Like a boulder hurdling down a hill, Education 4.0 is well on its way with huge potential. Before we get into it, let's understand it. The term is one of the many industries that make up the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), a significant shift of how industries work. It’s driven by enhanced efficiencies, productivity and innovation. For education to keep up, tech integrations in syllabus and teaching styles are a need. The 4IR include Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, Cloud Computing, and more. The one we'll be discussing is AI in education.
AI has made a powerful entrance in the modern world, but it often lacks the human touch, making it sound bland, detached, and devoid of personality. However, humanising AI changes that. When AI combines forces with human creativity and experience, it creates unique and relatable results, drawing from common experiences, nuances, and expressions that resonate deeply with the audience.
The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) comprehensive report dives into how AI can change classrooms for the better. It empowers teachers, enhances personalisation, and boosts digital skills among students. Here are five key points we learned:
AI Supports Teachers, not Replace Them
Striking a Balance in Student Engagement
Fostering Practical Skills for the Fourth Industrial Revolution
Making Education More Inclusive for People with Disabilities
Ensuring Responsible AI Deployment
No.1: AI Supports Teachers, not Replace Them
One of the best uses of AI in education is to help teachers complete tedious tasks for them. What usually takes hours on end can be completed in a matter of seconds. They act as a teacher’s copilot who can help grade assignments, manage schedules, and track student progress. With the burden of tedious tasks out of the way, teachers can focus on enhancing lesson planning and what matters most - teach.
A common education bottleneck is the global teacher shortage. This problem is faced by schools of all levels. As the need for teachers grows, using AI in classrooms can make teaching jobs more efficient and manageable. This new and powerful technology, however, sparks backlash from people whose jobs are directly threatened by its existence. But AI is still missing a human element. And unless it has that, it’s safe to say that it can merely support the teaching process, not replace it. Never forget that the human element is central to education.
Really, why? You may ask.
The answer lies in the unpredictability of learning.
You see, learning is not a linear path. It’s a messy, dynamic journey of discovery and change, and teachers are always prepared to adapt as needed. AI? Not so much.
We know that students learn through mistakes and missteps. They learn through the unexpected insights that arise from a spontaneous classroom discussion. AI, however, struggles with the unpredictable nature of human interaction. It’s designed to follow instructions to a T, sometimes to a fault. It can’t tailor its outputs to the nuances of a class dynamic, or respond to a student’s unspoken anxieties, that often lead to the most profound learning experiences. AI can’t replace teachers without these capabilities.
Just as a calculator doesn't replace the need for understanding math, AI won't replace the need for human connection, adaptability, and guidance in the classroom. The future of education doesn't lie in sterile, roboticized classrooms, but rather a balanced blend of human expertise and technological support.
All this isn’t to say that AI has no place in the classroom. Its abilities to personalize learning paths, provide immediate feedback, and analyse data are already proving invaluable for educators. However, these tools should be seen as partners, not replacements.
Brazil’s Initiative on AI Education: The Letrus Writing Skills Program
At the time of writing, the program has over 100,000 beneficiaries in primary and secondary schools across Brazil. The program improves literacy in Portuguese by using an AI-driven mechanism that gives instant feedback to students on their written essays. Schools can even opt-in for AI to grade the essays according to Brazil’s national exam requirements.
According to feedback from university teachers, some may spend an average of 1 hour to grade 1 assignment. If a classroom had 80 people and a teacher had a 40-hour work week, that would mean spending 2 full weeks on grading just 1 assignment. And that doesn’t account for their own research, lesson planning, consultation and more. A quick search on the internet shows many advice on how to grade faster, more efficient and to simply give less assignments. Programs like Letrus enables the teacher to maintain their plan and make time for actual conversations with the student.
Promisingly, Letrus has enabled students to achieve a 10% improvement just after submitting 5 essays. However, any tech breakthrough requires lots of funding and support. A business-to-government model is still in the works. And if achieved, surely, more students from lower socio-economic statuses can be reached.
