CURMUDGUCATION: TeachLivE: Robot School in the Uncanny Valley

CURMUDGUCATION: TeachLivE: Robot School in the Uncanny Valley:

TeachLivE: Robot School in the Uncanny Valley

A few days ago, I quoted Thomas Kane's bizarre observation about teacher training:

Surgeons start on cadavers, not on live patients.

I observed that it would be hard for teachers to start working with cadavers, but a couple of regular commenters reminded me that, in fact, there are teachers out there working on not-exactly-live students. Ladies and gentlemen, it's TeachLivE

This particular example comes from Pace University School of Education (a reasonably reputableschool), but TeachLivE is actually a product of the University of Central Florida. TeachLivE bills itself as " a mixed-reality teaching environment supporting teacher practice in classroom management, pedagogy and content" and I have to take my hat off to the word "mixed-reality" because it seems so useful when discussing education reform.

But UCF was creating this Classroom of the Living Dead all the way back in 2008. Today they boast a presence in 85 different programs.

How does it work, exactly? Well, EdSurge actually did a review of the program, and that yields a few interesting details (though the undated review is from 2013 when TeachLivE was in 37 CURMUDGUCATION: TeachLivE: Robot School in the Uncanny Valley: