What is AI?

This question is challenging to answer, since there is no consensus about the definition of AI among researchers. AI can be defined as a computer system able to perform intelligent tasks that are usually associated with the human mind, such as interpreting and processing information, learning, reasoning, problem solving, predicting, decision making, and sometimes also creating. Why is it difficult to define AI? According to the High Level Expert Group on AI, the term AI contains an explicit reference to the notion of intelligence. However, since intelligence (both in machines and in humans) is a vague concept, AI researchers mostly use the notion of rationality. This refers to the ability to choose the best action to take in order to achieve a certain goal, taking into account available resources and certain criteria to be optimised.

How can AI be integrated into education?

There are many promising uses of AI that foreshadow how it might transform education in the next decades. AI can accelerate personalised learning, provide students with continuous assessment and feedback, and apply learning analytics to differentiate the learning process, so that it is adapted to individual student needs in real time (UNESCO, 2020). AI has already shown great potential for supporting students with special needs by being responsive to their abilities. Other promising uses of AI include assessment of new skill sets and predictive analyses to reduce dropout (OECD), as well as enhanced metacognition and effective collaborative learning. AI collaborative learning support includes adaptive group formation, expert facilitation, virtual agents and intelligent moderation to form a group best suited for a particular collaborative task (Luckin, Holmes).

This graphic depicts some of the solutions AI may bring to education:

Based on: How artificial intelligence is disrupting education | e27

How can AI be implemented in the classroom?

There are three approaches to the implementation of AI in the classroom, depending on the learning objectives:

1. Learning with AI, in other words, integrating AI technologies into the classroom to enhance student learning and improve instruction. Although AI tools and technologies are primarily being developed for businesses and industries, there are already a number of AI tools available to teachers who want to use AI to enhance student learning. Some examples of tools that can be used in STEM classrooms are PhotoMath, a free AI math tutoring app, and Seek by iNaturalist, an app which helps to identify species from photographs. Language classes can use Verse by Verse, where students can write a poem with the help of AI and learn about American poets, and Duolingo, for learning foreign languages. Social studies and art classes can use Newspaper Navigator, a tool for searching millions of historical newspaper photos, and MuseNet, for exploring and creating music. Tools like Socratic and Brainlycan be used for all subjects.
2. Learning for AI, that is, acquiring new skills required for life and work in an AI-shaped world. To unlock the potential of AI and to deal with challenges in an AI-shaped world, students need to be equipped with computational thinking and problem-solving skills, as well as coding and data literacy skills. Code Week can provide teachers with a great variety of teaching and learning resources.
3. Learning AI, or applying AI-related skills to effectively use AI and build new AI tools and technologies. Effective and appropriate use of existing AI systems may, for instance, include learning how to use AI systems by attending the AI Basics for Schools MOOC.

Opportunities and challenges of AI

Over the past decade, we have witnessed tremendous advances in AI technologies, and new AI achievements constantly amaze us. The possibilities are endless – or at least they seem that way. In this webinar, Marco Neves, an advisor on education technologies and AI and a project coordinator on EdTech, explains the benefits AI can confer, and on the flip side, the challenges it may present.

Are you AI-ready?