Unless you’ve been living under a rock the last couple of years, you’ll have heard of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and the way it's quickly developed and integrated into everyday way of life. In fact, it already has been, and large companies such as Facebook and Google are already using the technology to provide a service.
However, more and more people are starting to consider the beneficial uses that AI can bring into the industry of education, and how it can make improvements. Today, we’re going to take an inside look at seven of these potential uses and how they may be used in the future.
#1 - Automating Standard Processes
One of the most laborious tasks that teachers currently have to go through is marking all the work that gets completed. This currently takes a lot of time and causes teachers to feel overworked and stressed out.
However, with AI, a computer can manage all the marking and grading processes, giving teachers more time to spend with their students or developing their classes for greater engagement.
#2 - An Improved Collective Experience
Currently, it’s up to human beings to rate schools based on their marks and final grades, but with AI, all schools can be compared with others around the world and patterns such as learning ability, times of year when productivity is high or low, and other astounding metrics can be discovered in seconds.
This means schools can actively improve all the time and will want to if the motivation to do so is there.
#3 - Finding Gaps in the Learning Process
Since a teacher tends to teach a lot of classes and potentially a lot of subjects, it can be easy for a human error to get in the way which will ultimately cause potential gaps in the lessons. However, AI technology can locate these gaps, for example, if lots of students got a question wrong on a test.
The teacher can then become aware of these gaps that can help address them, ensuring nothing is missed on the timetable.
#4 - A Greater Level of Feedback
“Feedback is so important when it comes to the learning process because students need to constructively better themselves in order to grow and learn as individuals. However, this feedback can be broken up and counter-productive, especially if the teacher doesn’t have enough time to figure out what they want to say, or they’re just having a bad day” shares Michelle Bardwick, an educator for Eliteassignmenthelp and Australian Help.
Nevertheless, AI can construct the feedback extremely accurately and then either provide it directly to students or provide it to the teacher to then pass onto students.
#5 - Providing Students with More Support
In a class of 30, it’s practically impossible for a teacher to provide comprehensive support to every single child in the class, which means that the level of support currently offered to every child won’t be 100%.
However, with AI, teachers can provide comprehensive and complete support that’s not only more helpful but can actually be catered to the student in question in a personalised way that helps them better than if a teacher helped them in the first place.
#6 - The Role of Teachers Could Change
This is an incredibly important topic which is where people start to get worried that jobs could be taken. Since AI programs, CGI people or videos could, in theory, teach the lessons in such a way that is better than the teachers, the traditional role of a teacher becomes obsolete.
However, that doesn’t mean teachers need to go anywhere fast. Instead, teachers will be responsible for managing the lessons, engaging in hands-on exercises, providing a human interaction element and providing extra support where needed.
#7 - Redefining How Information is Discovered
As we’ve seen with sites like Facebook and Google, AI technology is redefining how we find and access information online, which of course when transferred and adapted into an educational setting will be able to provide wonders when it comes to organising resources.
“With the ability to source the entire internet for material, as well as to cater the information it’s looking for to the student or teacher or individual’s learning ability searching; information will have never been more concise” explains Nick Harper, an edtech blogger at Paper Fellows and Academized.
Summary
As you can see, there are many roles and benefits AI can bring to the educational table, and this is only scratching the service. As AI is developed, more and more benefits will appear, leading to an even greater progression in this area.
Interested in learning more about how AI is impacting education? Join RE•WORK at the Deep Learning Summit in San Francisco this January 24 - 25.
Freddie Tubbs is a communication manager at UK Writings. He also works as a business writer at Boom Essays, and write expert columns and Essay Roo blog.
