Predictive Technologies and AI in Education
Predictive technologies, which refers to the tools/methods that are used to predict future events and Artificial Intelligence (AI) continue to rapidly alter the educational system (Milberg, 2024). The integration of these technologies into the educational sector offer new opportunities for personalized learning and make learning more efficient and engaging. For example, AI can improve personalized learning by providing valuable insights into the students performance and learning trends (Poth, 2023). For example, AI tools have the capability to analyze past performance, engagements levels, attendance/participation of students and provide teachers with insights about their learning (Query, 2024). With such information, the teacher can then help provide personalized learning by adapting to the students strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, AI is also utilized through automated grading and feedback systems, chatbots for student support, as well as tools for real-time learning analytics. All the aforementioned examples help students spend less time on administrative tasks, while spending the bulk of their time on teaching.
AI Tools Encountered and their Impact
There are a number of AI tools I have encountered that helps make education more enriching for students. Firstly, ChatGPT is an example of a tool that has quickly gained traction among students and teachers. ChatGPT is a powerful tool as it can provide instant answers to questions students have. Although the answers may not always be accurate, it usually provides students with a solid starting point for further research and understanding. Another popular AI tool I have read about is Gradescope. This tool, as the name suggests, is targeted towards teachers. It helps teachers grade assignments and other assessments more quickly while still allowing them to provide detailed feedback. One special feature is that if a certain grading rubric has to be changed or there has been an error in marking, the tool will automatically adjust the marked assessments (Center for Teaching Innovation, n.d.). Overall, these AI tools significantly impact the learning experience of students as it provides alternative resources to learn material, allows. for more personalized learning, and can make learning more engaging. For teachers, however, it allows the administrative work of teaching go much faster, allowing them to focus on teaching and interacting with students.
Benefits of AI in Education
If AI is properly used, it can yield many benefits in the education field. Here are some of the benefits it can entail:
- Personalized Learning: Teachers can utilize various AI tools to make learning a more personalized experience (Bouchard, 2024). By using AI tools that are able to analyze students past experiences, study habits, and performance, it can help curate content that meets the preferences of a specific student. In particular, DreamBox Learning is an example of a tool that can help adapt math instruction in real-time and provide lessons that automatically adjusts based on a students response and progress.
- Automation of Tasks: Teachers have to deal with a lot of administrative work (Booth, 2018). Incorporating AI into such tasks can help greatly reduce this work, giving them more time to focus on teaching and supporting their students. For example, teachers spend a large amount of their time outside of teaching marking assessments, scheduling classes, and managing resources (OECD, 2015). With the power of automation, these tasks could be completed automatically without human intervention. A few such examples of AI tools that can accomplish this include TeacherKit or GradeScope. Overall, with automation, the manual and tiring mundane tasks teachers have to do on a daily basis will go much more faster with AI.
- Creation of Adaptive Learning Environments: AI allows teachers to create learning environments that can dynamically change according to the needs of the students. Depending on the students progress, history, and interactivity, AI tools can adjust the content or pace of the learning and/or provide feedback to teachers. In particular, AI can analyze interactions with the course material/site and be able to predict their likelihood of passing the course or areas where the students need extra support. One such example of an AI tool that adapts the learning Environment is Knewton Alta.
Challenges of AI in Education
As discussed above, there are many benefits of AI in education. However, there are many challenges of integrating AI into the educational settings (Awofiranye, 2024). I believe that the biggest challenge would be the amount of training that would be needed for teachers and students to learn the tools accessible to them. As AI still becoming widely understood, many teachers may not understand AI well and will need help integrating such tools into their classrooms. Not only do teachers have to learn the tools themselves, they also need to have enough knowledge to be able to teach their students about it as well. In order to overcome this challenge, it is essential institutions establish development programs that allow teachers to gain the knowledge to use the AI tools needed. Ideally, institutions should provide training sessions as well as ongoing support to ensure educators are using the technology appropriately. Furthermore, an example of a barrier that would prevent widespread adoption of AI in schools and universities would be the cost and accessibility. Incorporating AI tools can be expensive in initial investment and ongoing maintenance (University of Bridgeport, 2023). Most well-established softwares require monthly or yearly subscriptions in order to be used. Schools in low-income areas will find these additional costs to be too high, making them unable to utilize the advantage of AI. To overcome this problem, the government should provide financial grants to ensure all schools, regardless of their economic standing, can implement AI tools effectively. This will ensure all students – no matter what school they attend – have the opportunity to use AI in their education.
Ethical Considerations of AI in Education
The ethical implications of using AI in education can often prevent institutions from adapting to new technologies (Akgun & Greenhow, 2021). The issues related to data privacy, transparency, and bias may overshadow the potential benefits of discussed in previous sections.
- Data Privacy
Problem: Most AI tools require a lot of data from students (i.e., student records, performance measures, or even personal information) to work effectively. The collection of such sensitive information can leave students very vulnerable. If a specific AI tool experienced a data breach, this could result in the students private information being exposed, which could potentially lead to identity theft or harassment. Moreover, many AI tools that collection data often do not provide clear information about what type of data is collected and what they will do with that data. This leaves a lot of uncertainties and raises significant concerns about privacy.
