AI and Education
When I was at school in the late 1980s, our school got a computer. Just one, in the library. I remember using it for some document I wrote, I can’t remember what, on a floppy (yes, actually “floppy”) disk. At university we had computer labs, but I still wrote my undergraduate dissertation on an electronic typewriter. My MA was written on the computer and during my PhD I published two articles on an “electronic journal”. But computers had not had a significant impact on education.
Fast forward to now, and most schools have Google accounts for their students, even at primary school. During lockdown lessons were delivered on Microsoft Teams. Online applications are not only used for teaching Computer Studies, learning Python, HTML and CSS. They’re also used for maths homework and times tables, as well as pointing to videos on BBC website and others.
But computers and mobile devices have just replaced text books and written homework. They have changed where learning happens, not how learning happens. But I think AI should create a monumental change in the steps through education. The question is how long it takes academics to realise it.