Artificial intelligence has been a disruptive force across industries worldwide. It’s also found its place in education, though its impacts are two-sided. In one way, AI is boosting education and helping teachers and students, but in another, it can seriously harm education. Below, we’ll delve into both sides of AI in education to see how to maximise its advantages while minimising its potential harms.
Pros of AI in Classrooms
Just as AI streamlines myriad processes in other industries, ranging from online platforms like casinos.com to healthcare, it can help in and out of the classroom in various ways. Teachers can benefit from more efficiency in lesson planning, giving them more time to attend to their students, while students can enjoy a personal tutor and accessible content.
Accessibility
Perhaps the biggest thing that AI helps within the classroom is accessibility. It makes it easier than ever for students of all abilities to access learning materials and use them to their advantage. For instance, its ability to read written content aloud can assist students with visual impairments or learning disorders. It can also take spoken or audio-based content and present information in a written or visual format for those with impaired hearing. AI also makes bridging language barriers much easier for English as a second language (ESL) students, who can quickly make sense of coursework and lessons through direct translations.
Personalised Learning
AI can make the learning experience more engaging by gamifying learning to suit student interests. Since AI also collects data as students work through materials and modules, it can tailor learning resources to assist them in areas they struggle with more. For instance, flashcards or quizzes can focus on areas that students find challenging, helping them better understand the information. Additionally, AI can help break down complex tasks or ideas, allowing students to build a strong foundation before progressing in a subject. It allows students to ask questions or get guidance for concepts they may need more clarification on—similar to using a tutor—allowing them to progress in their learning at their own pace.
Immediate Feedback for Students
Using AI to help monitor or grade work can provide students with immediate feedback. This allows them to better understand the topics they may have struggled with. The feedback enables students to refine their study habits to focus on areas that need improvement. Immediate feedback can also aid the studying process by providing prompt answers to questions relating to materials. For teachers with a room full of students, this type of rapid feedback is hard to do for each question or assignment that requires grading. AI can help improve student satisfaction and keep students engaged and active in learning even when their teacher is busy with other students.
Efficiency for Teachers
Lesson planning, grading, tracking student progress, and communicating with parents are all time-consuming but essential tasks teachers face, and AI can assist with them. Teachers can use AI tools to build lesson outlines, create presentations, grade online work, and monitor student progress toward learning goals.
This reduces teachers’ workloads without neglecting these important tasks. Teachers can also use AI to draft or outline communications with parents. These integrations significantly enhance efficiency for teachers.
Data-Driven Insights
Because AI can provide real-time updates, it serves as a valuable tool for making informed decisions in educational settings. This capability can help teachers quickly gauge who in the classroom may need more support and make individual education plans for them. It can also help identify areas where lessons may need updating or if they’re working well. More broadly speaking, AI insights can help schools, school boards, and the education system make essential decisions regarding resource allocation based on collected data insights. It helps to more adequately plan budgets, address staffing needs, and target other essential moving elements to get schools up and running.
Cons of AI in Classrooms
While AI provides many benefits to education, there are also several drawbacks to consider.
Overreliance on Technology
AI tools offer great convenience, but as they’re increasingly integrated into education systems, technical issues, and cyberattacks may become more disruptive. Additionally, students’ reliance on technology raises concerns about how they will develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Job Displacement
AI can perform multiple tasks required in a classroom while giving each student the time and attention they need. Because of this, there’s growing concern that the technology could displace teaching roles or devalue teachers’ work, even though their presence is still essential.
Lack of Human Interaction
Effective teaching relies heavily on intangibles such as empathy, mentorship, and emotional support. A human connection is required between students and their teachers to deliver these essential teaching components to students.
This is a significant consideration for the wide adoption of AI tools, as they cannot provide the same emotional and human teaching elements that a person can.
Bias and Misinformation
AI systems rely on algorithms and datasets, which can contain biases or mistakes. AI educational tools can unintentionally perpetuate these, so students and teachers must think critically about AI outputs.
Cheating and Plagiarism
Since generative AI can create various types of content, students can easily use these programs to complete assignments. Many see this use as cheating or plagiarism that undercuts the intention of assignments and the learning process. The use of AI, particularly generative AI, for assignments raises many ethical considerations. Teachers should discuss these issues in the classroom and create clear boundaries for acceptable academic behavior.
Leveraging Strengths and Mitigating Risks
Recognising AI’s benefits, such as accessibility and efficiency, while addressing its risks—like plagiarism, biases, and misinformation—is the first step in minimizing its negative impact on education. Finding balance will take time, but AI can significantly boost many aspects of education, improving outcomes for educators and students alike.
