Why I think we need AI in Education

TL&DR

Ever been stuck trying to write something? Just a blank page and nothing? Ever been asked a question that is outside of your area of experience? Using AI tools you can at least get some idea of a starting point – enough to kick-start the journey. Education is no different – “Write me a 300-word story from the point of view of a fish.” We need discussion about AI and Education.

AI – what are we talking about here?

Artificial Intelligence is a system which can perform tasks that would usually require human intelligence. This could include recognising patterns, and making decisions. These systems are based on mathematical algorithms and equations and draw data from a pre-defined dataset.

What does AI look like in Education?

Well, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. Most Universities have banned it while others have allowed it. Most schools are not promoting it. Maybe this is a lack of education for teachers, or maybe it’s a fear of AI taking over jobs or doing a better job than the teachers. But overall, there is no overall strategy for the UK education sector.

So, what do I think about AI and Education?

Firstly, I am not an AI expert in any shape or imagination. However, as an end-user of AI technology and a parent, I can see how AI could be used in Education.

1) Train the future

Whether we like it or not, AI is here to stay. Businesses are adopting the technologies and so, we need to educate to match the requirement. In order to enable this, we need to train the teachers and educators which means a universal strategy. I do not hold my breath for that one!

2) New information sources

If you ask a class of students to find information about a topic, they will pretty much all use the same resources which means you get the same repeated answer. So the students will only learn from that one resource. With AI, the student will have to type in prompts. Each student will be asking the question in slightly different ways which means that they will get slightly different results, negligible but nevertheless, unique to the student. Now we need to get AI systems to declare the datasets.

3) Creativity

One of the hardest things as a student is just not knowing the answer. You ‘google’ it, you ask friends and you are just stuck. But with AI, the student can get the starters for projects, and pointers in the right direction. However, this should be included with 4) Creative Thinking…

4) Creative Thinking

As we move into a data-driven, having students who challenge what they see in front of them, to dig underneath the data they receive to investigate bias, truth and misinformation will become more critical. We are going to need people who can look at data and then make a decision as to the validity of that data. By using AI, students will learn to challenge the data they see, and where the answers are coming from and therefore to cross-reference it for accuracy.

5) Consciousness

Finally, simply being conscious of AI, how it works and the data pools it uses will help students to think differently themselves. They will learn to be conscious about how they learn, from what sources and their own biases and inaccuracies. By learning to do this, they will be more likely to produce more accurate answers thus improving their grades. Being conscious of the process they learn from using AI, by refining questioning techniques, they will also be readying themselves for careers whereby they will be better at communication by understanding how to ask better questions.

Summary

In summary, by allowing students to use AI, they will learn new skills that are relevant to the modern world. They will be conscious of the data they receive, learn how to challenge that data and ask better questions of those producing the data. They will learn how to ask for help if they don’t know the answers but learn how to ask better questions to get to those answers and challenge any bias or misinformation about the data they are receiving.

But all this will need to start with the education system understanding AI and its uses, how to use the systems and teach their students best practices all while the AI industry learns to demonstrate the data they are scraping and how they are using it to produce the answers. Maybe this is a step too far, but this blog is just my own opinion.

Just remember that ChatGPT is not infallible.

HiddenText Ltd

AI and Education