For the most part the concept of having someone or something do the tedious or mundane things of our daily life seems great, but those mundane and tedious things we do are the substance of our existence. The daily chores define what’s important to use and sustain our lives.
For the most part, I believe that robots can be very beneficial in our society. They can be used for dangerous tasks and mundane tasks and tasks that require more precision than a human can achieve. I also believe that they can be used to perform daily personal/household and work tasks.
I don’t believe that robots can develop personality and emotions - only that they can be programmed to display them.
Robots and AI will continue to become more and more interwoven into our lives if we like it or not. But, I don’t see it as a problem for some tasks. Issues I have center around, as an educator, how do I prepare that student who is not going on to higher education and will need a way of sustaining themselves. What career paths will be available to them?
Timothy,
Great question! That’s why we are here right? I believe teaching them the basics of coding they might not all be computer scientist but can preform the basic maintenance of these robots, and that doesn’t always include the physical aspect.
Brad
I think robots will increase productivity and create safer work environments. We can take a brief look at the history of robots and automation to better understand how this technology will affect the workforce of the future, As the functions of robots increase in the workforce, I would expect many jobs will become obsolete while new jobs are created to support the new technology and new industries are created to exploit the technology.
Robots should do mundane tasks. If robots are capable of completing a undesirable task then they should be programmed to do it. I only see robots as offering a helping hand.
I think robots will help the work force. As mention in the TED video, robots can be used to replace the repetitive tasks so that workers are relieve to do other needed jobs. Productivity will definitely increase!
Hi,
I’ve always believed in working smarter, not harder; and I also believe in the power of innovation. It is true, that robots have replaced some of the workforce in jobs that involve manufacturing; however, I believe that robots have also empowered humans to become more innovative and maximize production.
Marci Jackson a member of our group and I collaborated on a robotics lesson plan, Marci was able to order the Edison robots, researched the lesson plans then tailored the lesson plan to our students and the restrictions that apply at our facility. She then took me through the lesson plan and had a few student s try this our to test the plan, We have yet to implement this as we are trying to figure out how we can use this as a credit and how we will teach it as we have assigned groups. WE are very excited to implement this robotics plan
Robots enable people who cannot do for themselves. The trick is to have people still learn to improve society versus only use what others have done. Vegetation is not the answer, but robots should be a tool to enable further explanation of the technology to improve for all.
I do not have robots in my school for all of the students to work with.
Therefore, I will the students will create an online robot. [http://kidsahead.com/subjects/1-robotics/activities/30][1]
I have never worked with the students before with this but it appears that it will be great!
I’ve been around for a looong time now. I’ve seen so many advances in technology I can’t even begin to list them all. While I agree that robots are the way of the future and they have provided us with the opportunities to extend our human capabilities and provide more technical jobs for people, and that we need to have students who can apply their learning to such technologies, as many have said, there are consequences to every new technology that must be considered. I’m all for teaching students to program and become adept at technologies available to them, but I have some real concerns as well.
I’ve see robots replace workers in mundane jobs and I’ve seen how those workers had to become more educated to get “better” jobs, but I’ve also seen so many of them unable to get those better jobs because there are fewer “better” jobs than there were “lesser” jobs or because younger, (more energetic?) people are selected either conscientiously or sub-conscientiously by the few in even “better” jobs. I’ve seen how calculators have replaced mental capacity to multiply even something as simple as 3 x 3 without one. I’ve seen how educational theories have done more harm than good. For example, the idea that rote “memorization” is the least effective way to learn. My feeling is that memorization is a training exercise for people to learn how to remember - if there is always something else that will do it for them, why bother remembering anything? We can just Google it, right? Without the synapses developed by the act of memorization, there is little way for a “connection” to take place between what is seen or read and what is remembered and applied to new problems. As shown in the video clip of War Games, even the computer had to “physically” play the game to learn. Why do we think learning is done any differently by humans?
The obesity rate in America is at its worst partly because we do have so many robots/machines to do our physical labor and make our lives “easier”. We live in an “information age” society - one that does not require physical activity other than that our fingers get by clicking a mouse or typing in data to do most of the jobs today. I still remember the old commercials on TV about the “future” and how computers and robots would help us be more productive in a shorter time and free us up for more leisure time, instead they have just made it possible for us to do more work outside the office and outside of office hours that our leisure time is no longer leisurely, but is interrupted by emails and texts from our bosses and clients that require us to be “on duty” 24/7 (and I might add, during time for which most are not paid).
