Annotated Bibliography #3

Stansbury, Meris. (2010). Coming soon to a preschool classroom near you: Robot teachers? eSchool News, Retrieved from http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/08/11/coming-soon-to-a-classroom-near-you-robot-teachers/

Meris Stansbury has revealed a new and exciting (though slightly frightening) new application for technology in the classroom... robot teachers.  Well assistant teachers anyway.  In the age of digital natives, many students might eagerly learn almost any topic from a friendly robot who is patient and gentle. Images of "I Robot" or BattleStar Galactica come to mind, but these gentle little robots have been programed so "early childhood educators" can have access to "cutting-edge technology tools like other professionals have in their fields."

When I was at the Indiana State Fair this year, there was a Japanese exhibit called "Bridges to Japan" that presented a Japanese robot named Wakamaru. This little robot could only understand Japanese commands, but it could speak several recorded English messages. (see link with pictures http://photos.indystar.com/galleries/10347-bridges-to-japan-at-the-indiana-state-fair)
From reading Barton's Literacy, I learned that the process of children learning to talk, and learning to write are actually closely tied to each other, therefore, if my students had access to this robot in class they would be able to improve (or practice) their Japanese speaking, which would aid their literacy in Japanese.