Thursday, February 13, 2025
World Education Day on January 24

Education in the age of Artificial Intelligence

by damith
January 19, 2025 1:05 am 0 comment 1.2K views

By Pramod de Silva

Just last week, I wrote an article in another section of this newspaper on how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is shaping the job market and indeed, our very lives. Based on a World Economic Forum (WEF) Report, the article highlighted several sectors that will be influenced by AI in various ways. Education was one such sector that will have a mostly positive effect from AI and teaching (both at school and university level) and it has indeed been identified as a profession that will benefit from AI. Teaching is still very much a human trait and skill – teachers are not going away from our midst anytime soon despite the stunning advances of AI.

By a happy coincidence, this year’s International Day of Education (IDE) on January 24 also focuses on the increasing role of AI in education, under the theme “AI and education: Preserving human agency in a world of automation”. The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 24 January as the International Day of Education, in celebration of the role of education for peace and development.

Right to Education

The Right to Education is enshrined in Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The declaration calls for free and compulsory elementary education. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1989, goes further to stipulate that countries shall make higher education too accessible to all.

When it adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in September 2015, the international community recognised that education is essential for the success of all 17 of its goals. Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4), in particular, aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” by 2030, which is just five years away and a seemingly impossible target.

But this does not need to be so. Education offers children a ladder out of poverty and a path to a promising future. But about 244 million children and adolescents around the world are out of school; 617 million children and adolescents cannot read and do basic math; less than 40 percent of girls in sub-Saharan Africa complete lower secondary school and some four million children and youth refugees are out of school. Their right to education is being violated and it is unacceptable.

Without inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong opportunities for all, countries will not succeed in achieving gender equality and breaking the cycle of poverty that is leaving millions of children, youth and adults behind. In this context, it is vital to ensure the advances of education including AI reach all students around the world.

UNESCO, the main protagonist behind the IDE, seeks to encourage reflections on the power of education to equip people and communities to navigate, understand and influence technological advancement in a world about to be dominated by AI.

In the words of UNESCO, “as computer and AI-driven systems become more sophisticated, the boundaries between human intention and machine-driven action often blur, raising critical questions about how to preserve, redefine, and, ideally, elevate human agency in an age of technological acceleration”.

Digital transformation is essential to transforming education, with countries focusing on enhancing connectivity, digital resources and educator training. While many countries have committed to expanding internet access and integrating digital tools to promote equity and inclusion, there remains a need to address the quality of digital content and ensure that digital platforms are both accessible and secure.

This was acutely felt during the Covid-19 pandemic when schools and universities went entirely online. Many students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds could not afford to buy laptops, tablets and smartphones needed to access the online education content and participate in Zoom/Teams classes. Moreover, many students who had the devices were also left out as 4G signals were not available in some locations. Now, in this post-pandemic era when most educational institutions offer fully online courses and examinations, it is even more essential to ensure that all students have access to such resources.

The effort should be guided by principles of inclusion, equity, quality, and accessibility, emphasising the need to prevent the digital transformation from exacerbating existing inequalities in access to Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

AI, especially Generative AI (which is trained to analyse large amounts of data and can produce original content) can and does have a positive effect on education. AI can help with Personalised Learning as it can adapt to individual students’ learning styles and pace, providing customised lessons and feedback that help each student learn more effectively. Even the same course, delivered with the help of AI and human teachers, can be tailored to suit individual students.

AI can also create immersive and interactive learning experiences, such as virtual labs and simulations, which can enhance student engagement and understanding. AI-powered games and simulations can make learning more engaging and fun for students of all ages. These tools can also provide students with real-time feedback on their progress, helping to keep them motivated and on track. Students can also generate graphs and illustrations easily with the help of AI.

Advantages

With AI, there really is no need to leave any student behind. AI tools can assist students with disabilities by offering features like speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and real-time translation, making education more inclusive.

AI can also automate Administrative Tasks such as grading and scheduling (time tables), freeing up educators and teachers to focus more on teaching and student interactions. AI-powered chatbots and virtual tutors can provide students with 24/7 support, helping them with homework and answering questions outside classroom hours. Again, this might require students to have the latest laptops equipped with AI programs such as Google Gemini or Microsoft Copilot. Away from the classroom, AI can analyse vast amounts of educational data to identify trends and insights, helping educators make informed decisions and improve teaching strategies. By leveraging the power of AI, educators can create a more equitable and empowering learning experience for all students.

