Report: Best Use of AI in Augmenting (Not Replacing) Teacher
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 05/06/20
A
new report is out to help teachers and school leaders understand how
artificial intelligence can change education. "Artificial
Intelligence (AI) in K-12," prepared by the Consortium
for School Networking (CoSN),
examines how the technology can augment what educators do to help
students get "personalized instruction at scale" while also
introducing "new challenges and considerations." The
project was supported by Microsoft
and CoSN's memorial fund, the Charles Blaschke Fund.
The
report asserted that AI already exists in applications being used by
schools, such as learning analytic platforms, online courseware,
voice assistants and within commonly used programs such as the AI in
Microsoft Office that recommends a PowerPoint layout or suggests a
formula in Excel.
A
big area of focus is on how the education community should consider
the use of AI in terms of "privacy, bias and literacy. As the
authors noted, most AI tech has been designed and developed for
commercial purposes, which means it doesn't pay much attention to
state or federal privacy legislation meant for school-age children.
Also, much of AI is driven by "black-box" algorithms, which
may introduce "flaws and biases" into the interpretation of
data. And, educators will need a certain level of "algorithmic
literacy" to use AI effectively.
The
main message is that AI on its own won't replace the "presence
of a high-quality teacher." Its "true promise," the
report suggested, will require a "combination of high-tech and
high-touch," using AI "to support great teachers and create
new learning opportunities for students that take advantage of
meaningful human relationships."
"Artificial
intelligence has the power to advance education and supplement the
learning process of each and every student with personalized
instruction," said Keith Krueger, CEO of CoSN. "We are
grateful for our partners' support on this project and hope this
report gives school districts insight on how this groundbreaking
technology can improve existing practices and broadly reshape
education moving forward."
The
full 14-page report is openly available on
a link provided by CoSN.
About the Author
Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.