AI is rapidly transforming almost all spheres of
human activity; from the way we work and the way we create
content to even the way we find novel solutions to age-old problems.
While there is much excitement around what AI
brings with it, some are also cautious about its implications for the future of
jobs and the damage advanced AI can do if in the wrong hands.
One such area of human endeavour that AI has
already started to upend is learning. The power of generative AI is disrupting
classrooms in schools and colleges world-over, with educators scrambling to
devise policies to prevent the technology’s misuse.
Individualised
help
But with every disruption comes an opportunity to
makes things better. Patricia Scanlon, Ireland’s first AI ambassador, thinks that when it comes to
the impact of AI on education, the novel tech can actually be used as a force
for good in learning and development.
“There’s a lot of power in being able to take AI
and level the playing field in some ways,” Scanlon said in her keynote speech
to an audience of more than 350 people at the Learnovation
Summit held in the Aviva Stadium in Dublin (5 October).
The annual summit was organised by the Learnovate Centre, a learning technology research centre based
in Trinity College Dublin.
“Not everybody has access to low student-teacher
ratios, after school tutors, helpful parents at home, English as their first
language – you can see how that more individualised help can really help in
education.”
But it’s not just children in schools that can
benefit from the equalising ability of AI technology. Adults, too, Scanlon said, can make the most
out of LLMs [large language model] that can help them learn things they never
had access to learning before.
“Maybe somebody never gets to go to college, but
they can educate themselves to a certain point with AI. Not the point of a full
format education system, but a tool to help and that’s where the productivity
aspect comes in,” she explained.
“And then in the working world, AI can be hugely
helpful – particularly for people with dyslexia. You’re levelling the playing
field for people like that, who struggle to write in the blank page.”
‘Turn
education system upside down’
But is the effect of AI on learning, especially for
younger people and children, really such a bed of roses? Scanlon said there are
ways in which these tools could be harmful to our development if we start to
rely on it too much.
“We wonder if kids are ever going to be able to
write for themselves or engage in critical thinking. Conversely, AI can help to
ensure that integrity – but it’s going to take work,” she went on.
“You can use the LLM to create live questioning
that somebody couldn’t possibly be prepared for, and change the questions based
on the answers to drill down someone’s knowledge.
“Then, together with a little bit of security and
analytics, or maybe their style of writing or what they said before or what we
know that LLMs produce, you can get to something more like an oral assessment
or a defence of a thesis if you want, and AI can help that.”
According to Scanlon, the easy thing to do would be
to ban AI. But it’s not necessarily the best way forward. What’s far more
beneficial, she argued, is to “turn our whole education system upside down” and
look at AI in a different light.
“It’s not going away, so we need to think about how
we can use this tool to help with critical thinking, to help them [learners]
progress in all aspects of teaching and learning.”
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