Even as the debate about how long children should take behind the screens continue without an answer in sight, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning have emerged as the 21st-century trend shaping education today. The technologies are not just changing the student’s field, but are also shaking the educator’s roles and accelerating philosophical shifts in training approaches.
This post takes a closer look at AI and machine learning impacts on education and further explores its main pitfalls.
AI and Machine Learning Helps to Personalize Learning Models
Today, the ideology that every student at a specific age has to be exposed to standardized content is being challenged. Is the content that is right for this pupil also right for another of the same age?
Because students learn differently, artificial intelligence is enabling trainers to factor training styles based on each trainee. One example of such technology is the Mathematics education software called DreamBox. This is a software used to customize learning by helping to adapt to every student’s skills level. It assists every pupil to study at his/her pace depending on personal needs. Such software is complementing classroom instructions and delivering the following benefits to pupils:
- Assists pupils to close the learning gaps by offering many ways of solving problems.
- The technology empowers trainers by providing real-time data and insights that help inform customizable professional development.
Learners Are Able to Take-up More Responsibilities
By linking pupils to trainers, the training process becomes easy and clear. The classrooms are shifting from the conventional model where all students are pooled together irrespective of their skills. Instead, the new classes operate around smaller teams featuring pupils with matching skills. This provides pupils with good opportunities to look at their weaknesses and improve their academic performance.
The customized class teams allow students to operate independently. This means that they are no longer passive in their classes. Instead, they associate with the process, are more motivated, and can easily study on their own. It is a good way to empower young people to take early control over their careers.
Reduced Bias in Grading
AI and machine learning technologies are used to help teachers when assessing apprentices. When tutors are assessing trainees manually, it is human to get biased. In some cases, assessment can be affected by tiredness or the environment. However, these setbacks are removed by using technology.
AI technologies help to evaluate apprentices to establish the efficiency of their work. For example, advanced AI machine learning bots are used to help to grade student’s work. This makes the work of assessing students fast and efficient.
Technology is also used to check apprentices’ reports for duplicate content. It is also used to ensure every student adheres to exam rules. Good examples include Copyscape and Turnitin. This implies that pupils are subjected to the same examination rules to end bias.
AI Allows to Take Tutoring Outside the Classroom
One area where AI has greatly revolutionized is training outside the classroom. Often, it becomes stressful if a parent is unable to assist her kid with complex homework. But technology has provided a reliable way to study even when away from school.
Parents can sign their children to online applications that bring tutors right into their living rooms. That algebra question that a child finds so difficult to handle is now easy to address because a virtual tutor is only a click away. Remember that the virtual tutors are available on a 24/7 basis.
Does AI Have Any Weakness?
Although AI and machine learning are taking root fast, they are not without some pitfalls. Educationists are calling for hybrid models that seek to enrich the old model with AI. Here are the main concerns about the technologies:
- AI can result in an addiction to technology. Unlike in the past when kids had to keep the phones away when studying, AI allows them to have them most of the time. The new model is likely to yield to socially-unadapted, tech-addicted generation.
- AI technology is developing very fast. It is very difficult to predict what will follow since most of the applications are still under research.
- Lack of personalized engagement: AI is replacing trainers with bots. This method does not appreciate that teachers are not simply “knowledge packets”. Instead, they provide guidance and influence to apprentices.
AI-Generated Academic Papers
The history of the 21st century already knows AI chatbots and text generators. The question is whether artificial machine algorithms can fully develop coherent texts without making a dozen mistakes and losing the main point. Well, to some extent, they can. However, many students are misled by the tech wonders and think they can hand in generic texts without further editing and call such paperwork academic research.
Although such texts may seem more or less related to the given topic, they still lack the human touch. In many cases, AI-generated texts contain generic linking words and not proper synonyms; not to mention the basic spelling and writing style mistakes.
EssayPro, write my essay service has teamed up with professional freelance writers and editors from various academic backgrounds. One can expect a perfectly adapted academic paper once they submit an AI-generated paper. Experts from EssayPro will go through the following stages of content improvement:
- proofreading
- improving text readability
- checking writing style compatibility
- removing cumbersome and wordy phrases
- rewriting general and vague expressions
- proper referencing and formatting
- running multiple plagiarism checks.
What Is the Future of AI in Learning?
As AI and machine learning develops at blazing speed, their full adoption in education is still doubted. Unlike with the conventional class where teachers can follow specific curricula that have been designed and evaluated for decades, the AI technologies are still new. Therefore, concerns about the effectiveness of AI teaching techniques, as well as better student performance, remain valid.
With these concerns still rife in the community, it is important to be open to new technologies and stay positive. Whatever the future of AI brings, our children are likely to have a more comfortable learning environment than we had.