many countries are trying to bring artificial intelligence into the classroom. will it be better for education?
2024-09-14
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accompanied by curiosity and doubt, attempts at ai education are being carried out in many countries around the world.
what sparks will emerge when education meets artificial intelligence (ai)? south korea plans to launch the world's first "ai textbook". will ai make education more efficient and fair? will young students become overly dependent on digital devices? will ai reduce teachers' workload or "take their jobs"? with curiosity and doubt, attempts at ai education are being carried out in many countries around the world.
parents and teachers disagree on promoting "ai teaching materials"
in 2025, south korea will launch the world's first ai textbook - a tablet-based digital textbook powered by artificial intelligence. teachers and parents have had very different reactions to this.
how to learn with ai textbooks? unlike traditional paper versions, students will learn through the website, and artificial intelligence will adjust the progress according to their level of mastery, make up lessons for children who encounter learning difficulties, and provide more advanced courses for those who pass successfully. the south korean government believes that personalized customization enables each student to find a learning method that suits them. a government official said that this will stimulate students' interest in learning and help creative thinking.
other ai tools that will enter korean classrooms include an interactive robot called "cloi" that can provide artificial intelligence answers to questions, and a program that can transcribe teachers' words onto an electronic whiteboard.
according to the plan, south korea's ai textbooks will be used from the new semester in march 2025 and will be implemented for 5 million primary and secondary school students. among them, third, fourth and seventh grade students will start using it that year, fifth, sixth and eighth grade students will join the next year, and ninth grade students will use it in 2027. printed textbooks will be used until 2028 to help teachers and students better adapt during the transition period. in addition, by 2028, all subjects in korean schools will introduce artificial intelligence applications, except for music, art, sports and moral classes.
south korea's minister of education emphasized the importance of digital classrooms at a press conference. source: gj (same below)
the south korean government sees new digital education tools as key to reforming the school system.
"we need to shift from a one-way, memory-based classroom to a space where students can participate and take control of their learning. 2025 is a critical year for this change." south korean deputy prime minister and minister of education lee ju-ho recently reiterated the importance of "digitalizing" the classroom and pledged to fully support teachers in innovating education through ai textbooks.
according to a survey by the korean federation of teachers' associations, 54% of public school teachers support the implementation of ai textbooks. however, parents' response was not positive, and some even jointly opposed it.
earlier this year, parents posted a petition on the online platform of the national assembly of south korea, asking the government to consider the overall well-being of students more, oppose excessive exposure to digital devices, and shelve the new system of ai textbooks. the petition reads: "as parents, we have encountered many unprecedented problems that stem from children's excessive exposure to digital devices." the petition has received support from more than 56,000 people.
lee sun-young, a 41-year-old mother of two school-age children living in seoul, said she would like to see more teachers to tutor students after school, rather than ai textbooks. "i am worried that excessive use of digital devices will have a negative impact on children's brain development, attention span and problem-solving ability. they already use smartphones and tablets too much."
some observers in south korea are also cautious about ai textbooks. shin kwang-young, a sociology professor at chung-ang university in seoul, said the government's attempt to introduce ai textbooks was "too hasty and without properly evaluating its side effects, just because artificial intelligence is a big trend today."
shin kwang-young believes that ai in the classroom is at risk of "getting out of control" given the potential spread of false information, plagiarism, and leaking students' personal information. currently, there are no details on how the korean ai textbook and its related ai educational tools will work, or how to prevent the system from developing ai "hallucinations" or a tendency to make mistakes.
in response to these objections, lee joo-ho promised to actively communicate with all relevant parties. "we believe that when parents understand that digital textbooks will be used in conjunction with paper textbooks under the guidance of teachers, their concerns will be alleviated." lee joo-ho said: "new changes may bring challenges due to lack of information and experience." but he emphasized that this change may bring a big leap forward for korean education and society as a whole.
according to reports, the korean ai textbook was jointly developed by lg electronics and other companies and more than 60 textbook companies. some korean electronics companies are competing to provide educational technology services and are stepping up efforts to seek "going overseas". this ai textbook may be a weather vane for the development prospects of korean educational technology.
attempts to introduce ai into classrooms are underway in many countries around the world
“ai tutor” tutoring is expected to improve learning outcomes
at pease elementary school in texas, usa, artificial intelligence is helping children make progress.
