INSTITUT PENDIDIKAN GURU KAMPUS BAHASA MELAYU
59990 LEMBAH PANTAI, KUALA LUMPUR
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NAME : DURATHUL JUMA ASYIQAH BINTI MOHAMAD AWI
INDEX NUMBER : 2023192310132
IC NUMBER : 050104060434
CLASS/GROUP : PPISMP C6
CODE AND COURSES : ENGLISH EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION (GEEC1052)
LECTURER'S NAME : MR. SANTHARAN A/L S.ARUMUGAM
DATE OF SUBMISSION : 13 NOVEMBER 2023
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ESSAYS ABOUT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN ACADEMIC PURPOSES]
1. The Possibility Of Artificial Intelligence To Replace Teachers
Artificial Intelligence has been in the news a lot lately, from ominous warnings of its future implications from academic leaders like Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk, to panic around Facebook AI developing its own language. And according to a recent report from the McKinsey Global Institute, roughly half of today’s work activities could be automated by 2055. Could “teaching” be on that list? Today, Education World examines the current nature of AI’s role in academia, including a prediction of where we’re likely headed. It’s not as scary as you think!The Digitization of the ClassroomBy now, the classroom is no stranger to online teaching and adaptive software.
Khan Academy’s AI identifies student strengths and learning gaps, and adjusts content accordingly. Adaptive assessment programs like MAP and SBAC are being used more and more often to help tailor school- and district-wide curricula. Software like McGraw-Hill Connect and Aplia allow teachers to manage coursework for massive amounts of students at the same time.
Various other online learning programs tout their ability to reach students in ways they cannot quite access in the traditional classroom.Despite these claims, however, some studies are showing that AI online courses and assessment programs are not getting the results that their real-world counterparts are in the classroom. But why? You’d think the tools students use on a daily basis, for everything from social media to entertainment, would be an “easy win” for engagement. You’d assume that the stress on computer literacy skills as an essential part of the 21st century workforce would make interacting with AI all the more necessary. You might also assume that the endless bounty of knowledge computers can store would render the limited ability of the human mind somewhat obsolete. And yet, for some reason, students generally are not responding to AI teaching resources in quite the same way.What AI Can’t DoBefore you go searching for a new career, consider the role of mirror neurons in human learning. Mirror neurons are “a type of brain cell that respond equally when we perform an action and when we witness someone else perform the same action.” In short, an important aspect of learning in primates is observing and imitating.
Human beings learn best from emulating and practicing with other human beings. The teacher in the classroom is a human model of mastery for a particular content area, with skills and values that are uniquely human—and a student is simply not going to relate to AI with the same capacity. Knowing their teacher is not human puts great strain on a student’s ability to empathize and imagine themselves as mastering the content and skills at hand. A computer is a computer. Computers are capable of levels of calculations we could only dream of achieving with our minds alone. But when a human teacher is able to show the benefits to learning content—and indirectly proving not only that it can be done, but that it is something to aspire to—learners are more likely to be inspired to work harder and make progress.In fact, some argue that due to this lacking connection, robots simply can’t inspire us.
Coursera president and co-founder Daphne Koller notes, "Instructors are valuable, first of all, in creating the content. That’s really important. But I also think it’s important to have someone there to answer the really challenging questions if you really get stuck. And also, people will tell you that one of the most inspirational experiences they’ve had, that have often shaped their life, is someone who’s been a really inspirational teacher." Inspiration is a product of empathy. When a teacher can connect to a student by having “been there,” through heartfelt listening, or even through nonverbal classroom demeanor, they can inspire their students to learn, create, and excel. Even AI with state-of-the-art face rendering technology can’t accurately put to practice all of these variables.And sometimes we underestimate the importance of empathy in the learning process. Don’t. Because despite incredible advances in the field, this is the heart of the limitation to AI as it stands today.
The central challenge faced by developers tackling the role of AI as it applies to the real world continues to be: how do you teach a computer context and intuition? As an example, let’s imagine a full humanoid robotic AI educator at the front of the room. Surely, this AI is less likely to make contentarea errors. It will be able to access absurd amounts of information in the blink of an eye. It would be able to listen to answer questions. It might soon even have the ability to read the faces of students and respond accordingly. We have this technology, and it is expanding every day.What it won’t be able to do is combine these elements along with a thousand other human variables to create meaning. When a student shuts down in your classroom, the human educator is able to do just that. We can read a student’s face, body language, appearance, and any number of other pieces of data to infer an emotional state. However, we are also able to cross-reference that inference with context: how does the student usually respond to lessons, what is going on at home, what are you noticing in the general social dynamics of the classroom, did they get in an argument with their best friend this morning, did they eat breakfast, did they sleep well, was a new video game released yesterday, is it particularly humid in the building today, what’s going on in the general school culture right now, has this student been taking tests all day, are elements like depression or anxiety potentially relevant, or is it just an “off day” for a great student? We can then use our intuition to create a solution for that student. Even the most impressive AI would still struggle with appropriately analyzing the complex needs and immediate cues communicated by a classroom full of students.
