By Unnati Modi
Artificial intelligence (AI) has revolutionized multiple industries during the past few years and education is no exception. Traditional learning approaches are not only upgraded but they are transformed with modern tools and technology which offer personalized and adaptive experiences to both educators and students. Harnessing the power of AI and leveraging varied sources of data can truly transform education. AI is an emerging technology that started modifying educational tools and institutions (Kengam, 2020). Several points discussed here will explore how AI has been reshaping education as it gathers data from diverse sources to optimize efficiency.
AI, driven by algorithms enhanced by machine learning, not only has the potential to revolutionize our educational landscape but it would also allow educational systems to gather, analyze and utilize vast amounts of data to enhance learning experiences. AI-led systems, along with data driven insights and personalized approaches, can provide timely feedback to optimize outcomes based on the educational inputs.
Diverse sources are crucial to building effective and strong AI-led educational systems. Educationists can further gain a holistic understanding of learners’ needs, preferences, and progress. Loeckx (2016) suggests that AI tools could be effective in learning that would lessen the burdens of both teachers and students while offering effective learning experiences for students. Some tools that can help enrich the educator’s experience and encourage learning are:
1) Multimedia Interactive Content
AI can process multi-media content which includes videos, audio recordings and images that would enhance the learning experience along with providing recommendations for creating interactive modules and building adaptive content delivery experiences that would cater to individual preferences. This is meant not replace the existing approaches but to augment them and scale achievable outcomes.
2) Learning Management Systems (LMS)
LMS platforms with varying degrees of sophistication can gather rich data on students’ online interactions like time spent on certain projects, completion rates, engagement levels. They can develop and enhance the learning modules that would function individually but along with the existing tech-enhanced modules. This could assist in integrating data effectively saving educators time.
3) Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS)
ITS are aimed at providing personalized learning experience in four main ways: delivering appropriate tasks, providing effective feedback, monitoring students’ input, and applying interfaces for human-computer communication (Sheldon et al., 2018). This is likely to change the role of teachers and therefore schooling may need to be re-conceptualized. The role of teaching faculty may go through several adjustments as AI advances in the educational setting.
4) Enhanced Teaching Efficiency
AI tools can help automate routine administrative tasks that allows educators to focus on personalized instruction and student engagement. It could offload time-consuming tasks like grading and assigning marks to students. Teachers could receive assistance in terms of structuring their materials in a desired manner which has been difficult sometimes due to limited sources available. As seen in my image below using data from the World Economic Forum, only 48% to 49% of teachers’ time is in direct interaction with students which sheds light on fact that engagement with students isn’t sufficient to embark knowledge at schools (WEF, 2023).
Technology can help reallocate 20 to 30% of teachers’ time toward activities that would support student learning and engagement (Bryant et al., 2020). This approach seems like a win-win for both the institutions and students as it is unlikely to displace teachers in the foreseeable future. AI won’t possibly take over the elements of very personalized characteristics like outreach and building a positive school climate, resolving interpersonal conflicts, building human connections. These could not be replaced or automated.
5) Global Classroom
As with the pandemic, the world witnessed the power of digital learning or e-learning as we all know it. AI aims to blend this idea by adding data sources that interactively prepares a dynamic tool that helps not only with digital modules but also modern solution tool kits that can assist people who are visually or audibly impaired. It highlights that importance of small gaps that often go unnoticed and helps to fill that up with quick solutions.
AI has been tremendously impacting the society in both positive and negative ways and yet how educationalists choose to see this tool speaks volumes about how much we care about the learning system. AI is helping educators around the world to re-orient their energy away from monotonous administrative tasks towards accelerating students’ growth and learning which indeed makes teaching more fulfilling. The tools led by AI can act as a catalyst for the transformation of our education systems however only with shared vision for enhanced holistic education that would open opportunities for all.
Henry Ford illustrated through his analogy that innovation does not necessarily mean working with what has been the norm, we can take a step forward to search beyond the norm (Chen et al; 2020) It is crucial to understand that excelling isn’t always about negating the existing ideas and methodologies. It is more about upgrading the system that yields better and stronger results, saving human time and effort which can be put to better use someplace else.
References
Bryant, J., Heitz, C., Sanghvi, S., & Wagle, D. (2020, January 14). How artificial intelligence will impact K–12 teachers. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/education/our-insights/how-artificial-intelligence-will-impact-k-12-teachers
Chen, L., Chen, P., & Lin, Z. (2020). Artificial Intelligence in Education: A Review. IEEE Access, 8, 75264–75278. https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2020.2988510
How AI can accelerate students’ holistic development and make teaching more fulfilling. (2023, May 19). World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/05/ai-accelerate-students-holistic-development-teaching-fulfilling
Loeckx, J. (2016). Blurring boundaries in Education: Context and impact of MOOCs. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 17(3). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v17i3.2395
Tabuenca, B., Kalz, M., Drachsler, H., & Specht, M. (2015). Time will tell: The role of mobile learning analytics in self-regulated learning. Computers & Education, 89, 53–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2015.08.004
Siemens, G., & Baker, R. (2012). Learning analytics and educational data mining: towards communication and collaboration. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Learning Analytics and Knowledge.
Unnati Modi is an aspiring research analyst who specializes in industrial market research. Armed with a psychology degree and individual qualifications in Human Resources and Research Analysis, she navigates human behaviour and technology. Focused on the evolving role of AI, Unnati explores its impact on education, work-life and human oriented tasks.