in this school, teachers use tablet computers, combined with ai software programs such as "my math academy" and "my reading academy", to provide one-on-one guidance to students. since taking office in 2021, the school's principal, arrot, is one of thousands of school leaders across the united states who have vigorously promoted "blended learning."
three years ago, when students just returned to the classroom from remote learning, they faced many difficulties. most of the students here are hispanic, and many of them come from economically disadvantaged families. the texas education agency grades schools based on students' academic performance and test scores, and pease elementary school received an "f" grade, making it more difficult for the school to receive much-needed support.
how can students catch up? artificial intelligence has become an opportunity. after three years of trial, principal arot believes that students' learning participation has been greatly improved and the school atmosphere has also been significantly improved.
diana hughes, head of a company dedicated to ai product innovation, pointed out that the advantage of ai education is that it can efficiently evaluate the learning effects of each child and adjust follow-up plans at any time. "it would be crazy to ask a teacher to follow up on this process for dozens of children in the class every day."
data shows that the company's ai education products have been successful in some of the worst performing schools in the u.s. some students' assessment scores improved after 12 hours of ai tutoring.
us elementary school students use ai-based educational apps
on the other hand, for "academic masters", ai education products seem to be equally convincing.
also in texas, students at austin alpha high school generally use application-based "ai tutors" to improve their grades. in the sat test, known as the "american college entrance examination", these students scored an average of 1545 points (out of 1600 points), while the national average score in the united states is 1030.
back at pease elementary school, galloway, a second-grade student, is an excellent student. his mother, savannah, said that her child used to feel bored in regular learning, but after starting to use ai educational products, his enthusiasm for learning increased and his attention became more focused. "because ai taught me things that ordinary teachers don't teach me." galloway interjected, "it wasn't fun at all before, but now it's fun."
a study by oxford university found that ghanaian students who used the ai education product "math tutor" twice a week for half an hour over eight months improved their scores "much higher" than their peers in the control group.
according to industry insiders, ai education products can also help to ensure educational equity. "it is a great equalizer," said price, co-founder of an ai education product. "ai is infinitely patient. it doesn't care how fast or slow you learn, what race the students are, or whether they are rich or poor. but it can create more possibilities."
however, there are still some potential risks that deserve attention. for example, ai education products may generate false information such as "bias" due to training data and may pass it on to learners, while some students may become dependent on technology and take certain shortcuts to learn.
in addition, industry insiders warned that the ai skills gap between students could widen rapidly. some suggested that the government provide policy guidance to schools to better protect students. "in the face of ai educational products, the biggest risk is to do nothing. because the world has and is changing, we should change the way and content of teaching and embrace artificial intelligence."
will “ai teachers” come to help or “steal jobs”?
what impact will the new trend of "ai teachers" entering the classroom have on human teachers? it is generally believed that ai can not only help students improve their grades, but also help teachers reduce their workload. "ai teachers" cannot completely replace teachers, but they can free up more energy for teachers to focus on direct communication with students, which is also something that machines cannot currently do.
according to xinhua news agency, at the end of last month, the british government announced plans to invest 4 million pounds to support technology companies in developing artificial intelligence tools to reduce teachers' workload and help with lesson preparation, homework marking and other matters.
ai education tools still cannot completely replace the role of teachers
a survey report by educational publisher twinkl found that the use of ai technology can avoid a large amount of unpaid overtime for teachers across the united states, saving teachers up to 13 hours of work per week.
so, is it reliable to hand over some of the teachers' work to artificial intelligence? according to the survey, nearly half of the teachers in the uk have used ai tools in their work to save time, such as using ai to make courseware, draw pictures and correct homework. according to a study by the uk ministry of education, using targeted teaching data to train ai models can increase the accuracy rate from 67% to 92%.
carlton oquendo has taught at chicago's hawthorne academy for 42 years. she said that while ai tools can help students and teachers, they will never replace the most critical part of her job. "technology is a great tool, but it can't replace human connection. most of us still remember the teachers who talked to us and influenced us. you can enhance it all you want with technology, but real human interaction has a tangible impact on kids."
produced by deep sea studio
written by pucheng
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