Interview with Prof. Dr Fritz Breithaupt, Department of Germanic Studies at Indiana University Bloomington (USA) & St. Gallen (Switzerland)

Prof. Dr Fritz Breithaupt, Professor and Chair of the Department of Germanic Studies at Indiana University Bloomington (USA), recently published a provocative thesis in the newspaper “DIE ZEIT”: individually tailored computer programs are being developed to become personal teachers – and this will be a reality in the near future. In twenty years from now at the latest, conventional teaching will be replaced by conversations with a virtual teacher. He didn’t have to wait long for the protests. Learning experts such as Prof. Ralf Lankau from Offenburg University warned of manipulative systems and the raising of individuals with social deficits and autistic tendencies. An article in the newspaper FAZ forecast the immediate end of data protection and incapacitation as an educational goal: such offers cultivate “learning hamsters” who are lacking in nothing but the happiness gained by knowledge and insight. Prof. Breithaupt will be explaining the “Talking Method” at the exhibition Zukunft Personal in October. We spoke to him personally about the advantages and disadvantages of such “further training bots”.

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