Don’t get me wrong, I do believe we need to teach kids how to problem solve, how to think critically and analytically and that programming robots is a great way to do that, but I also believe that somewhere in the process we’ve lost sight of the fact that the physical activity of having a real concrete problem to solve (without technology) where “necessity is the mother of invention” is needed for most students to make the physiological connections necessary to apply it to programming and computer science to solve even bigger more abstract problems. I think we’ve skipped that “walking” before we “run” step and it is our responsibility as teachers to be sure they have that as well. Great runners didn’t skip walking, and many were “late” walkers, possibly because they needed that extra time on task to allow their brains to really dive into the problem of walking and how to apply the solution to running to make it even better.
In my “perfect” world, as technology and the required knowledge to produce it increase, we would not force students to learn more, sooner, by skipping the necessary physiological steps and expecting them to absorb and process all this information (that requires prior knowledge not acquired yet) in the same 12 years that our forefathers did before technology. While some students can excel even when they do skip steps, most cannot, and so they become less and less enthralled with the whole process of “learning”. Yes we learn easier when we are younger, but there are still physiological processes that must occur and they don’t happen at the same rate or in the same way for everyone. We need to recognize that more. Programming robots provides that “physical” concrete problem to solve leading to data that provides more abstract problems to solve using the skills learned.
Our mission as I see it is to produce students with the full background knowledge needed to produce technology that provides us not only with services but that which forces us to look at the whole picture, take in the necessary information and solve problems in new ways that better human society and humans in general rather than remove the need to think and work to learn and ignore the consequences it may have. Programming provides a tool for part of that mission, the rest comes from good old hard work, time and training and for some trial and error.
If you read all of this…thank you. I know I got off topic a bit, but it is a real concern I have that is linked to this topic and I don’t feel we can ignore it.
Robots offer many unique opportunities to help in the workforce. Especially in manufacturing, robots can work for longer periods of time with few errors. This frees up humans to complete more complex tasks. However, this may also take many jobs from humans.
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My one worry is that no ability, be it mundane or complex, should ever be lost to robots. We should always maintain all skill sets whether we use them frequently or infrequently. Robots shouldn’t assume: they should assist.
Robots are useful and a bit concerning, for several reasons. On the positive side, robots can do tasks that are dangerous without having to worry about human workers being injured. They can often do things faster and more accurately, depending on the task. They never get bored or sick. Conversely, they can potentially take the jobs that humans rely on to support themselves.
Robots are designed to create efficiency in society. The most beneficial from the videos are when people age robots can assist with tasks that become difficult to accomplish. As mentioned, getting groceries from the car, driving, and even working where you have to bend an lift. The robots can be utilized to collaborate with and facilitate mundane tasks and make your life easier and maintain dignity.
We have been using robots in one way or another for years. Auto manufacturers depend on robots for the mindless repetitive jobs that are part of the manufacturing process. However, as long as we have these mechanical helpers, there will be a need for programmers to keep them on track and a human or two to monitor them while they ‘work’.
What are your thoughts about robots and how they might help/hinder the work force?
I believe that robots can absolutely help the workforce. I grew up with my parents working in plastics manufacturing and saw robots working every single day. From the creation of model products using 3D printing at least a decade and a half before it was readily available, through molding medical parts that shouldn’t be touched. Robots are absolutely a help!
Is it worthwhile to have robots free us up to spend time on less mundane and mechanical challenges or do things that we don’t want to or can’t do ourselves?
I was just having the conversation with my 7 year old daughter the other day. I even mentioned the Wall-E movie when we talked about it. I think allowing robots to do mundane tasks is absolutely a benefit to society and if coupled with a good education can allow all different types of people to strive for higher thinking jobs and projects.
What are your thoughts about robots and how they might help/hinder the work force? Is it worthwhile to have robots free us up to spend time on less mundane and mechanical challenges or do things that we don’t want to or can’t do ourselves?
I believe that the use of robots to perform extremely dangerous jobs would be great, however that just puts more people out of work. I have talked with my students about should our military be made up of robots instead of our loved ones? There was a huge divide - pros and cons were both validated. This is something that we do not think about enough. If we rely too heavily on robots then the majority of us will be unemployed. We tend to like the convenience of having things done for us but we need to be careful.
Reflection: What are your thoughts about robots and how they might help/hinder the work force? Is it worthwhile to have robots free us up to spend time on less mundane and mechanical challenges or do things that we don’t want to or can’t do ourselves?
I cannot see this as a bona fide reflective question for an instructor; but rather for the student, unless it is in some way attempting to identify bias.
I believe that robots will become what they will be in a sort of evolutionary process. The first things will be those things humans cannot do because of hazard/physical capabilities and decision-making assist (bc of the computational speed). I believe the robotic use to free up time bc of the mundane will swing back-and-forth as humans figure out what the intrinsic value of “mundane” activities are and as long as there is a labor-value-added society/economy