AI can also trawl the Internet and recommend resources and training opportunities to teachers based on their needs and interests, supporting continuous professional growth. In fact, lifelong learning for everyone, not just teachers, is possible with AI. It is a great way to support upskilling in any profession including teaching.

Many countries have projects that have these goals in mind. In Sri Lanka, the State grants loans to university students to purchase laptops which are an essential requirement for most courses and examinations that are delivered online. Uzbekistan’s “One Million Programmers” project incentivizes teachers to use digital tools by offering prizes for completing digital education training. This initiative reflects a broader commitment to integrating technology into education, emphasising the importance of strengthening teacher support and digital learning content as the cornerstones for effective digital learning.

Andorra has adopted the Digital Strategy for Education 2022–2025, focusing on enhancing digital skills among students and teachers. The strategy also prioritises the security, accessibility, and quality of digital tools, ensuring a comprehensive approach to digital transformation in education.

“Smart Nation”

Singapore’s “Smart Nation” strategy aims to position the country as a world leader in AI by 2030 by bringing together researchers, Government and industry. One goal is to help teachers better customise and improve education for every student, particularly those with special needs. An AI-enabled companion will provide customised feedback and motivation to students, automated grading and machine learning systems to identify how each student responds to classroom materials and activities.

South Korea has implemented AI-based systems to adapt homework and assignments based on students’ educational levels and “tendencies and learning behaviours”. Each child will have a personalised AI tutor and access to an online learning platform, allowing teachers to focus on hands-on lessons.

In neighbouring India, Education Technology (EdTech) company Embibe uses AI to clarify complex math and science concepts. Students can use a smartphone to scan a passage from a textbook, and the app uses 3-D imagery to help with visualisation. AI is also being used in India to predict student performance, enabling early intervention in case of “weak” students.

Countries such as China, India, Canada, and the USA, which see AI teaching as a strategic priority rather than just a curriculum, have started teaching AI in schools by making investments in AI teaching with important technology companies and scientists.

Of course, AI is not a panacea for all ills in the education sector. Teachers and educationists must be aware of the pitfalls of AI, from deepfake videos to chatbots that give wrong or false information. Just a few weeks ago, Apple’s much-touted Apple Intelligence feature came out with startling falsehoods, including that Luigi Mangione, the suspect believed to have shot dead Brian Thompson, the CEO of United Healthcare in New York, had shot himself. No such event happened. Both the BBC, whose original story was quoted by Apple Intelligence and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called on Apple to withdraw the technology until it is refined.

In another similar incident, a notification attributed to the New York Times by Apple Intelligence inaccurately suggested that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been arrested. The actual story concerned the International Criminal Court issuing an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, but the AI summary significantly distorted the facts. Meta, parent company of Facebook and WhatsApp, has also been faulted for having AI chatbots that distort facts.

This is where human teachers have a bigger role to play vis-à-vis AI. They should act as fact checkers and guardians in case students go down the rabbit hole of misinformation on the Internet. The lesson here is that most information given by AI can be checked against the facts laid out in “normal” reliable websites on the Internet that are exclusively maintained by humans, with no AI involvement. For example, if an AI chatbot or software program mentions CNN, it is better to check on the CNN website itself without taking the chatbot’s news item at face value.

Today’s schoolchildren have fingertip access to a vast treasure trove of information that we could only dream of around 40 years ago, when I was schooling. While we had to go to the school library to check something, a student with a smartphone can access the same information in just one second on Google. AI has added another dimension to this wow factor.

There is another factor that should not be overlooked – too much screen time for students. I focused on this issue in an earlier article, outlining measures being taken by various countries to impose limits on screen time. Constantly looking at a LCD screen can affect the developing eyesight of students and limit their physical interactions with fellow students and others. Also, there is a chance that they might access harmful or unsuitable content while browsing the Internet. Thus there should be a balance between screen time and traditional methods of education.

Looking far into the future, the question arises whether humanoid or robotic teachers powered by AI and Machine Learning (ML) will ever replace their human counterparts. In my point of view, this will never happen because teaching is essentially a human ability that cannot easily be mimicked by machines. But teaching as a profession will benefit as a result of integrating AI into their teaching methods, as long as they keep the pitfalls of AI at bay. AI is here to stay in almost every sector – teachers must make the best of it for the benefit of their charges.

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