Robot teachers in Korea are set to join 500 classrooms by 2011, and 8000 classrooms by 2013.

By Aaron Saenz: Did you ever have a teacher you could have sworn was a robot? Well yours wasn’t, but your child’s might be. The Korean Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) and the Nippon Institute of Technology (NIT) have fielded robotic teachers in Korea and Japan, respectively.

According to ETNews, robot teachers have passed the first round of testing and will expand into 500 preschools by 2011. Eventually these robots will be seen in 8000 preschool and kindergarten classrooms by 2013 with 50 billion KRW (~$44 million USD) in funding. The Korean robot teachers sing songs to young children, but the Japanese robots are geared to an older audience. NIT’s e-Nuvo humanoid robot comes with a built in projector, and is meant to build interest in science, technology, engineering, and math by discussing robotics. While each of these robots are far behind the capabilities of a human instructor, they showcase the potential for advanced automation in education. Give these guys some time, and you could see robot teachers become a staple of the classroom.

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