DOES ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE MAKE EDUCATION FOR STUDENTS MORE EFFECTIVE ?
We all know that today knowledge is probably the greatest power. Therefore, scientists discuss the term ‘Artificial intelligence’ (AI) a lot. AI means the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems. These processes include learning, reasoning, and self-correction. Particular applications of AI include expert systems, speech recognition and machine vision.
“Real” Artificial Intelligence does not yet exist. However, for the educational use there are websites like Khan Academy or Vocabulary.com that have a great impact on education already.
One of the great concerns in all discussions about this new technology is that AIs could easily manipulate us. Although many experts doubt that Artificial Intelligence will ever have the control over us, others fear that at some point machines could be superior than humans, dominate or abuse us.
One big advantage for using AI can be seen that AI could make education for young people much more effective :
Firstly, AIs could simply help the students to provide great knowledge by recommending links to other useful websites, books, or giving them additional material to help them understand.
Secondly, some students might find it more fun to study with the help of AIs. Teachers sometimes have trouble to keep students interested in the subject, and AIs could help by giving more ideas in asking the students to be creative.
Thirdly, teachers cannot focus on each student individually because of a lack of time. They need feedback from the students and have to take the time to look over their students’ work and control the lessons. Because of their capability of processing high amounts of information within a short time, AIs could even specialize on each and every single student, identify learning gaps, and create an individual work plan plus different worksheets for every student within a lesson.
Additionally, AIs can make it easier for students to work at their own pace. Again, AIs can help students with their individual problems faster than a teacher can do. Therefore, AIs might help us find hidden talents which can lead to great success for students.
Furthermore, with AIs taking the role of teachers the students cannot be distracted and no student will be left behind in the lesson or ignored. Students will no longer have any distraction and will be able to concentrate on the subject. So, less effort from the teachers is needed, and the students will learn how to study on their own and develop responsibility this way as well.
Lastly, by removing these human errors, AI could build up a much cleaner school system. This also means that it would make sure that everyone is treated equally in schools. This would definitely more fair to all students when AIs are able to treat every student truly equally under the same circumstances.
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Economically, once people find a way to program teaching robots and produce them relatively cheaply, they might be even cheaper than teachers. So, replacing teachers by Als could save much money.
On the other hand there are also disadvantages in introducing AI to education and class rooms:
Although replacing teachers with AI might look very positive because of saving money for example, this is not completely true. When teachers are replaced, then who will decide where this money goes to? The government, schools, or the organisation that produces AIs?
It would be very bad if lots or all of the teachers would get unemployed. Some teachers might not have any other skills besides teaching their subjects and would stay unemployed - and this costs the government, too.
Additionally, completely replacing teachers with robots might go a little too far. Young people need empathetic beings to not only teach them, but also be their mentors and examples for life.
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There’s this question regarding moral: How can we be sure to trust AIs? For example, without human emotions, AIs might have another definition of what is wrong and what is right. Parents may not trust them in working with their child because AIs could have a large negative effect on the behavior of the children in the classroom. Teachers are able to realize when a student has trouble with an exercise even though he tries his best. The teacher might be able to find a way to motivate students and make understanding simpler.
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The last aspect is that it is worth looking at responsibilities and legal issues: If AIs become teachers, they would be responsible for the students and they’d need to decide what to do in different situations. But if things go wrong, who would take the responsibility? This could cost a fortune besides research and maintenance of AI.
AI could result in great political backlash because many people insist that the use of AI is unethical and problematic.
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Reflecting the pros and cons, the negative effects especially regarding social aspects seem to be more important for this discussion.
Teachers are a very important in the social and emotional development of a child, even in Highschool. A teacher’s job is not only to teach the students but also to support them during hard times and inspire them to follow their dreams. Teachers are able to feel emotions. This means, when a student is sad, frustrated or angry, a teacher is able to recognize this and consider the student’s feelings when asking them a question. Furthermore, use of AIs in schools can reduce social contacts, which is very important, especially for young people. The lack of it could have a powerful negative impact on our society, making us more and more antisocial.
All in all, to answer the research question: Yes, Artificial Intelligence could be an incredible tool for the effectivity of education - but only to some extent. Teachers will still be needed in the class rooms to control everything. They will remain the most important instructors in school using AIs for support under their conditions. There’s a good chance that Artificial Intelligence will stay on the ethically correct side as long as programmers give it a clear definition of what is wrong and what is right to us humans. Otherwise, it might cause big problems and could manipulate us in many ways.
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https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/10/top-10-ethical-issues-in-artificial-intelligence
http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/
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https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/09/27/how-intelligent-tutors-could-transform-teaching.html
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https://www.techemergence.com/examples-of-artificial-intelligence-in-education/
Richard H. Shinn - AI-Brain
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