Queensland’s TAFE teachers are about to partner with robot versions of themselves to better meet the 24/7 needs of students.
TAFE Queensland Chief Executive Officer John Tucker told the Queensland Futures Institute policy leaders forum this morning that a pilot of the teacher-bots was underway.
He expected the system to be rolled out across the organisation over the next year.
“Very soon every teacher will have a chat bot available to them which is an avatar that looks exactly like them and knows more than they do (through generative artificial intelligence),” he said.
“That will provide enormous benefit to our students because they can talk to their teacher, at least the virtual one, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They can ask the same question 100 times.”
Mr Tucker said the bots were part of technology revolution sweeping through the TAFE system. This included a growing use of augmented reality and holograms in training.
He said he was frustrated that the perceptions of the TAFE sector were decades out of date.
“We continue to innovate to ensure the offering we make to students is transformational for them” he said.
“We are in a huge growth phase at the moment. One of the things we constantly need to challenge is the idea that if you start your career as a tradie, you will (still) be a plumber when you retire.
“(In fact) we can use trades as a pathway to university or any of the many, many options available.”
Mr Tucker said TAFE typically put through 125,000 students a year but was on track to hit 140,000 students this financial year.
