Category: Artificial Intelligence

AI is an opportunity for education

Reading the “AI is clear and present danger to education” article in The Times the other day conjured up images of Harrison Ford, political intrigue and the risk of the collapse of government.   Ok so I very much enjoyed the various Jack Ryan movies and particularly those starring Harrison Ford hence the imagery, however the articles focus was on concerns in relation to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its potential impact on education, with the article citing head teachers as saying that AI “is the greatest threat to education”.  

The headline paints a nice simple picture however as I sat down to write this blog piece it was clear to me things aren’t that simple.   And as I wrote it became clear in my mind that this issue is complex indeed and that a single post wouldn’t allow me to do it any justice.    As such this therefore is the first of a series of posts discussing AI and the danger it may present, as well at the opportunities it may also present.

Is AI a threat to education?

Yes, but this is focussed purely on the risks and negative impact.   The question, can AI benefit education, would also result, in my view, in an affirmative response.    Is a hammer a threat or something of benefit?   It depends on who is wielding it and for what purpose, the hammer is but a tool although I note that AI is a far more powerful and flexible tool, for good or for ill.

We also need to ask the question of what we mean in terms of education.   Education in its broadest sense, such as when a parent models behaviour for their child, or in the sense of the organisations and constructs of the formal education systems the world over.   My reading of the article leads me to believe that the threat is to the current education system, processes and practices.   This system, processes and its practices have long had those critical of its fitness for purpose in the modern world with the late Ken Robinson being one of these.   His changing paradigms Ted talk dates back to 2010, so 13 years ago.   So maybe a threat to the current education practices may be a good, and possibly overdue, outcome.  After all, little has changed in how the education system works globally in the last 100 years.    Maybe AI is a much needed catalyst for educational change. 

I also note the article didn’t apply a time frame for this threat.   I have seen a post on social media recently suggesting a 50% risk of AI causing a catastrophe resulting in the loss of most human life in the world, where it also didn’t provide a time frame.   Looking far enough into the future you are always going to be able to get to a point where, between now and then, a 50% risk occurs however thinking about global warming, war, political divides, etc, I suspect we will reach a point where there is a 50% chance of human intelligence leading to a catastrophe resulting in the loss of most human life in the world before the same risk in relation to AI is reached, assuming we aren’t already there.

We also need to acknowledge there are other threats to education including challenges providing access to education for all students across the world, workload issues as the education sector continues to seek to improve by adding more requirements and tasks to a teachers role each year and the challenge of teacher shortages.    The solution to these issues is unlikely to involve maintaining the current status quo and current education system, so maybe these issues should also be seen as a threat to the current education system.     AI can be viewed as a threat, but it is far from the only one.

Conclusion

AI has potential to be a threat to the current education systems and processes but maybe a catalyst for change has been needed for some time.   That said, AI could have a negative impact on education however I would suggest it could also have a positive impact too.   The likelihood in my view is that we have bit of both eventualities and some positive and negative impacts however AI is here now and is not going away.   And if strict restrictions are put in place, either people will bypass these or the companies creating AI solutions will simply move to jurisdiction where the restrictions are less strict.   But AI solutions will continue to be created, continue to advance and continue to be used.    My view therefore is that we need to view AI as yet another technology tool, albeit one of the most significant in history, where we need to embrace its use, shaping it to have the positive impact we wish to see it have, while seeking to remain aware of the risks and to mitigate these as much as possible.

So maybe the newspaper articles title should have been: AI is clear and present danger and opportunity for education

Sadly I don’t think the above makes for quite as snappy a headline.

References

AI is ‘clear and present danger to education’ (May 2023), The Times

AI and Learning Platforms

Software learning platforms which come complete with learning content for students to work through are not new.   I remember an online Maths programme from my days as a university student as I was studying to become a teacher back in the late 90’s.   Basically, you worked through content and then were presented with different options as to how you progressed through the programme.    As a learner the individual modules of content were pretty much fixed, having been written into the software, but the path through the wider programme of learning was up to me.    I was provided options as to how I progressed from one module to the next.   Now, I was never a great fan of this as each module was presented in a given way and worked through examples in a given way, as it was programmed to do.  If you didn’t understand the way it was presented then there was no help or way to progress through this module although you could move to further modules in the hope they would provide you with insight which might eventually get you past this issue.    I liked the idea of online programmes and self paced learning however had concerns about user motivation, especially when you hit concepts which provide difficult for you to understand, and about the fixed nature of the content materials;   A great teacher adjusts and customises their learning materials and approach to their class and the individual students within it.   As such the self paced learning aspect was a step forward but this was about as far as it goes.

Fast forward to more recently and little progress had been made, at least as far as I saw it.   Newer learning platforms are capable of gather much more diagnostic data and analytics which allow the developers and content writers to adjust and improve their content.   So, the content is better than the content I experienced in the 90’s but generally it still provides largely linear and fixed content and if the content, its style, etc don’t match your needs then there is little that can be done.   As so, until very recently I have had a largely negative view of learning platforms which come complete with the vendors own content which teachers cannot adjust or customise to their content.   They have their place for example supplementary to classroom teaching or self paced learning when teachers are absent but that was it.

That was until recently when I saw a video of some new developments within the Khan Academy platform including its new use of the GPT4 Large Language Model (LLM).    Still the content in terms of problems set within the platform and the way they are worked through appears very linear and fixed.  So if it is maths problems it will work through the problem in a specific way;  no change there.   The difference, and the massive leap forward in terms of learning platforms is their new chat bot style assistant.   It prompts and supports the student using the platform.   It identifies common misconceptions and provides guidance.   It acts as a coach and facilitator but customising its responses to the efforts being made by the student using the platform and this includes providing motivational “well dones” and corresponding emojis.    Watching the demo it was almost as if there was a teacher sat behind the chatbot rather than an AI solution.    Now I note that this demo was short and was for the purposes of showing off what is possible in the Khan Academy platform so may not be fully representative of how it all looks and feels in real life, however if the final product is anything close to this then it is a major shift forward.

Flipped learning has been a concept long discussed looking at releasing teachers from supporting students practice of learning concepts however maybe AI solutions like GPT4 and its use in Khan Academy will allow us to release teachers from more of the basic learning.    Maybe the AI and learning platform can be used here, allowing teachers to act more as facilitators rather than delivering new learning, and allowing them to focus much more on the high order skills of creativity, critical thinking and the like.    

AI and large language models could potentially facilitate significant shifts in what learning in our schools and colleges looks like, not in the distant future, but in the very near future indeed.