The context of knowing each individual student holistically, combined with the intuition of assessing the richness and complexity of a “classroom moment” is simply out of reach for AI. And despite progress, developers can’t imagine you holding your breath any time soon.AI TA: The Classroom of the FutureSo, chances are good your job is safe for the near future. But it is going to change, and AI is going to be a part of that ignition.
For what AI lacks in its empathic abilities, it certainly makes up for in its pure computing power, simplicity of interface, and information storage capabilities. And although robots will not be ushering us from our desks, they will be joining us quite soon ... as teaching assistants.It’s already happening in the fields of law, medicine, and banking. IBM Watson has been helping doctors diagnose medical conditions and analyze MRIs. Platforms like Symantec’s eDiscovery and Kroll Ontrack help attorneys to sort through thousands of documents in the blink of an eye. FutureAdvisor or Wealthfront help investors to make smarter decisions. In these specific cases, the fields have played to the strengths of AI in order to make more tedious tasks manageable within a smaller window of time. And if you ask any teacher what they’d love more of in order to be more effective in their field: it’s time.But how might this technology be adapted to our daily work? Recently, a Georgia Tech professor built an AI teaching assistant for his classroom, which allowed him the capacity to more effectively manage over 400 students all over the world. His AI tends to answer more routine inquiries, freeing him to tackle some of the more complex student conundrums.
A variety of humanoid robots are also being used in South Korea and Japan as a resource to supplement language learning. Students can go through any variety of conversational practices, and the AI can monitor mistakes in usage and pronunciation. In fact, research shows that these programs can help resolve issues like shyness, confidence, and frustration that can arise when practicing repetitively with a teacher: a robot will not get tired, no matter how many errors a child makes.This will be the future of AI in the classroom. Imagine robot TAs (either stationary or actively floating about the room) answering some of the important, yet more rote content questions that come with a particular assignment. Listening AI like Echo and Alexa could quickly access vast databases mid-lesson to share information at conversational speed.
Robots could be programmed to monitor clerical work like collecting assignments, immediately alerting parents and guardians of missing work, facilitating bathroom passes, and quickly supplying testing data in easy-to-read formats. Robot TAs could work separately with struggling students to drill content and easy-to-monitor skills. All of these elements free the educator—the empathizer, the creator, the innovator, the adaptor—to do more and be more in the classroom.Surprisingly, the West is much more hesitant about embracing the integration of robots and AI in the our classrooms, but the tides are quickly turning.
Should you start packing up your desk? Absolutely not. The bottom line is that these technologies work best when paired with an active human facilitator. But it certainly could make your job easier and more efficient. Best practices for the classroom do not go long unheeded. And AI might soon be a teacher’s new best friend.
2. The Vitality of AI in Education
Artificial Intelligence has become more popular recently than in the past due to technological development and improvement, especially in the telecommunication sector. It is becoming more integrated into our lives as more sectors adapt to automated systems to improve efficiency. AI technology is a major part of e-learning and will be critical in improving the education sector and learners’ experience. It will aid the government and education relations organizations like UNESCO to meet their sustainable development goal of providing quality education across the globe. AI technology will also aid in mitigating some of the inefficiencies and inadequacies the education sector faces. As such, it will play a vital role in making education more enjoyable and engaging for learners, creating a better learning environment for students with special needs, and improving administrators’ efficiency. However, it threatens the sector since it promotes cheating, reduces critical thinking for students, and reduces student-teacher interaction.
The first impact of AI in the future of the education sector is that it will make education more engaging and enjoyable for students. Gamification in education is impactful in enhancing the learning experience for learners. Gamification in education refers to adding gaming elements to class concepts to help enhance students’ learning experience through competitions in the typical class setting (Arnold and Jantke 10). Gamification encourages students to become more active in class as they compete with their classmates for points and rewards. AI-based gamified learning programs allow teachers to engage students with fun activities that enable them to understand concepts even better. For instance, Google’s Read Along has an AI assistant named Diya who helps children learn how to pronounce and spell words. The AI creates and presents children with word games and offers them points and rewards and points whenever they correctly pronounce or spell a word. The AI helps the child become more confident with their pronunciation and spelling of words increasing their cognitive abilities. Thus, through gamification of education, AI technology will help elevate and improve the rate at which students understand different concepts in school.