Solution: To overcome issues with data privacy, it is crucial that the students and parents are properly informed about the type of AI tools being used in education, how their data is collected, how it will be used, and any potential risks with using the tool. Specifically, they should ask for clear consent before any data is collected by the tools.
2. Transparency
Problem: It is often challenging to see what is under the AI tools that are being used. The decisions an AI tool takes based on a students performance and how it makes these decisions may not be clear for users. In particular, teachers may not be able to effectively explain how the AI tools makes decisions to the students or their parents due to its complexities. Additionally, AI can still make mistakes. When a mistake does occur, it may be tough to figure out whether the tool, the teacher, or the student was wrong.
Solution: It is crucial that when an institution seeks to adapt an AI tool, they must demand clear explanations from the developers about tool functionality, decision making, and how it handles errors. Specifically, the institution should provide some sort of documentation that explains the basic algorithms of the tool and how the data is being accessed. Finally, it is essential that the institution has frequent conferences with the developers to ensure ongoing transparency when any changes occur with the tool – whether that consists of functional changes or changes in how the data is being used.
3. Bias
Problem: Evidently, the effectiveness of AI tools depends on the data that it is trained on (Rodded & Slattery, 2024). If the data that is used to train the AI tool is biased, this could lead to skewed results, making existing inequalities worse (Chapman University, n.d.). An AI tool could potentially discriminate various groups of people (i.e., based on gender, age, financial status, race, etc). For example, the tool could favour a person because they contain a specific demographic compared to others, which could result in unfair treatment. Moreover, AI systems may be less accurate/effective for underrepresented groups (Ferrara, 2024). If the data that AI tool was trained on did not contain enough information bout certain demographic groups, the tool may fail to accurate make decisions for the students belong in such a group.
Solution: It is essential that teachers do not use AI tools as the only mechanism for decision-making. Teachers should just use AI as another tool, but they should still integrate their own insights and understand of their students when grading or providing support. Moreover, institutions should also ensure that the AI tools used are designed to be inclusive to all students. In other words, they should be able to accommodate the diverse learning styles of all students so no student is left behind.
Ethical Concerns of AI in Chinese Primary Schools
The following YouTube video showcases some of the ways a few primary schools in China have been using Artificial Intelligence to track their students performance and engagement. For example, students wear headbands that notify the teachers about each students engagement levels and participation. Moreover, classrooms are equipped with robots that are also able to analyze student engagement, in which, the results are periodically sent to teachers or parents. Surprisingly, these primary schools did not have any issue gaining consent from their parents, as most parents did not care about where the data was going as long as their students achieved high grades. Furthermore, the video continues to state that the technology that was used most likely did not have any privacy protection as well, which means the data could be vulnerable to misuse or unauthorized access. Overall, this video showcases some of the ethical concerns surrounding the use of AI in educational settings. It does a great job highlighting the balance between technological innovation in education and the safeguarding of student rights. Evidently, these type of tools may lead to better performance in school, but they can introduce long-term problems for student privacy.
Future Directions in EdTech
There are many emerging technologies beyond AI that I think will have a significant impact on education. Firstly, I think Virtual Reality (VR) has the potential to make big changes in how education is taught and received. VR can give students the power to actually experience what is taught in history and/or science textbooks. For example, with VR, student can have direct experience in what it feels like travelling in space, examining the functions of the human body, or exploring ancient civilizations. This goes much more deeper than regular textbooks as it allows the students to directly engage with the material. Furthermore, I believe that assistive technology will also have a significant impact on education in the future. Many students have impairments or disabilities that prevent them from learning along with their peers. Advancements in technologies such as text-to-speech or even brain-computer interfaces (BCI’s) can make education for accessible for all, making students with certain impairments able to participate in learning experiences which were once not available for them. Overall, within the next 5-10 years, these advancements in technology will significantly change the way we learn and teach by making learning more flexible, accessible, and immersive.
The following YouTube video showcases some of the ways a few primary schools in China have been using Artificial Intelligence to track their students performance and engagement. For example, students wear headbands that notify the teachers about each students engagement levels and participation. Moreover, classrooms are equipped with robots that are also able to analyze student engagement, in which, the results are periodically sent to teachers or parents. Surprisingly, these primary schools did not have any issue gaining consent from their parents, as most parents did not care about where the data was going as long as their students achieved high grades. Furthermore, the video continues to state that the technology that was used most likely did not have any privacy protection as well, which means the data could be vulnerable to misuse or unauthorized access. Overall, this video showcases some of the ethical concerns surrounding the use of AI in educational settings. It does a great job highlighting the balance between technological innovation in education and the safeguarding of student rights. Evidently, these type of tools may lead to better performance in school, but they can introduce long-term problems for student privacy.
References:
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Akgun, S., & Greenhow, C. (2021). Artificial Intelligence in education: Addressing ethical challenges in K-12 settings. AI and Ethics, 2(3), 431–440. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43681-021-00096-7
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