Public education is often considered the best educational route when it comes to socialization education. However, many parents are now opting to homeschool their children for various reasons.
Homeschooling has many benefits, including giving parents full control over their child’s education and social exposure. That being said, homeschooling can also have many detriments and shortcomings which need to be addressed through other steps.
Educational robots are being given priority in homeschool settings. Here are some ways that educational robots are changing homeschooling:
Homeschool benefits
Homeschooling allows students the opportunity to learn what they want at the pace they choose. It also means that there is a large portion of academic flexibility. As long as the curriculum is completed on time, students are afforded the opportunity to explore other topics that interest them.
Homeschooling also gives parents better control over what their children are exposed to at various points in life. Rather than having to do damage control if a child is exposed to inappropriate information or material, a parent can introduce this information at a time that suits them.
Problems with homeschooling
Homeschooling provides students with a variety of opportunities not accessible in regular school, but there are also a number of drawbacks. One of the biggest drawbacks people often bring up is the lack of socialization.
Children who are homeschooled often only socialize with their family members, so they are not exposed to differing ideologies or cultures and may struggle to fit into society later on.
While many parents take their children’s education seriously, many American states do not require parents to have any qualification to homeschool, and so children may be missing out on key educational needs.
How robots help
Homeschooling can be difficult for parents, especially when you in the important phase of early childhood development. Luckily, educational robots have been developed to the degree that offers educational support to parents in areas where they fall short or lack confidence.
If you aim for a Montessori approach, ECDHub not only has educational resources, but they have also developed a robot to help you in your educational endeavors. Many educational robots are able to respond to emotions, facial expressions, and have intelligent conversations with the user. This provides the socialization aspect that may be missing by avoiding the public school system.
What’s next?
Robot technology is on a continuing path of evolution. The developments have led experts to question whether robots could replace teachers entirely. This would allow parents the opportunity to employ a robot to educate their children, taking the burden of education off the parent.
Many people fear that using robots to replace teachers and homeschool teachers will completely eliminate the human socialization aspect.
However, technological advancements allow the robots to seem ever more human and may counteract the socialization issue. That being said, it is not a good idea to completely remove human interaction from the classroom setting.
Embracing modern technology
Homeschooling’s increasing popularity is a testament to its ongoing success. Many homeschooled students achieve their goals without much difficulty and do not struggle to adapt to the outside world at all. However, it is impossible for any one person to be able to do the same job that teachers do.
Each teacher specializes in a particular subject for various reasons, and so parents might find themselves struggling to juggle all subjects – especially if they do not enjoy a particular topic.
Artificial intelligence and educational robots address these shortcomings and provide parents with the educational support they need for successful homeschooling.