The Nexus Academy of Columbus is using robots to connect remote teachers from around the country with students at the school in Columbus, Ohio, according to Education News.
The 4-foot-tall robot has a screen that allows students to see their teacher, while a camera inside the robot allows the teacher to look around the classroom. In addition, the teacher can maneuver the robot around the classroom to check on the children as they work on their assignments.
Seeing the teachers face showing up in the room it felt more personal than the just a screen, student Thomas Hatch told Education News.
The Daily Mail reported that Thomas Fech, a social sciences teacher based in Arizona, was excited to work with the new robot.
I was so far away, but with the help of this body I could walk around the building. Its neat to feel like I am part of the classroom, he said.
Fech did say the robot is not without technical errors and occasionally runs into walls and doors due to its poor depth perception and peripheral vision, according to the Daily Mail article.
Nexus Academy is part of a network of seven schools in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana that utilize blended models of learning. All seven schools now have a robot, the Education News article reported.
Under the blended model of learning, which incorporates traditional and digitally based classes together, some teachers only instruct online classes, and in the past they have been limited to communicating with students through the Internet and phone calls, The Hechinger Report wrote.
The new robot adds another, more personable, communication tool. Teachers and students say the robots create a different classroom atmosphere and allow the teacher to have more control over the classroom because he can log in and move through the classroom.
However, robots come at a cost $6,000 upfront and an additional $1,100 in annual maintenance, the academy's principal told The Hechinger Report.
The 4-foot-tall robot has a screen that allows students to see their teacher, while a camera inside the robot allows the teacher to look around the classroom. In addition, the teacher can maneuver the robot around the classroom to check on the children as they work on their assignments.
Seeing the teachers face showing up in the room it felt more personal than the just a screen, student Thomas Hatch told Education News.
The Daily Mail reported that Thomas Fech, a social sciences teacher based in Arizona, was excited to work with the new robot.
I was so far away, but with the help of this body I could walk around the building. Its neat to feel like I am part of the classroom, he said.
Fech did say the robot is not without technical errors and occasionally runs into walls and doors due to its poor depth perception and peripheral vision, according to the Daily Mail article.
Nexus Academy is part of a network of seven schools in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana that utilize blended models of learning. All seven schools now have a robot, the Education News article reported.
Under the blended model of learning, which incorporates traditional and digitally based classes together, some teachers only instruct online classes, and in the past they have been limited to communicating with students through the Internet and phone calls, The Hechinger Report wrote.
The new robot adds another, more personable, communication tool. Teachers and students say the robots create a different classroom atmosphere and allow the teacher to have more control over the classroom because he can log in and move through the classroom.
However, robots come at a cost $6,000 upfront and an additional $1,100 in annual maintenance, the academy's principal told The Hechinger Report.