AI in education – the plusses and pitfalls

The AI possibilities in education are considerable but there are also some dangers.

Because it is something children will grow up with, schools must not ignore it or somehow pretend it doesn’t exist.

Its advantages must be acknowledged and embraced, but the negatives must also be acknowledged and mitigated against.

AI should be a tool that assists and should not replace the appropriation of traditional skills by children.

My experience of investigating some of the AI tools is that they can be abused as well as be useful.

Essays can be written at a simple prompt, questions can be answered fully without any engagement or study, complex calculations and explanations can be gained at the press of a button.

There is nothing wrong with these tools being utilised, but the danger is they could dissuade children from acquiring important life skills. To me, basic literacy and numeracy skills must not be lost.

Children’s literacy and numeracy must be acquired.

With regard to literacy, this means that comprehension, grammar, syntax, punctuation, spelling and vocabulary and the ability to compose in writing should be taught.

Numeracy should be taught too – this includes the four rules of number, decimals and fractions, mensuration, percentages, ratios, probability, geometry, shapes and algebra.

When calculators became available widely in the 1990s, there was a definite impact on children’s numeracy skills as some educators didn’t think children needed to learn their times tables anymore.

This was quite damaging and there has been a doubling down on traditional skills in schools by the previous government as they spotted the danger.

I’m totally in favour of this as these skills are very important for children’s intellectual development.

We need to train children’s brains and if AI is used improperly humans will just become appendages and prompts for machines.

People need to learn in a structured way to gain understanding and then they can use the AI tools for beneficial purposes and to enhance their range of skills.

And with AI able to complete essays and tasks, it makes exams even more important.