The lack of teachers (especially school teachers) has been an issue in India for a long time. Technological gadgets are often restricted to rich, urban kids while poor, rural children are left out. With the growth in Indian language-supported virtual assistants, this has the potential to change.
For instance, in a news article published by the Hindustan Times on 07 March 2020, they reported that Alexa is being used in 44 primary schools in a rural Maoist-hit area in Chattisgarh – Bastar (Lohandiguda). The report mentioned that the block education officer decided to include Amazon(TM) Alexa in its 330 public schools under the jurisdiction. The area has a dropout rate of about 45% – almost every second child will stop going to school. I do not know the gender ratio and believe that it will be way higher for girls. In that kind of situation, it was so heartening to hear this quote of a child: “Alexa Aunty answers our questions politely”. They are excited to go to school for interacting with Alexa as “she” answers questions with explanations.
We can debate how far it is artificially intelligent, but it is doing things that they need: answering a whole lot of factual questions with some explanations, PATIENTLY. I still remember how we feared to ask the same question again to some school teachers. I have heard it is much worse in other public schools (perhaps worst with a low teacher turnout, hundreds of vacant positions and scarcity of basic infrastructure). But, virtual assistants need nothing – no safety, toilets, insurance, transport, etc. Just the Internet and electricity. Although electricity and the Internet are still resources tough to find in all corners of India, that situation (hopefully) is improving. Even though this story was about Alexa, it is applicable to other brands like Google(TM) Assistant and Microsoft’s(TM) Cortana.
This is not just one odd case. Times of India had done a story about how Alexa has been used in Warud school located within Amravati, Maharashtra. It is a small public school where the students are from nearby slums. It was so touchy to note that there were only two teachers and with one’s own money, the teacher had bought a female mannequin and fit Alexa echo inside it along with some speakers. The virtual nature of these interventions and empathetic patience is the key. The headmistress said it helped the kids get the correct pronunciation without feeling judged. While on one side it shows how virtual assistants can help, it also points to things teachers do that hurt a child academically and psychologically – wrong pronunciations, wrong facts, less attention, scolding, judging, shouting, etc. Can we augment (not displace) some gaping holes in primary education?
But, this needs some pilot testing: what and how of interacting with these virtual assistants. Some preliminary work has been done by MIT’s media lab’s Lifelong Kindergarten group but we need to do quite some more using experiments and controlled trials. It is possible that interactions with digital assistants can have a positive impact in boosting curiosity to ask questions, judgment abilities and general knowledge. If it has no overt negatives, this could be a nice supporting addition in thousands of public (and even private) schools across India. It gives them data (mostly factually correct, devoid of low quality or memory failures of teachers) at almost no cost in a patient manner. The kids love the new “aunties” or “uncles” in class. Thanks to voice-based anthropomorphism.
We human beings judge minds as a fundamental way of living, starting at the age of about seven years. Mind perception or judging minds of machines is the underlying cognitive mechanism that would boost these human-technology interfaces and in-turn such behavioral interactions should make the products themselves improve further.
Even with multiple efforts, the actual gap between teachers and students will not be easy to bridge; but more inclusive, immersive technologies will help us grow better-informed children at hardly any additional cost. It is not restricted to children too. The plight of all those who are unable to ask questions (including women staying at home or schools at 12,000 feet), have no way to know about the world or be curious; there are some hopes and edutainment. This will need a free Internet that is slowly spreading across the country with PPP models of smarter 2nd or 3rd tier cities / towns / villages. A better-informed child is hopefully a national asset.
Obviously, digital assistants would not be enough. However, how about making general problem solving, knowledge, language training, basic math, basic science, history, and geography simple to learn – and accessible more widely in Indian schools and non-formal places too? How about boosting the sheer need for curiosity?
