Robotic Students?

My recent overseas travel enabled me to visit schools in England to ascertain the latest curriculum trends in Design Technology (DT), in view of the new Melbourne Grammar School Geoff Handbury Science and Technology Hub coming on-line in 2018.

One highlight of my visit to Cranleigh School in Surrey was seeing an operational 3D printer which Year 10 students had built themselves, during lunchtimes and after-school timeslots, to use in class. At Cranleigh, the DT Club offers student activities such as drone racing, which is very popular.

In the second part of my trip I visited major universities in the USA. Specifically, I visited MIT, Harvard, Northeastern and Stanford Universities to study their Design, Engineering and Artificial Intelligence Centres. At MIT, their (under construction) NanoLab will examine materials at atomic and molecular length scales. I was fascinated to learn that this new complex would have no Faculty offices, aimed at ensuring cross-disciplinary work patterns and behaviours. This was heartening, given our plan for the Hub is to not have subject-specific laboratories.

I visited the new Science Centre at Boston’s Northeastern University. Whilst more traditionally organised than the MIT NanoLab, the strong link between Science and Computer Technology systems was reflected in their location within the one building. In the artificial intelligence (AI) area, a staff member showed me their latest work with robotic arms. A focus on machine learning and robots was also an area of research in Stanford’s AI laboratory, situated within the Bill Gates Computing Centre. Stanford University’s Hewlett, Packard and Gates Centres displayed the huge philanthropic investment and resourcing going into these areas of academic research.

The current world-wide technological revolution is bringing substantial gains, but also some real world problems. The impact on the future world of work of robotics, AI and machine learning is imminent, whilst carefully noting some of the hyperbole involved. One professor said to me that the number of routine, repetitive jobs that will disappear in the next ten years will be significant and, for the first time, will involve substantial white collar jobs. This is backed up by an Oxford University research paper (Frey and Osborne, 2013) which found that only 70 of 700 occupations cannot be computerised. These tend to be professions such as surgeons and dentists, and those based on strong human interactions such as teaching and management supervision.

However, a recent McKinsey Global Institute study stated that only 5% of all occupations can be fully automated, based on current technologies. This suggests that robots will not replace entire occupations, but will redefine work practices, with humans focused on knowledge based activities and less time spent on routine tasks.

It is clear that these technological developments will have a substantial impact on employment and education. However, history suggests these changes will also provide opportunities and new industries in the near future. When I asked the university professors with whom I met, what advice should a school leader give to current students about this new world, they all mentioned the need for future citizens to be adaptable, flexible, creative problem solvers who are fully collaborative in their work habits and devoted to the ongoing review of their practice. Accordingly, Australian education systems need to be focussed on producing such outcomes. The sad reality is that, based on the current curriculum and assessment regime of the VCE, they do not.

Whilst it was not mentioned by any of the people with whom I met, I believe that having a very clear moral compass and strong values will be important to navigate through what could well be unprecedented social change. In acknowledging the many positive changes that technology will bring, maximising the skills unique in our humanity will be crucial to enable the future workforce to contribute and thrive in the broader aspects of life. In this period of substantive change, the reality that schools need to be defined by the quality of the human relationships within them is more important now than ever before.

Roy Kelley Headmaster