HILL, PRINCIPAL: Things are changing so quickly particularly with technology, that being able to prepare children for a world that we can't imagine and being able to prepare them for that world of, in a changing environment, it's an exciting time.
STUDENT 5: We're currently just in the building stage of building the Mars Rovers to go over the sandy terrain over there.
And we're currently trying to fit ultra-sonic sensors so that we can sense obstacles in front of the robot and it can move away.
The problem with building is that you're facing a lot of challenges, trying to fit everything into such a complex chassis and that can be quite a big problem, especially when you're trying to fit a lot of high-end components and trying not to get them damaged.
UNITY TAYLOR-HILL: Robotics is a very engaging but also a fantastic opportunity for them to collaborate. You see them working really well in their teams but also being able to problem solve.
STUDENT 5: I don't think we do argue a lot about things. It's only really well, the design of the robot.
STUDENT 6: We're trying to find a way to plug in to the robot itself.
STUDENT 7: This could hold.
STUDENT 6: Oh, that looks so cool.
STUDENT 7: This could hold. That can hold.
STUDENT 6: Yeah, we can put it down here and put it in there.
I put the latest piece of pressure on it.
We can cooperate it is just, we can, it is hard, it is hard sometimes, it's hard sometimes because we've had different opinions.
We have to think of everyone else's ideas and see how ours is better and like try and not necessarily put down and see what's better like our idea is better than the other person's idea.
STUDENT 7: See the pros and cons in each idea and then see, in general, which one will work better.
UNITY TAYLOR-HILL: I was trained in a time when I had a chalk board.
TEACHER: This is a very narrow robot. Can you think about any different design features you could include?
STUDENT 8: This thing is turning around like this.
KYLE TAYLOR: Is it easier to teach something to a person or a robot?
STUDENT 7: I think a robot would understand it a bit more because they'd get it more straight on because they're programmed more perfectly than a human, because humans may not, like, instantly just get it.
Whereas robots you can just tell them how to do something and then they'll stick in there, just program it.
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