I made the comment in a meeting yesterday that robots enabled with AI will replace PE teachers there was shock and dread.
And yet, this AI PE teacher is already here https://alpha.school/ Given that individualized learning using AI reduces academic classroom time to 3-4 hours a day, do parents want their kids to come home at 11:00 am everyday? Probably not.
So what to do with the other 3-4 hours a day of school time?
Possibly, AI teacher robots will allow for more movement activities, the arts, hobbies, etc.
My prediction is that that robots using AI would become the teacher or teacher’s assistant quite soon - so I asked that question using Prompt Cowboy because accurately writing the prompt is key right now.
AI Answer - Yes.
Next, I prompted Google’s Nano Banana to give me an image a bit futuristic which is above - an AI robot leading physical activities.
Here’s what Gemini shared back with the answer to AI PE teachers:
The integration of AI-powered robots in physical education (PE) over the next 5-10 years will primarily involve supportive roles, significantly augmenting the human teacher's capabilities, with minimal replacement of core teaching functions. Robotics and AI will handle data-intensive, repetitive tasks, freeing educators to focus on essential human-centered elements like motivation, safety, and social-emotional development.
🤖 Supportive Roles: AI-Powered Augmentation
AI-powered robots and related technologies will act as intelligent teaching assistants by providing hyper-personalized, real-time data and automated instruction, thereby enhancing the teacher's effectiveness and allowing for more focus on individualized student attention.
1. Movement Demonstration and Analysis
- Capability: Computer vision systems (often integrated with cameras, sensors, or wearables, not always a full humanoid robot) will track and analyze a student's movement, form, and technique against expert models in real-time. Humanoid robots, where implemented, could perform flawless, repeatable demonstrations.
- Example: A system uses AI to analyze a student's basketball free-throw form, instantly identifying a low elbow or incorrect foot placement. The AI provides real-time visual or audio feedback to the student, while simultaneously sending a summary to the teacher for follow-up. This provides immediate, non-judgmental correction that a single teacher couldn't deliver to an entire class simultaneously.
2. Personalized Coaching and Fitness Guidance
- Capability: Machine learning algorithms analyze individual student performance data (speed, strength, endurance, heart rate, skill proficiency) to generate customized training routines and progression plans.
- Example: For a cardiovascular unit, the AI system creates a unique set of daily running goals for each student based on their fitness level, tracking their progress via a wearable device. For a student struggling with motivation, the robot/AI system delivers an encouraging, personalized message or gamified challenge to increase engagement.
3. Streamlining Administrative Tasks
- Capability: Automated data collection and analysis for assessment, attendance, and record-keeping.
- Example: The AI system automatically logs student participation and effort metrics during a group activity, generates progress reports, and flags students who consistently display unsafe technique or low participation for the teacher's immediate attention.
🛠️ Replacement Scenarios: Autonomous Functions
In the next 5-10 years, AI-powered systems are most likely to fully replace or automate specific, repetitive instructional and assessment functions, rather than entire teaching roles.
- Routine Skill Assessment: AI can autonomously conduct and score simple, quantifiable skill tests.
- Example: Evaluating a student's accuracy in a set number of serves in volleyball, counting repetitions for fitness exercises (like push-ups), or timing running events. These tasks rely on objective data collection and require no human judgment on social factors or motivation.
- Basic Instructional Delivery: Pre-programmed, standardized instruction and warm-up routines.
- Example: A classroom robot or virtual agent leads the class through a standardized 10-minute warm-up, ensuring all steps are performed with precise timing and form instruction, freeing the teacher to manage logistics or address student issues.
🛑 Limitations: The Essential Role of the Human Teacher
Human PE teachers remain absolutely essential for functions that rely on emotional intelligence, safety judgment, complex physical demonstration, and social-emotional development.
|
Essential Human Role
|
Why AI/Robots Have Limitations (5-10 years)
|
Practical, Ethical, and Pedagogical Considerations
|
|
Safety Supervision & Crisis Management
|
AI lacks the ability to immediately recognize, interpret, and react to unforeseen, dynamic safety hazards (e.g., an unexpected collision, sudden injury, or equipment failure) that require immediate, context-aware human intervention.
|
Ethical Liability: Schools cannot delegate ultimate responsibility for student well-being to a machine. Practical Cost: The cost of a human-level safety robot is prohibitive and its reliability is unproven.
|
|
Motivation & Emotional Intelligence
|
Robots lack genuine empathy, intuition, and lived experience necessary to truly motivate a diverse group of students, especially those struggling with body image, self-esteem, or anxiety around physical activity.
|
Pedagogical Value: PE is crucial for building teamwork, resilience, and a lifelong positive attitude toward wellness—elements that require authentic human connection. Novelty effects of robots often decline over time.
|
|
Complex Demonstration & Tactile Correction
|
A robot, especially a humanoid one, is expensive and physically fragile to withstand the rigors of a gym/field, and current robotics lack the dexterity and spatial awareness for complex, dynamic, or tactile assistance.
|
Practicality: High cost, safety concerns regarding physical proximity to children, and maintenance requirements limit the deployment of full humanoid robots capable of complex physical interaction.
|
|
Curriculum Adaptation & Social-Emotional Learning
|
PE is not just about skill; it involves teamwork, conflict resolution, cultural sensitivity, and inclusionfor diverse abilities. A robot cannot effectively mediate a disagreement or adapt a lesson plan on the fly based on the class's real-time emotional and social dynamics.
|
Pedagogical Depth: AI systems can offer personalized fitness, but not the deep, holistic learning goals of physical education, which include social and ethical development.
|
Export to Sheets
In the next decade, AI and robotics will be powerful tools that elevate the PE teacher from an instructor and scorekeeper to a chief learning officer and social-emotional coach, leveraging data for better results while retaining the crucial human element.
________________________
I’d love your feedback, concerns, interests (and don’t be shy responding and this email was NOT written by AI),
Sal
_________________________________________
Sally Edwards, MA, MBA, Lifetime Certified PE Teacher
To stay in touch subscribe: https://heartzones.substack.com/
TAPE, Technology Association for Physical Education, and Global Liaison and Treasurer/Secretary
2636 Fulton Avenue Suite 100, Sacramento, CA 95821 USA | M +1 (916)-730-4640 | Sal.Edwards@TAPEglobal.org| www.TapeGlobal.org |
Promoting the meaningful application of technology in physical education, health, and exercise science.