AI bots as teachers: It's the latest zombie attack on our education

Such lifeless ideas seldom die and must be fought. Technology helps but can never replace teachers

- ANURAG BEHAR

‘Technology can teach’ isa zombie idea that has haunted education fora few decades. Ideas rarely die, and countless undead ideas float around even after they are proven completely wrong. ‘Human sacrifice can please higher powers to turn fortunes’ isone such undead idea. Fortunately, it rarely sees action, like most undead ideas. Zombie ideas area subcategory of undead ideas—they can still motivate action despite being harmful and wrong. Education has been under attack from a few zombie ideas, but none has the resilience of ‘technology can teach.’

First, let us be clear about what we are not talking about. We are not talking about the use of computers or the internet to access content—for example, a teacher showing biology class a video ofa pumping heart, which would not be possible without the net. We are also not talking about the enablement of communication among students or between students and teachers. The possibility ofaccessing content and communicating through technology is as useful in education as elsewhere.

But ‘technology can teach’ differs. It suggests that instead of teachers, technology can do their job. For many reasons, including political correctness and fear of a blowback from teachers, this zombie idea is often couched in platitudes about the importance of teachers. Unmasked, however, the idea becomes clear.