Humanoid And AI Teachers Are Taking Over Schools

Technology has made quite a chatter in schools. Some parents are heading to school board meetings to demand their kids receive minimal screen time. Other parents are finding out that their children are or will be exposed to AI technologies without their consent.

America has a teacher shortage problem that only seems to increase every year. It's a multi-pronged issue that requires a multi-pronged approach to address. Some school districts, however, are tackling the issue in ways that are making both parents and teachers uncomfortable.

Case in point? New Mexico and Portland public schools introduced an AI program called Amira Learning. She's marketed as a reading growth learning agent.

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), only 33 percent of fourth graders read at or above the proficient level in 2022. School districts across the country have been looking for ways to address this reading crisis while also struggling with the teacher shortage. Amira Learning likely feels like an obvious choice for some school districts. A computer program that promises to increase reading proficiency while freeing up the teacher's time? What could possibly be the issue?

Tech policy expert Ifeoma Ozoma sees plenty. She voiced them in an interview with New Mexico's worker-owned independent civic media co-op, 505omatic.

Ozoma shares, "Amira Learning, it's an AI voice recognition, literacy-assessing program. The state and district have contracted with Amira for kindergarten through second graders, and then third grade, optional. Of the parents that I've spoken to, not one got a notification from their principal or from teachers that their children, five, six, seven, eight years old, would have their voices recorded, and none of them were given the option to opt out."

505omatic clarifies that this is not something parents are even informed of at the beginning of the year. Ozoma confirms that parents are not given any prior notice about Amira or that this AI company has access to their child's voice.

"Not only are they using the software for the beginning, middle, and end-of-year assessments, kids are talking about using it every day. Every other day. Multiple times a day. Multiple times a week. There are many issues with it replacing the engagement that kids should be having with teachers, and what that means about making a case for having fewer teachers, and for not investing more in human resources and in literacy coaches," Ozoma says.

Ozoma's concern about schools reducing the need for human educators may not be without cause. Over in New York, a school district is planning to introduce Sally, a humanoid robot. The humanoid "teacher assistant" is debuting at Salamanca City Central School District in western New York. Sally has silicone skin and long brown hair covering her machinery to help give her a more human look. She can only move her arms, hands, head, and face, not walk around the classroom.

The robot teacher's assistant will be greeting students at Salamanca High School this fall. It's a move that concerns some parents since the high school is on the Seneca Nation reservation, which serves mostly indigenous students, according to New York Focus.

The outlet highlights a response from a concerned parent, Sierra Abrams. "We already have so many issues in our community, including environmental issues," she said. "I just don't understand the concept of adding AI onto that. Bringing it into the school district is contradicting everything we believe, in my opinion."