Talking to Robots

In reading the articles about Conversational Agents and their effectiveness as teaching tools in the classroom, I was not surprised to see the authors point out that middle school students often devolved into vulgar or inappropriate conversation with the avatars. First, middle school students often use the internet to explore sides of their identity and personality that it would be socially unaccaptable or inappropriate to explore in the "real world". In the past, adolescents have done this; it's just that they have had to do a good job of hiding it from adults who might judge them. The idea that adolescents need to develop these facets of their identity and how they might go about doing that in a digital age is an exciting and interesting area of study. 

Further, I thought that the reprinted conversations were a little funny. I, sadly, could not blame the students for testing the limits of what was possible/acceptable to the CPA. If I were that student,  I would never be able to take the CPA seriously enough to be able to use it as a resource. I would resent the fact that someone (probably the teacher or the software publisher) thinks I am so stupid, and has so little respect for the miracle of uniqueness in humanity, that they think that I can learn all I need to learn by having a "conversation" with a robot. I don't care if this is the most advanced robot that has ever been created; it still does not compare with the interaction that students get with other humans. Further, the authors go on to argue that if a teacher is going to use a CPA, he or she should program the CPA to respond to inappropriate or vulgar language by telling the student to stop using such language. The authors write from the point of view that says that the CPA represents a human, and that therefore it should be treated with the same respect. Students know the difference between reality and everything else (or at least let's hope they do), and so it makes complete sense that they see the robot for what it is. 

Lastly, as a teacher, I need to ask myself what the goal of my assignments are. For me, it is always to help students elevate their thinking to that which is critical and analytical. When my assignment asks students to simply have a conversation with a robot in order to gain information, I feel that I am insulting their intelligence and their ability to research. So, instead of using a CPA, I would have the students do a guided webquest and then podcast a dialogue about it (with a partner). That way, students would be using their social skills to learn, and it wouldn't feel like I am putting them with a robot "babysitter" because I didn't have the time or energy to personally address each of their questions and encourage critical thinking.