The Two Big Letters that Shape Up K-12 Education: AI
Teaching methods evolve every year. Many exciting changes and discoveries are incorporated into instruction. However, the most groundbreaking discovery would have to be technology and how it has improved (and in some cases, complicated) classroom practices.
One contributing factor is the use of AI to help drive instruction, personalize learning, and even help with evaluating students’ work. Read on to find out how AI plays an increasing role in education.
How AI Shapes Today’s World
For starters, AI-based systems might replace or improve many white-collar jobs that are now performed by human experts. The main reason for this trend is that AI has the potential to understand situations and make better decisions than humans for this technological breakthrough. For example, AI is better at detecting signs of cancer on a medical scan than the most skilled radiologists are. So, as you can see, the applications of AI are one of the fastest-growing technological factors in many industries.
How AI Is Incorporated in Education
In addition to the corporate world, the ever-growing popularity of AI has also made its way into the classroom. The promise that AI brings to the education sector is personalized learning.
As an illustration of this point, if teachers want to deliver personalized learning to each student, they have to rely on the analysis of data derived from assessments, plus be able to use the technology that disaggregated it, analyze it, and report it.
The “smarter” the technology is, the more useful the reports will be. And ideally, this leads to better outcomes for students with pinpointing areas of growth. Also, AI can help teachers in giving targeted student support when it is necessary since there are opportunities for improvement that are detailed in assessment results.
AI Increases Efficiency
Furthermore, AI can ease teachers’ workload by performing automated grading. Considering how much time is devoted to grading, with the use of AI, teachers could pass this workload along. As technology advances, it could be possible that such applications that use AI can grade more than simple multiple-choice questions.
AI can also help with improving classroom teaching by recognizing weaknesses and necessary improvements that could enhance instruction. For example, specific types of programming warn teachers when a large percentage of students get the same question wrong. This can be a huge game-changer when it comes to adapting a lesson plan or figuring which skill requires re-teaching or taking a different approach.
The Future of AI in the Classroom
Granted, AI could never fully replace a human being, but it is necessary to remember that AI might change the role teachers have in the classroom. Teachers might move more into a facilitator role. As AI personalizes instruction for each student, the teacher will be there to guide each student’s learning through their use of technological tools. Even with the availability of chatbots in some programs, students still need the human connection that cannot be duplicated by a computer.
However, even with the potential of glitches and the need for troubleshooting, there is a possibility for a productive partnership between teacher and AI.