No.2: Striking a Balance in Student Engagement
In any industry, more data makes a clearer picture. A clearer picture lets us make better decisions. AI integrations can transform the way we assess and analyse how students perform. Traditional methods often don't fully capture students’ abilities and needs. So, what’s lacking?
Engagement. Like any social media and (proven methods) of micro learning apps, engagement is a critical element to stay connected and command attention. As mentioned, traditional grading can take up to 2 weeks before students receive some feedback. By then, students would’ve lost their train of thought and the feedback would be equally as foreign as their own submission.
With AI, teachers can use real-time data to see and act on students’ strengths and weaknesses. The WEF report shows how AI can offer more complete evaluations and insights into student progress. For example, AI can track a student’s performance over time, spotting patterns that human evaluators might miss. This allows for quick changes in targeted teaching strategies.
High Touch, High Tech: Korea’s Mass Personalized AI Education
High Touch, High Tech (HTHT) is an initiative to deliver quality, personalized education at scale by combining teachers and AI technology. In 2022, Prof Lee Ju-Ho, Chairperson of the Education Commission Asia proudly presents findings of the HTHT Initiative.
“Our first prototype project in Vietnam demonstrated learning gains of .436 standard deviation. An equivalent of two years learning in just 1 semester.” – Prof Lee Ju-Ho
The diagram above shows Bloom’s Taxonomy; 6 levels of cognitive skills in hierarchical order that help teachers teach and students learn. According to Dale Johnson, Director of Digital Innovation of Arizona State University, all 6 levels can be achieved from both technology and teacher. “Understanding” and “Remembering”, which is heavy on practice and repetition, can be done autonomously with online instructional materials. Subsequently, higher order levels can be focused in-class.
The HTHT Initiative had modified this understanding to suit the 4IR era. Firstly, “Understanding” and “Remembering” is represented by “High Tech” which involves AI technology. Secondly, the higher order levels is represented by “High Touch” which involves interactions with teachers. The use of AI technology frees teacher up for more engaging interactions with students.
In July 2024, President of the Korea Education Research and Information Service (KERIS), Jae Young Chung introduced the status of Korea’s AI digital textbook during the World Economic Forum’s Summer Meeting.
“5 million individualised textbooks to 5 million students”- a vision of HTHT Initiative
Korea is set to implement the AI digital textbooks in phases starting in 2025. The initiative has since garnered a considerable amount of global support in hopes of providing equity among diverse student groups.
No.3: Fostering Practical Skills for the Fourth Industrial Revolution
As the world progress further into the digital age, so must the people. Thanks to the introduction of the Internet, digitalization was made a norm during the Third Industrial Revolution (3IR). Soon after, new jobs replaced outdated ones, inevitably causing mass unemployment. Since the Third Industrial Revolution encompassed automations, computers and electronics; the focus tend to be on “the machine” and humans influencing decision making. Enter, the Fourth Industrial Revolution - where soon “data” drives even more decisions than ever before. New hard and soft skills revolving around digital literacy, problem-solving, critical thinking and creativity is a must to avoid landing in the unemployment bucket.
Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving." — Albert Einstein
It’s important for students to use and interact with AI in a hands-on way. This can build necessary digital skills essential in shaping the future workforce. On the other hand, teaching about AI is just as important as teaching with AI. As AI tools become more and more common in education, students and teachers should learn how AI works and its potential risks. This includes understanding AI development and its ethical considerations.
While many slowly steer away from search engines and published research (let alone the humble pen and paper) AI platforms are prompted to generate full solutions in the matter of seconds. Consequently, academic integrity takes a turn for the worst. To combat this, Turnitin, a plagiarism checker software, has created an award-winning AI writing detection feature that was launched only months after OpenAI’s generative AI application, ChatGPT. They reported in March 2024 that out of 200million submissions:
11% (22mil papers) have at least 20% AI writing present
3% (6mil papers) have at least 80% AI writing present
Chat GPT explains UX with poem. Source: The Fountain Institute
Mali’s AI Tutors: Gearing African Youth for a Tech World
Over in West Africa, a startup called Kabakoo Academies noticed student’s lack of competencies despite attending school. As a result, 66% of African youths are in mismatched jobs according to the African Development Bank Group (10). Kabakoo had a clear mission; Increase employability among the African youth.
