John Dewey, an educational reformer once said, “If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow.”
We live in an era of technology. Artificial intelligence (AI) has penetrated its way through the education sector as well. We cannot afford to miss out on the benefits that we get from AI. AI in the education sector makes the learning experience more effective by making it more personalized and interactive. It uses algorithms to cater to the needs of each student and provides the necessary resources. It aims to give exposure to the improvement of education rather than to replace the teacher.
What Are the Benefits of AI in Classrooms?
It is not possible for a teacher to pay equal attention to all the students in a class. This is where AI comes to the rescue. AI has the ability to find out a student’s strengths and weaknesses. AI can also provide resources to a student based on their interests and past performances. They can get quality and personalized learning at school or at home.
2. Time Saving
AI can save the waiting time of students. They will no longer have to wait for feedback and clarifications from the teacher. Many chatbots provide solutions to complicated problems and simplify complex concepts in minutes.
3. Collaboration with Teachers
AI can collaborate with teachers and share some of their responsibilities. The teacher can concentrate on teaching, while AI can take care of other tasks like scheduling, preparing assessments, and grading.
4. Better Engagement
The attention span of today’s learners is influenced by the digital media around them. According to a survey by Pew Research, 87% of the participants agreed that “today’s digital technologies are creating an easily distracted generation with short attention spans.” Hence, it is important to keep them engaged while teaching. AI can come up with fun and exciting activities that are relevant to their curriculum. For example, a French teacher can ask students to have a conversation with the bot in French.
5. Access from Remote Areas
So many remote and rural places have students who can only wish for opportunities that are offered to kids from tier 1 and 2 cities. With high-speed Internet facilities and smart devices, students in these areas can also be a part of the global education system.
6. Evaluation
AI can reduce the evaluator’s time spent on answer sheet verification. The answers can be graded and scores will be auto-calculated by AI. Feedback can also be instantly provided to the students.
What Are the Hurdles?
1. Ethical and Confidential issues
Students’ data must be protected at all times by adhering to the confidentiality and data privacy policies. It is also important to ensure ethical use of AI. It is easier for students to give up on their critical thinking and copy-paste the results generated by AI. Such plagiarism can be detected by a teacher only if they are familiar with the language and style of each student.
2. Digital Connectivity
Connectivity should be provided to every student irrespective of their geographic location. Internet access should be ensured in remote areas as well so that the students in rural parts get to experience and explore the world of AI.
3. Promotion of AI Literacy among Faculty
Faculty should be provided with training sessions to help them integrate AI into their teaching. EdWeek Research Center conducted a survey on educators not using artificial intelligence-driven instructional tools in classrooms and the results show why this is a challenge. Forty-six percent do not even prioritize AI, which means this chunk still needs convincing.
4. Improved Infrastructure
Infrastructure like devices, labs, and security systems should be upgraded to support the updated versions of AI.
Which AI Tools Are Available?
Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)
AR brings 3D models into the real world. A teacher can recreate a historical character or a skeleton in their class. All they need is a phone or a laptop with the right app. VR is an advanced technology that creates simulated surroundings.
While AR uses the existing surroundings, VR enables the user to experience a 3D environment around them. With VR, students not only experience another world but they also get to participate using their physical gestures. It can transport students to a civilization or to an operation theatre to perform surgery.
Gamification
Gamification is an approach to learning where games are incorporated into education. This fun way of learning not only helps students with their studies but also improves their skills. It motivates kids, makes them competitive, and improves their performance.
“Kahoot!”, a very popular app, helps teachers to create surveys, discussions, and quizzes. The students answer the questions, compete with each other, and learn while having fun.
Is This a Wave of the Future?
EduQual Contributes to Modern Education
Sources
1. https://schoolofscholars.edu.in/blog/ai-learning-in-classrooms/#:~:text=AI%2Ddriven%20predictive%20analytics%20can,no%20student%20is%20falling%20behind.
2. https://www.epravesh.com/blog/artificial-intelligence-ai-in-indian-classrooms-a-need-of-the-hour/
3. https://knestlms.com/ai-in-indian-education/
4. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2012/11/01/part-v-teachers-concerns-about-broader-impacts-of-digital-technologies-on-their-students/
5. https://www.edweek.org/technology/most-teachers-are-not-using-ai-heres-why/2024/01
Written by Apeksha Pai
