The AI fluent SmartEducator :

I have been projecting for some time that in the future educators will be the most important group of progressive and flourishing societies, and the ones that will perish and be left behind are the ones that do not make this shift to appreciating the importance of educators. Much of my recent activities and present activities are towards the realisation of this goal. 

As we enter the 3rd decade of the 21st Century, we are witnessing the impact of the twin revolutions, the 4th Industrial revolution ( Klaus Schwab) and the 4th education revolution ( Anthony Seldon). Sir Anthony discussed how Artificial Intelligence will change learning and teaching in universities, and the world into which our students will go. He called on educators everywhere to open their eyes to the fast approaching revolution in Artificial Intelligence, and asked if we are ready to embrace this evolution and shape AI to the best advantage of education and humanity as a whole. The new education policy 2019 has also acknowledged that it is being formulated at a time when an unquestionably disruptive technology AI has emerged. In this article we propose a plan to equip and empower progressive educators to become familiar with AI and leverage it to fulfil the goals of a high quality and equitable education. 

Recent research in neuroscience and psychology suggests that the feeling of uncertainty, fear of rejection or a diminished status all activate the same region in the brain that  physical pain does ( https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicolefisher/2015/12/25/rejection-and-physical-pain-are-the-same-to-your-brain/#6431253f4f87 ). Teachers at School, College, University or Professional institutions will  all be suffering this pain as they realise their lack of familiarity with AI, the driver of both the 4th Industrial revolution and the 4th education revolution. 

Qualities essential for a modern ( AI-fluent) teacher: 

The most important quality of a modern educator is one of being a lifelong learner. The other important attribute is the appreciation that imparting  the knowledge of subjects is less important than fostering a desire to learn and the ability of learning to learn, and building of learning power. 

In the new education policy 2019, the importance of “ learning how to learn” is emphasised, because it is mentioned in the 3rd paragraph itself of the report. “ Indeed, with the quickly changing employment and global ecosystem, it is becoming increasingly important that children not only learn, but learn how to learn. “ and again mentioned in more detail  at para 4.5. 

4.5. The key overall thrust of curriculum and pedagogy reform across all stages will be to move the education system towards real understanding and learning how to learn – and away from the culture of rote learning as is present today. The goal will be to create holistic and complete individuals equipped with key 21st century skills. All aspects of curriculum and pedagogy will be reoriented and revamped in order to attain these critical goals.

The best pro-active response to this challenge is to seize the opportunity and become an AI-fluent SmartEducator. Such a person has a Deep Learning mindset ( well versed in deep learning techniques of Machine Learning as well as pedagogy of mastery learning and learning in depth). It has been said the education will be the killer application of Deep Learning. 

• Is familiar and well acquainted with commercially available solutions ( both in the cloud and at the edge) for deploying AI in education and their best use situations.
• Can be actively involved in creating be-spoke solutions for a specific context. 
• Is well versed with the triple helix of AI-readiness: The Concepts ( theory); The tools; The applications ( educational)

Our program has been designed as a year long program structured as 4 terms of 3 months each.  At the end of each term, the educator-learner will earn a completion certificate of having become a level 1 to level 4 of an AI-ready educator. 

Level 1: AI-familiar educator

Level 2: AI-competent educator

Level 3: AI-proficient educator

Level 4: AI-fluent SmartEducator

The first batch of the program has begun from January 2020. But new candidates can join at the beginning of the month in what may be called a ‘rolling admission’ process. The first course that has to be done by all is “ Learning How to Learn” because we believe that every educator is first a learner, who creates other learners. Robert Frost had famously said “ I am not a teacher, I am an awakener”. 

First term:

By the end of this term, the learner will have an appreciation of the landscape of AI ( and allied technologies such as IoT, Blockchain, 5G and Dapps) and education and be able to distinguish hype from hope. During this period, there will be 3 WhatsApp courses of one month ( 4 weeks Monday to Friday) on the following themes :

MLL01: LHTL ( Learning How to Learn)

MLL02: The Landscape of AI and education 

MLL03: Technologies of the 4th Industrial Age and education

Award at the end of first term : “ The AI-familiar educator”

Second Term:

During this term, the participants will get into details of the most important methods of AI, that will make them confident about being able to play a meaningful role in the field. In particular they will be able to make their own chatbots. The 3 WhatsApp courses during this term will be :

MLL04: Machine Learning for educators

MLL05: Deep Learning for educators

MLL06: Chatbots for learning

Award at the end of second term : “ The AI-competent educator”

Third term:

This is the transformational term. The first month builds an appreciation of the key mathematics such as linear algebra, multivariate calculus, probability, Bayesian models and optimisation. The next month is to build the ability to make practical applications using the IBM cloud services for a wide range of applications. The third month is on understanding the working of driverless cars, and using those principles to develop more autonomous learners. 

MLL07: Mathematics for Machine Learning

MLL08: The IBM Watson and other cloud services

MLL09: Driverless cars and autonomous learning

Award at the end of third  term : “ The AI-proficient educator”

Fourth term :

By the end of this term, not only will the educator-learner become fluent in AI for educational purposes, but is well positioned for a future of affluence, being ready for ‘deep teaching’, the sexiest job of the future ( https://medium.com/intuitionmachine/why-teaching-will-be-the-sexiest-job-of-the-future-a-i-economy-b8e1c2ee413e

MLL10: AI powered personalisation of content and assessment 

MLL11: Learning to learn AI/ML 

MLL12: Flourishing and thriving as an educator in the Gig economy 

Concurrently they will pursue an AI-Ed project to which they will devote about 45 hours during the 3 months 

Award at the end of fourth  term : “ The AI-fluent SmartEducator”

The design is such that it should require about 20 hours of academic effort every month, evenly spread out for about an hour every day from Monday to Friday for 4 weeks in a month. The additional days on weekends may be used to catch up on for any lost time during the working week for unseen contingencies. Most people will during  their third term start investing more time, as they can start seeing the benefits of the learning acquired. In the final term they will devote about 45 hours to a project. The time required for the 3 courses during this term would be significantly less, to make more time available for project work. 

To know more, contact Prof. MM Pant by sending him a WhatsApp message at : +919810073724