When Donald Trump was first elected, I opined that he and his billionaire band of merry men would set about trying to reshape the world in their own image. The speed at which Trump and Co. have embarked on that task has been nothing if not terrifyingly impressive.
The thing about being a school teacher, however, is that even as the systems that have held democracy together for the past few centuries are being shredded, the kids keep showing up. As much as Trump has dominated the news cycle recently, another seismic disruptor has been setting public education on its ear, albeit with far less bombast and bluster.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been around in one form or another for decades. Most sources trace its inception back to Alan Turing, who first conceptualized the idea of a computer that could learn on its own. Over the years, AI experienced a few key moments in the spotlight, most famously when the IBM computer Deep Blue beat world chess champion Gary Casparov in 1997. However, for most of us, AI remained the stuff of science fiction.
That all changed in November of 2022 when OpenAI introduced the general public to ChatGPT. In the few short years since, the use of AI to generate text has become almost as common as using a calculator to solve math problems. And much like that particular innovation challenged many of the long held traditional ideas of how to teach math, AI is forcing education to, once again, reinvent itself.
Teaching and Assessment
One of the most notable ways in which AI can be used to help with the daily grind of teaching is through its capacity to generate and assess lessons. Teachers are able to input course content into any number of AI tools and have a series of questions on that content generated in a matter of moments. Student answers to these questions can then be evaluated in the same manner, using criteria that can be customized by the teacher.
In a recent article in Education Week, Amanda Pierman, a science teacher from the United States (#elbowsup!) spoke of how ubiquitous AI is becoming in her daily practice. Tests and quizzes that used to take hours to create are now generated in a matter of minutes using AI. She also uses AI to mark her exams, then reviews those marks in order to provide what she calls “glows and grows”; teacher generated feedback on areas of success and spots for growth in each student’s work.
According to Pierman, this gives her “more brainpower and more brain space” to be able to interact with her students on an individual basis. She also reported that she now felt “less burned out” by her job.
Measuring student engagement
As much as AI is foundationally changing the teaching experience, it is also having a fairly significant impact on the learning experience. As early as 2019, researchers out of the University of Montreal were exploring the use of AI to measure student engagement. The idea was that by tracking student behaviour and engagement, schools could use AI to identify patterns that would hopefully predict, thus prevent, further incidents.
That particular utilization of AI, however, seems rather stone-age-esque when compared to more recent work out of institutions like Athabasca University in Alberta. There, researchers are examining the use of facial recognition software to enhance learning. The software measures facial cues while students are studying a particular lesson to watch for signs of disengagement. That information, it’s supposed, could then be used by AI to determine the moment, and presumably the cause, of the student losing focus.
This research is still very preliminary. However, it does give one a sense of the level to which educators are examining the potential uses of AI.
The future is now
Although the use of AI in some educational areas may still be in the preliminary stages, its applicability in writing based courses has been quickly established. There are now a myriad of applications that use AI platforms to assist teachers and students to develop their writing.
The Khan Academy, a non-profit on-line education institution, has created Khanmingo, a free-for-teachers service that does everything from generating “standards aligned” lesson planning to identifying areas of support in students writing. Magicschool boasts 5 million users and promises to enhance student engagement and individualize instruction all while keeping student information secure. Briskteaching tells educators they can reclaim 10 hours a week by utilizing its interactive AI.
The sheer volume and ease of accessibility of these platforms once again gives one a sense of how quickly all this is moving.
AI and AP
This rapid evolution has not only ushered in a new era of classroom practice, but has also disrupted well established educational cornerstones. One such cornerstone is the Advanced Placement program (AP), which has been in existence since the 1950’s.
AP offers courses that have a higher level of academic rigour than the standard curriculum. Students who take AP courses write a standardized examine in order to receive an AP credit, which can then be applied to their university degree. A number of AP credits are offered here in Nova Scotia, including World History and AP English and Composition.
The advent of AI, however, has caused The College Board, the entity that oversees the AP program, to fundamentally rethink its approach. CEO David Coleman recently announced a veritable litany of changes that were coming to the AP program, including a greater focus on critical thinking skills. Many of these changes are being implemented because AI bots are now able to successfully pass AP exams.
Implications and Ethics
The ethical concerns of AI go way beyond our old notions of plagiarism into a much deeper ethical conundrum. My (#elbowsup!) reference from a few paragraphs ago may have seem misplaced, but the vast majority of this technology is coming out of the United States. Indeed, Elon Musk played a pivotal role in the foundation of OpenAI, the company that launched ChatGPT. (He has since distanced himself from the company).
Although perhaps a tad alarmist, the question of who is generating the information being provided bears consideration. If a student is using AI to assist with, say, a project about the impact of immigration on Canada, it is the AI that chooses what information to retrieve, not the student. The world view that is reflected in that information is totally within the control of the AI developers. It is of some note that AI evaluation tools have shown an inherent bias against ethnically diverse writers.
Here to stay
The integration of AI into our classrooms is well underway, and, much like the calculator, or the desktop computer, or the world wide web, or the mobile phone, this latest technological advance will come with some growing pains to be sure.
Like other advances, it will not be long before everyone will be wondering what all the fuss was about.
And, just like the calculator, and the desktop computer, and the worldwide web, and the mobile phone, teachers will play a foundational role in determining what that “before long” looks like.
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