Robots in the classroom:
At ASU, devices keep students, teachers from missing class
Arizona State University has joined a growing number of universities using iPad-powered robots to enable students — and instructors — to attend class remotely when they can’t be there in person due to injury, illness or other obligations.
Arizona State University student Lisa Bienstock learned recently how to be in two places at once.
Her MBA classes were scheduled on the same day she had to be at an out-ofstate dental conference.
Fortunately, a robot named Gizmo came to her rescue.
Gizmo is about 4 feet tall and has an iPad for a head, a pole for a body and wheels for feet. Think “miniature Segway” and you get the picture.
From her Las Vegas hotel room, Bienstock logged into Gizmo through an internet link using her laptop computer, and her face popped up on the iPad screen in the Tempe classroom. She could see the class through the web camera and participate in class discussion through the robot’s microphone.
Bienstock was part of a pilot project to test out interactive robots that debut this fall for students in the W.P. Carey School of Business’ Professional Flex MBA and Executive MBA programs.
The programs are aimed at working professionals, and the graduate students each are allowed to use the robots up to 10 times if they need to miss class for legitimate excuses such as work travel, a conference or a sick child.
“Life gets in the way, and you can’t be everywhere at once. This way, you can,” said Bienstock, who is a pediatric dentist in northeast Phoenix.
A growing number of university professors are using interactive robots in their classrooms to help students who have to miss class. Some schools, such as the University of Montana, have dedicated robots for students who live several hours away and wouldn’t be able to enroll in classes otherwise.
ASU officials learned about the technology from the Montana school and decided to test a robot during the last few weeks of the spring semester.
The response was overwhelmingly positive, said Stephen Taylor, assistant dean of graduate programs at the business school. He said he plans to start with three robots and add more if demand is there.
Before the robots, students had to use Skype or FaceTime to attend class from remote locations. Both approaches could yield a choppy connection. Students were unable to navigate around the classroom unless the person holding the phone or computer moved around.
With robots, students can turn around to see who is asking a question in the back row. They can roll around the classroom by using the arrows on their keyboard to maneuver the robot.
And if they need to get the professor’s attention? They press a button and Gizmo “stands up,” the pole body growing taller by about a foot.
A slight glitch so far: Gizmo has a gyroscope inside that keeps the iPad balanced over the pole and wheels, and the robot appears to bob slightly forward and back. But Gizmo ran into something once, fell over and had to be
helped up by the professor.
One of the leading companies that provide robots is Double Robotics, headquartered in Burlingame, California.
CEO David Cann said about 2,000 of the company’s robots are used in university settings, although not all are in the classroom. Some are used by faculty who have personal conflicts, such as unexpectedly having to care for an elderly parent in another city but wanting to continue teaching their classes.
“It’s still in the early days, of course,” he said of the technology. “There’s huge potential for growth.”
Each robot costs about $3,000, excluding the iPad.
The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at ASU has used a Beam robot named Scotty for about a year. Named after the popular “Star Trek” character, the robot takes prospective students on tours and allows first-year students to see the newsroom during orientation.
The school’s innovation chief, Eric Newton, used Scotty in the spring to teach a course when Newton was unable to be present because he had a hip replacement. Newton said Scotty has saved the school time and money by making it possible for students and faculty to be in places they would otherwise be unable to go.
One student who was ill used Scotty to attend classes. And guest speakers can be brought in from other parts of the world through the robot.
At the University of Montana, the Department of Educational Leadership has 20 robots for students who live in other parts of the state. Last semester, as many as 44 students used them to attend class.
In one class, robots outnumbered students: Nine used robots, while five attended in person.
One student was playing softball in South Korea when the semester started and used a robot to attend the first two classes, said John Matt, department chairman.
Despite their popularity, there are some classes where robot technology wouldn’t work well.
“It wouldn’t work in a lab course, because they don’t have arms and legs. At least, not yet,” Matt said.
And, despite all their technological advances, the robots can’t actually do the classwork. That’s still on the student.