As artificial intelligence heats up robots, it has also been brought into teaching

There have been a large number of smart speakers on the market recently, and with them comes a lot of criticism. People have become intolerable to the misuse of the word robot. It is no exaggeration to say that more than half of the products on the market claiming to be XX robots are just following the trend.

Where did this gust of wind come from? Maybe it's "Made in China 2025", maybe it's the development in the field of artificial intelligence, or maybe it's the various major events created by AlphaGO.

But what we don’t know is that in addition to various algorithm companies, big data companies, and copycat robots, there is also a large wave of robot education institutions being blown up by this gust of wind.

The robot education institution here does not refer to those early education robots or the legendary AI+ education, but an education method that stimulates students' interest in learning and cultivates students' comprehensive abilities by assembling, building, and operating robots.

The most typical one is the one shown in the picture, where Lego bricks are powered on and made to move.

Although it looks like just a toy, this industry has entered various primary and secondary schools in China's first-tier cities. According to data released by the China Robot Education Alliance in 2016, there are already about 7,600 robot education institutions across the country, an increase of nearly 15 times in the past five years. It is expected that by the end of 2016, there will be more than 10,000 robot education institutions nationwide, with a market size of approximately 10-20 billion, and a future potential of up to 30 billion.

This year, that number will only increase.

As the "National Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan (2010-2020)" puts the word innovation as a highlight, robot education has begun to gradually enter primary and secondary schools and children's palaces. At the same time, the "General Competition Rules for China's Quality Sports Robotics" was officially promulgated, and various robot competitions began to take off with the endorsement of regulations.

Nowadays, this industry has even produced many branches, including American, Korean and domestic branches.

Among them, the American Lego robot is considered the most popular. In 1986, the Danish Lego Company and the Media Lab of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology conducted a cooperation project called "Programmable Brick". A Lego robot kit has been launched for teenagers over 12 years old who are interested in robots, including programming host, electric motors, sensors and other accessories. Lego Robots uses various accessories to solve the circuit and mechanical structure problems required for self-made robots. It also designed a set of visual programming tools called RCX Code. As long as various "building blocks" representing different program logic are piled up on the screen, RCX programming can be completed.

To be precise, Lego robots are "teaching aids". After entering the country, they were represented by various educational institutions with complicated relationships, and then they were commercialized. As for Korean robots, they came to the education market from the beginning. For example, it has designed courses for different age groups such as building block robots, monolithic robots, humanoid robots, etc., and also created a series of teaching concepts. In addition to its status as a strategic partner of domestic educational institutions, it frantically built a large number of campuses, held competitions, and also received venture capital from well-known funds.

As for the domestic factions, most of them are dividing the blank market left by the above two. It is not an exaggeration to say that they are a mixed bag. Some even just purchased a few sets of teaching aids and started recruiting students.

The market is so hot, which more or less proves that robot education has certain benefits for young people. In the recently very popular STEAM education, the advocacy of learning cutting-edge technology, cultivating innovation ability, cooperation ability, cross-disciplinary comprehensive education, etc. are all well reflected in robot education.

But in addition to education itself, robot education is more utilitarian.

On the one hand, exam-oriented education promotes market development.

With the word innovation on the agenda, robot education has not only entered campuses, but also entered the extra point system for high school and college entrance examinations. Especially recently, the Ministry of Education issued new regulations to adjust the registration conditions for independent enrollment, leaving only two categories: subject expertise and innovation potential. The gold content of various robot competitions has further increased.

As a result, many parents began to enroll their children in robotics classes based on keywords such as competitions, specialties, extra points, etc. Ultimately, parents' enthusiasm for K12 technology education was much higher than the enthusiasm of college students for participating in technology competitions. Robotics education is booming like the Mathematical Olympiad in the past.

On the other hand, quality education prompts schools to increase investment.

Quality education and curriculum reform are two words that have been shouted out for many years. On the one hand, these words are related to the academic burden of students, and on the other hand, they are also related to the various honors of the school. The selection of quality education model schools, science and technology education model schools, etc. has prompted more schools to begin to strengthen their ties with robot education. It is understood that as of the end of March 2017, the National School Sports Robot Alliance has more than 18,000 members, of which more than 8,000 have applied to join the alliance on a school basis (including military academies), and more than 10,000 have applied to join the alliance on behalf of schools under their jurisdiction, with education bureaus (committees) at all levels as leaders. This involves a large amount of equipment procurement and talent introduction, and it also gives the industry another dose of growth hormone.

Finally, it is the chaotic franchise mechanism that promotes the uncontrolled development of the market.

At present, many domestic robot education or overseas robot agents are vigorously promoting the franchise mechanism, talking about the thinking of engineers, and talking about the future of artificial intelligence. Some robot education companies even advertise in their franchise advertisements that they will “buy a house in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou after joining for three years.”

In fact, robot education not only involves franchise fees, but also requires considerable space. Teachers in the industry are highly mobile, and equipment updates and purchases are costly. Everything is destined that robot education cannot be achieved simply by paying a franchise fee.

In Western education concepts, science is often associated with the word Nerd. In film and television works, teenagers who are good at mathematics and physics often look like dull nerds, while sports students are always sunny and handsome. The emergence of robot education is to turn more scientific knowledge into operations and physical objects, and present it in a cooler form.

But in China, the entanglement of various interests has made robot education farther and farther away from the vocabulary of innovation, science, and engineering, and has eventually become the most typical link in the interest chain of the education industry. Of course, we admit that there must be students who are inspired by robot education courses and go further on the road of innovation, but what we want to see more is that with the support of national policies, scientific and technological achievements are developed, rather than just enriching those speculators.