They developed a learning experience that mixes hands-on learning, tech and culture. In more recent times, WEF reports their use of AI tutors, that are available 24/7, providing personalized learning experiences and mentorship to their students. The completion of the program has led to significant improvements in their skills and income prospects which makes it a practical, real-world skills training tool.
In May 2024, Kabakoo organized their second event called Bamako.ai Season 2 to provide a stage for African youths to showcase their knowledge and innovations and learn from others. The event ties back to their mission of employment by rewarding AI hackathon winners with a promise of paid internship.
No.4: Making Education More Inclusive for People with Disabilities
Extensive research shows that individual tutoring greatly improves learning outcomes. Often, tutored students outperform their peers in traditional classrooms. However, personal tutoring can get very expensive. Even more so for students with special needs and disabilities, one of society’s most marginalized groups. According to the National Centre for Education Statistics in America, the number of children with disabilities grows steadily each year with 2018 at its highest of 7.28 million. In fact, it had near doubled since 1976 with 3.69million disabled children. The growing number puts pressure on schools and the struggle to find more special needs teachers.
UNICEF’s Accessible Digital Textbooks (ADT) is an award-winning initiative increasing education equity among students with disabilities. The program is already implemented in 10 countries. AI offers a solution by customizing the learning experience for each student whereby unique learning styles and needs can be met. Hence, UNICEF’s next step working together with assistive technology and AI experts to speed up development of the ADT.
No.5: Ensuring Responsible AI Deployment
With the rise of AI seen in many aspects of our lives today, it is clear that our future generation will be working even closer alongside it. But the question is, how do we ensure a responsible and equitable adoption? The WEF report stresses the need to design AI tools that cater to diverse abilities and ensure fairness and accessibility to all. This includes the disparities between genders, public and private schools, urban and rural areas, disabilities that are hidden or seen, physical or cognitive.
A deepfake Donald Trump (right) based on talkshow host Jimmy Fallon’s impression of the president (left). Source: The Guardian
As data becomes a crucial commodity in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, more light is shed on cyber security. AI’s natural language model enables fraudulent online impersonation scams such as deepfakes and voice cloning. Some statistics include:
Home Security Heroes reports 95,000 deepfakes circulating online in 2023 which is an increase of 550% since 2019.
Sumsub reports a 10x increase in deepfakes detected globally from 2022 to 2023.
Financial times reports Britain losing £580 million ($728 m) to fraud of impersonation of police, bank employees and CEOs using deepfake.
Thus, a collaborative approach involving policymakers, educational leaders and AI experts are needed to ensure a means of protection. As a preventive design measure, the New America poses questions on how responsible and ethical AI use might look like. Some examples related to data privacy are:
What specific type of student data will you collect, store, or have access to?
Who can access the data? Where will the data be stored?
How and when will data shared by us be destroyed? What processes do you have in place for data correction?
In a digital world, no one is immune from the dangers of a data breach. Investing in infrastructure, training, and data protection is necessary to prevent the digital divide from widening. The goal is to ensure all students benefit from AI-enabled learning.
Final Thoughts
AI in education has the potential for both teachers and students. Classrooms will be revolutionized with enhanced teaching and learning; and preparation for students to thrive in a data-centric future. By supporting teachers, refining assessments, improving digital literacy, and personalizing learning, AI can transform education and promote education equity.
In reality, achieving this potential requires immense support. The WEF report ends by urging policymakers, educators, and AI developers to collaborate. Similarly, all the initiatives and programs mentioned has done the same. By addressing these key aspects, together, we can unlock AI's full potential to revolutionize education and shape the future of learning.