Education News Roundup

First, and unsurprisingly, a analysis of data acquired by Dong-A Ilbo found that teachers are "more generous than students or parents in assessing their colleagues." The paper studied the results of the first-ever national evaluation of tachers conducted by the Education, Science and Technology Ministry:

The data suggested that the average score given by teachers to their colleagues was higher than those from students and parents in all categories.
A discrepancy of up to 1.85 times characterized the evaluation scores of teachers and students and up to 2.54 times between those awarded by teachers and parents. [...]
Jeon Je-sang, an education professor at Gyeongju University who conducted a joint study with the regional education research center at Chungbuk National University, said, “Efforts are urgently needed to correct the practice of teachers granting high scores to their colleagues due to sympathy.”

The aticle did not provide information on the basis by which Jeon was able to determine that higher scores were due to "sympathy" or why efforts to correct the practice are needed urgently, since the ministry has not determined any policy procedures that would be impacted by the study.

Second, another story on the so-called "English-teaching" so-called "robots" being pushed by KIST (Korea Institute of Science and Technology) as the solution to the native-teacher so-called "problem", this one from Korea Times, never the brightest pap in the rack:

"We learned that Engkey [the "robot's" nickname] should be able to fare well in markets based on the first phase of experiments. We are poised to conduct more pilot runs before commercially launching the robots in 2013, [said KIST spokesman Park Young-ho.]"
Engkey has arrested the attention of students in the English-language classes in Masan elementary schools this year thanks to her cute penguin-like shape, tender female-voice pronunciation and ability to interact.
However, the robot was found to freeze if a student goes off the scripted dialogue.

In other words, Engkey is a CD-ROM on wheels, in a plastic shell that looks like what children think a robot should look like. Utter shite, as my Brit friends would say.

Finally, and quite disturbingly, JoongAng Daily's story carries the header: Seoul high schools to eliminate P.E. classes "for third-year high school students next year to give students more time to study for the university entrance exam."

Wow! Talk about getting the wrong end of the stick! If anything, what these kids need is less time with their noses in the books, and more time in the fresh (well, you know what I mean) air, exercising their long, skinny bodies. PE teachers' jobs, of course, don't face elimination (which is purpose of those robots in the story above for English teachers), as the number of PE hours will remain the same. The reporters explain:

Schools are currently required to give students 272 hours of physical education during their three years of high school, with 102 hours each for first- and second- year students and 68 hours for third-year students.
Starting next year, schools will be free to divide the number of class hours in any way they like, following the passage of a new regulation that also stipulates that schools offer classes in just eight subject areas.
According to statistics from the Seoul Office of Education, half of the 178 high schools in Seoul that offered physical education classes this year say they will reduce or eliminate the number of physical education hours for third-year students and allocate all of the physical education class hours to the first and second year of high school.

I asked around at my school about this, and they have no plans to make such a change. In fact, they're still hoping to find money for the new gymnasium project despite the big budget cuts for facilities in next year's appropriations.

Roboto Teacha, Help Please!

Classes using robots developed for educational purposes have proven to be effective in enhancing English classes, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said Thursday.
Students of English classes using robots as teaching assistants showed better learning achievements in speaking, as well as greater confidence and motivation, it said, citing a survey carried out by the Korea Education and Research Information Service (KERIS).

This from today's Korea Times. Note that the comparison is incomplete--"better" than who? Students with no English instruction? Students with Korean English teachers? Foreign teachers?

As with almost every development in public education in Korea lately, the goal is to decrease the role of hagwons, the private academies that dot the Seoul citiscape like kimbap restaurants:

"Using teaching robots in classes is expected to raise the quality of public school education, thus leading to less dependence on the private education," said Kim Hong-joo, a ministry official.

However, according to this article, the robots will largely be deployed in provincial areas:

The government has expressed interest in robots so that more learning opportunities can be provided to students in rural areas. It said last year that it will strive to be one of the top three global leaders in this field by 2013.
“The machines spurred creativity and had a positive influence on the attitude of students,” a ministry official said, adding that teachers believed robots created equal opportunities for students during learning sessions.

Finally, here is a short news story on the robots; though it is in Korean, you can see what the robots look and sound like:

A Sunday in Seoul

After reading fellow blogger Joy's post about the new exhibit at SOMA (Seoul Olympic Museum of Art), I decided to override my initial reaction to the place on my first visit there, which was so unexceptional that it merited but one line in my post about the overall park experience. This was partly due to the fact that a docent (or an art student paid minimum wage) followed me around the entire museum to insure that I didn't take any photographs, and partly due to the uninteresting exhibits.


However, the featured exhibit at the moment is "iRobot", a retrospective on the use of robots in art. As something of a robot buff, this was appealing to me. Based on her post, the photography policy had been relaxed, since she has a photo of practically every installation in the museum.

Well, hats off to you, Joy! You must be really, really sneaky! I got about three photos before a young girl stepped in to warn me off taking pictures. I saw the same thing happen to Koreans with their cameras as well.

The museum has four main exhibit halls, and about half of them were really good. The contributions by Paik Nam June, probably the inventor of "video art", the use of video and motion images within everyday forms. He is famous for making robots out of radio and TV sets, and the exhibit has two or three of these, which I didn't shoot (again, see Joy's blog). I did get the permanent outdoor installation of his, below:


Some of the exhibits had very little to do with robots or robotics, the toys are pretty much old hat, and I was hoping for more interactivity, but all that being said, it's a pretty good way for a robot buff to while away an hour on a chilly Sunday in March.

The museum was fairly busy, as was the Olympic Park "Peace Plaza", where families were out in force to thaw out after long winter and ride their bikes, fly their kites, and go for a spin in these rental bike-cart things:




On the way home, I go right by Samsung station, so I got out and went to COEX Mall for some Sbarro and a visit to Bandi and Luni's bookstore. It's called the "Lake Food Court" because it's got ponds and a beach-like motif, with fiberglass palm trees and sails or something on the ceiling.


A propos of nothing, here's the sign for a PC bang inside the COEX:


This is the "Millennium Plaza", essentially a smoking area on the concourse between the subway and the COEX:


Finally, here's a shot of me behind the World Peace Gate, bookend to my previous blog post about this location: