Much of the general public discussion about artificial intelligence in education focuses on the hazards of plagiarism: students use AI tools like ChatGPT to write down persuasive essays that they pass off as their very own, and academic institutions, in turn, use AI tools to catch these cheaters.
But as latest technologies, including AI, turn into more mainstream, additionally they promise to revolutionize learning for the higher.
According to Hadi Partovi, executive director of the nonprofit educational organization Code.org, AI might be “one among the biggest educational platforms outside of faculty.”
New AI-powered platforms and tools exist already that may support learners – especially those with learning disabilities or from low-income families – and potentially increase equity across the board.
For example, there are already AI-powered “tutors” that may provide a customized experience to the coed and adapt to their needs in real time. One app – Khanmigo, developed by Khan Academy, a nonprofit online education organization based within the US – calls itself “your always-on learning partner” and guarantees to challenge learners to “think critically and solve problems without supplying you with direct answers.” The app is free for teachers and costs $44 per 12 months for users and their families.
“Until now, expert, personalized tutoring has been unaffordable for all but one of the best learners and institutions,” said Joseph South, chief innovation officer on the International Society for Technology in Education, a nonprofit education organization. “Generative AI has the potential to scale this experience for online learners at an inexpensive price.”
A 2024 study led by the University of Oxford found that students in Ghana who used an AI-assisted math teacher accessible via WhatsApp for half an hour twice every week for eight months achieved “significantly higher” math development scores than their peers in a control group.
Emily DeJeu, assistant professor of corporate communications at Carnegie Mellon University, points out that there’s other research showing that low-performing employees get “a big boost” after they use AI-powered guidance. “It fills of their gaps and makes them more productive,” she says.
The technology may also be utilized in novel ways to simulate work environments or for training. “Transferring knowledge from the classroom to the workplace has all the time suffered from the artificiality of a classroom environment that lacks the complexity of real-world application,” says South. “That's over now.” He adds that AI-generated simulations mean students can enter workplaces “after stress-testing their performance in simulated environments.”
In addition to helping students directly, AI may also be utilized by educators themselves to assist create personalized learning plans and prepare individual assessments.
“AI is changing the role of the educator by saving significant time in lesson planning and assessment, enabling more classroom interaction and individual support,” says Christophe Mallet, CEO of Bodyswaps, a provider of soppy skills training in virtual reality.
For example, AI can quickly create collections of assignments on a particular topic. “It may also sort students' work to discover individual errors,” South adds, “in addition to performance patterns that have to be corrected.”
This may also result in modern and original case studies at business schools, says DeJeu.
All of this has the potential to avoid wasting staff lots of time. A report by educational publisher Twinkl found that the introduction of AI impede 77 billion dollars in unpaid additional time for teachers within the USA. This cost estimate is predicated on data from McKinsey suggest Teachers could save as much as 13 hours per week through the use of AI tools.
New, emerging tools include lesson planner MagicSchool, which says it has 2 million educators signed up for, and Pressto, which generates writing prompts for teachers based on desired topics or level. Merlyn Mind is one other AI-powered assistant that teachers can use within the classroom.
However, there are still potential problems that have to be addressed. AI remains to be unreliable and liable to hallucinations – presenting fiction as fact – which could mean that students “learn” misinformation. Likewise, AI can develop biases based on the info it was trained with and potentially pass these on to learners.
In addition, experts warn that there should be restrictions in all educational institutions regarding the entry of student data and private information into AI systems to attenuate data protection risks.
For some, nonetheless, the most important risk is the educational process. DeJeu says students have gotten increasingly accustomed to counting on technology from a young age and that AI tools could provide a “shortcut” to learning.
“Is this good for them in the long run?” she asks. “Part of that remains to be an open query. The challenge is to repeatedly explain to students how they will use these tools for their very own profit and professionally, and provides them tips about methods to avoid using them in ways in which hinder their development.”
DeJeu believes teachers have to be “sufficiently tool-agnostic” when introducing AI to their students, and in addition when using the technology themselves. She advises them to search for “timeless” use cases for AI since the tools and skills are evolving so quickly.
Mallet points to the danger of “blindly replacing human teachers with AI for cost reasons.” He also warns that a “rapidly growing gap in student AI skills” could emerge, with some schools and institutions banning AI altogether for fear of cheating, while others embrace it.
To ensure the best safeguards are in place to guard students, Code.org's Partovi suggests, “We need government policies – national and regional – to supply guidance to varsities.” To that end, he helped found a consortium called TeachAI.
Still, he adds: “The biggest risk with AI is doing nothing. The world has modified and is changing. We should change our teaching methods and content to benefit from AI.”
