A.I.’s impact on education
The line between Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) and our everyday life is fading quickly, whether we like it or not. One of the fields seeing the most seismic shift is education. Teachers and students alike are adjusting to this new reality, having to balance convenience and efficiency with academic integrity.
Rushit Dave is a professor of Computer Science at MSU. As an educator himself, he knows firsthand the good, the bad and the ugly of A.I. Dave says that A.I. can do revolutionary things, like idealizing course content to students.
“Since A.I. tools are analyzing each one’s progress, the teacher is enabled to adjust his or her lessons toward the unique needs of each student, something that has become a game-changer,” Dave said.
He also says the technology eases the burden of the more mundane tasks of teaching such as grading and tracking performance.
“It shifts them into an even more vital role of engaging with learners and offering support,” Dave said. “A.I. is moving teachers away from being sole dispensers of knowledge towards facilitators and guides in a more collaborative and dynamic environment. It’s extending human bonding, so essential in education.”
On the student side, Dave says A.I. can do equally incredible things.
“If a student doesn’t understand any concept, the very system is designed to automatically provide extra resources or alternative explanations. A.I. analyzes the performance and preference of a student to recommend certain readings, exercises or projects that will best suit their interests and learning objectives. This makes students more interested and motivated,” Dave said.
While A.I. has its good sides, the bad and the ugly can also cause a whole host of issues when it pertains to education. These issues include privacy concerns, bias and fairness, accessibility and overdependence.
Dave says there are solutions and that starts with teaching A.I. literacy and broader concepts that make up the emerging technology.
“This will make students prepared for the professions of the future while developing critical thinking about technology,” Dave said.
He says the need for education extends to teachers as well.
“The need is huge for training educators continuously. The institutions should provide workshops and resources that will help teachers understand A.I. technologies, how to integrate them into the classrooms and how to make effective use of data to enhance student learning,” Dave said.
Another solution is keeping up to date with technological infrastructure, such as hardware, software and internet connectivity. Doing so, Dave says, will better serve all who interact with A.I.
“This ensures access to the needed tools that will help teachers and students integrate A.I. into their work,” Dave said.
Other solutions Dave proposes include pilot programs, feedback from teachers and students and incorporating ethics, privacy and responsible A.I. use into education and teaching data literacy.
These discussions about A.I. and possible policy remedies are happening at school boards across the country. Balancing the externalities of A.I. along with its impact on teachers and students can be a difficult task.
One educator new to A.I. is Missy Livingston. Livingston is a second-grade teacher at Fred Assam Elementary in Sioux Falls, SD. She says she does not have a lot of first-hand experience with AI. Looking at the grand scheme of things, Livingston does have some concerns regarding originality and academic integrity. Although, she says it can “be beneficial if used as a supplementary tool.” Livingston and other educators will be on the frontlines of A.I., dealing with its ever-changing landscape and development. It will be hard to predict how A.I. will play out in the future, but stakeholders involved with A.I. and education have and can act to guide it in the right direction.
Caption: Student utilizing Memorial Library resources on the first floor for studying and homework assignments. ChatGPT is open on the screen of the computer (ALEXIS DARKOW/The Reporter).
Write to ben.livingston@mnsu.edu
AI is destroying our creativity with language as a species. Whenever I a make a sarcastic remark on a website, my comment is taken literally and is deleted. We are becoming a culture of post literary artists, and someday–perhaps already, our creative writing teachers, so imbued with the correct thinking about gender, race and war, will destroy any artist who plays with the subtle colors of meaning, so that Huckleberry Finn will soon be rewritten with a character called “N Word Jim.”