How AI is influencing education

Despite AI still being in its infancy, it’s already having a significant impact on teaching and learning.

UK Government Invest in AI for Teachers

In August the Government announced that they are investing £4 million to create software with AI companies that will generate lesson plans for teachers, help them mark work and assist them with routine school admin. The idea is that the new AI will allow teachers to spend more time with their pupils and reduce pressure. The AI software will be trained using government documents including curriculum guidance, lesson plans and assessments to “generate accurate, high-quality content.” According to the Government website, half of teachers are already using AI for reasons such as developing resources, saving time and for adapting learning materials. Teachers can also use tools such as ‘AI Based Plagiarism Detection’ to check students work for plagiarism.

'Teacherless School' launched in London

In London recently an entire school was launched that solely teaches using a mixture of AI and virtual reality headsets. Dubbed as the ‘Teacherless school’, David Game College is a private school with fees of £27k per year, and is the first school of it’s kind. While this is the extreme end of the scale for AI in education, it shows how far things have come already.

Students cheating with ChatGPT

AI presents both challenges and benefits. While it offers time-saving benefits to teachers, it can also be a temptation to students. ChatGPT for example has already caused issues in Education, assisting students with their homework by writing it for them. While AI offers efficiency and convenience, school leaders and teachers might consider discussing with their students how to use AI responsibly.

Learning to Read with AI

Both Google and Microsoft offer several AI tools for teachers, such as tools for creating lesson plans and presentations in just minutes, and the ability to easily monitor students progress. They also provide students with AI tools, such as to personalise their learning, inspire creativity and to adapt resources for accessability purposes.

Microsoft and Google also offer apps to improve students reading skills by monitoring accuracy when reading aloud. Both apps score the child and will flag word pronunciation issues, and give teachers the ability to monitor student progress using the apps dashboards.

Google provides ‘Read Along’ which offers students stories to read aloud and provides reading tasks with an AI ‘reading buddy’ to guide them along the way. This app is already available in eleven different languages. Since Google launched the app 5 years ago, it has already made a significant difference to young people’s lives. Available in 180 different countries, Read Along has assisted children across the world in learning to read that otherwise wouldn’t have had access to education.

Microsoft provides ‘Reading Coach’. This app works by allowing children to generate stories with AI by choosing certain elements such as character and location. They then read the story aloud and the app listens for accuracy of reading. Reading Coach is only currently available in US English, but is due to be released in other languages this year.

Critics may question how well the read-aloud AI software may cope with different accents. It is likely still in its development stage and could potentially flag reading issues for children who may be pronouncing the words perfectly in their native dialect. However, for children who struggle with reading or motivation in English, these apps could provide an interactive and fun way to encourage their creativity and reading skills. There is also potential for the apps to be used as a tool for learning a new language, helping with accurate pronunciation.

Final Thoughts

We will see more and more AI tools being developed for Education in the coming years. AI has the ability to enhance teaching practices, save time and to provide students with interactive, tailored learning tools. We are already starting to see how it is having an impact in Education and permanently changing the future of teaching and learning.

Speak to us today about how Google or Microsoft apps can help your school using the power of AI, or discuss with us your school's IT Support needs.