Another positive impact of AI in education is that it will help create a better learning environment for students with special needs. Using virtual reality and AI technology will elevate how schools approach teaching students with special needs. Incorporating AI with VR will critically help determine students’ concentration levels and attention spans. The educators can use the data to create teaching plans to enhance students’ attention spans and concentration levels. It can also teach social and educational skills to students with autism and Down syndrome by providing simulations of real-life interactions with others. According to Luckin et al., “It provides authentic, immersive experiences (the subjective impression that one is participating in a realistic experience) that simulate some aspect of the real world to which the user would not otherwise have access” (29). Students with special needs can face real-world experiences and interactions through VR, which can help them improve their social skills and emotional intelligence. Besides, AI also aids in creating an immersive learning environment for students with ADHD and concentration issues. The AI blocks any distractions that can impact the students’ concentration, making them more attentive in class and improving their grades. Therefore, AI technology will help students with special needs like autism, down syndrome, and ADHD receive proper learning, which can be difficult to attain in a typical class setting.
Lastly, AI will help improve administrators’ efficiency in running classes and schools and providing quality education. AI technology can be utilized to create class and course programs for teaching as it caters to the needs of the students. For instance, in a video by CNN 10, the presenter notes that Alef Education uses AI technology to analyze large sets of class data to prepare lesson plans depending on how students understand a concept and their performances (CNN 10). Doing this allows the educator to develop a better teaching program to help their students become well-versed with the concepts they teach. This, in turn, helps to elevate the students’ grades as the new teaching style is geared towards meeting the deficiencies of the student that impact their understanding of the course. AI can also by teachers shorten the time spent on grading and creating progress and performance reports for parents. AI software like Grade Scope and ChatGPT can be used to grade tests and essays for students. The software uses machine learning to grade the tests more accurately and faster than humans. As such, it allows the teacher to focus on other important teaching aspects and future class projects.
Nonetheless, AI is critiqued for having a negative impact on education. The use of AI has been noted to increase the rate of cheating in school, impacting students’ ability to become critical thinkers. Popular AI software like ChatGPT, Mind-Journey, and DALLE-2 can be used to write essays and produce art projects for students. The AIs are so accurate that they have helped students get high marks on their papers and projects since a teacher cannot distinguish between a human and an AI-written paper. An article by the Guardian notes that cheating is becoming more rampant in schools due to the easy accessibility of AI software to cheat since they are cheap, easy to find, and use (Reich). In addition, the numerous social media videos on how to use them have made them even more popular. Consequently, this reduces students’ ability to be creative thinkers in class since they rely on AI software to write their assignments. Using ChatGPT, one only needs to type the essay’s instructions, and the AI will write a complete essay within 3-5 minutes. This robs the student of their ability to improve upon their research and essay writing skills since the AI is doing the work. Thus, using AI for cheating could hinder the adoption of AI technology in education since it will promote poor academics.
Aside from cheating, AI will negatively impact student-teacher interaction, which is key in improving students’ academic, social, and cognitive performances. AI integration into the classroom has been critiqued on how it will impact human interaction in class. The student-teacher relationship and interaction are important because it helps students develop their soft skills while teachers improve their teaching capabilities. These soft skills, like compassion, as opposed to the hard skills of writing, reading, and arithmetic, are essential in how students relate with each other and the world around them. Teachers help students develop these skills by being kind, compassionate, and friendly. In turn, students share these values with their colleagues, which aids them in becoming more social and aware of their environment. Having fully AI-integrated classes could impact how students develop these skills. This could prove difficult for students with special needs since they need help processing their social and emotional capabilities. Teachers are capable of noticing subtle changes in their student’s behavior and emotional state better than an AI. Interacting with teachers allows the group to feel appreciated. As such, reducing their interaction with their teachers could impact their confidence and self-esteem, resulting in poor academic performance.
Even though AI has several negative impacts on the education sector, it will help improve its quality. Controlling access to AI software and technology is vital in regulating how students and teachers use it. For starters, stakeholders in the education sector could develop a better strategy for integrating AI and education that does not disrupt the teacher-student interaction. Finding a strategy that allows both parties to complement each other could prove integral in how the world government can achieve its sustainable development goals on education. On the issue of cheating, more institutions and teachers should integrate the use of AI detector software or Turnitin to detect papers and essays that have been developed through AI. Such software will deter students’ abilities to commit academic fraud through AI. They could also create awareness of using AI for cheating to ensure students know the consequences of using AI to write assignments and projects. As such, AI integration challenges in education are minimal and solvable, especially since AI is becoming more popular and technology is always improving.
In conclusion, AI integration in education will positively impact education as it becomes more advanced and popular. It will make education more enjoyable and engaging for learners, create a better learning environment for students with special needs, and improve the efficiency of administrators and teachers in delivering their services. It will enhance learner experience and academic performance since their need will be catered to. However, it still poses a major challenge to academic credibility as it facilitates cheating and reduces student-teacher interaction. These challenges hurt the students’ academic success as they impair their critical thinking and ability to improve their cognitive and social skills. Regardless, AI is still the future of education as it provides many possibilities to improve the sector.
Comments
Post a Comment