Artificial Intelligence and education: the educator’s perspective.
General public access to the internet began in India on 15 August 1995, 27 years back. It was earlier limited to an academic and research community within the project ERNET. Indira Gandhi National Open University was perhaps the first one to adopt Internet based learning for formal University credentials.
Internet access has grown exponentially and soon we will also have 5G. What does the future look like?
- “SCHOOLS, COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES as currently constituted will be redundant in 2035. Instead, we will have institutions of learning that are virtual/meta/open in character. Although the actual education needs of different segments of our population would vary enormously based upon life circumstances and livelihood opportunities, certain core targets in the area of education would be critical to achieve. Due attention would be paid to their cognitive development even before informal education begins at age 3. All people would have affordable re-skilling opportunities to meet the changing requirements of the job market. In a longer-living and ageing society, everybody would have access to second careers and lifelong learning.”
- “SCHOOLS, COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES as currently constituted will be redundant in 2035. Instead, we will have institutions of learning that are virtual/meta/open in character. There would be no school dropouts. All children would have access to quality and affordable education, independent of social, economic, geographic, physical and even mental constraints. Due attention would be paid to their cognitive development even before informal education begins at age 3. All people would have affordable re-skilling opportunities to meet the changing requirements of the job market. In a longer-living and ageing society, everybody would have access to second careers and lifelong learning.”
- The above text has been extracted from page 61 of the 2015 report by Technology Information,Forecasting and assessment council (TIFAC)with title “ Technology Vision 2035” available at https://www.anilkakodkar.in/assignments/Technology-Vision-2035.pdf }
- In 2015 the UNGA adopted SDGs of which goal 4 is regarding education, and is in the same spirit as above. The targets for 2030 of this goal can only be achieved by an AI driven teacherless education model suggested by Thomas Frey : https://youtu.be/E3bUn9-j0yo
- If we continue to insert a teacher between ourselves and everything that we need to learn, we will never be able to learn in time everything we want to or need to learn.
- In 2016, Professor Klaus Schwab of the WEF drew our attention to the 4th Industrial revolution: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-it-means-and-how-to-respond/
- In 2018, Sir Anthony Seldon published his book “ The fourth Education Revolution”: https://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Education-Revolution-Intelligence-Infantilise/dp/190868495X which was followed by its Covid edition in 2020. https://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Education-Revolution-Intelligence-Infantilise/dp/1800318243
- In 2017 itself Sir Anthony Seldon had predicted that by 2027 robots and AI will replace human teachers : Will robots replace teachers in the future? | K-12 Dive
- William Gibson in the Evonomist dated Dec.4th 2003 :”The future is already here. It’s just not very evenly distributed.”
- AI based teacherless learning systems. Ecole 42 ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/42_(school)?wprov=sfti1 ) and Duolingo ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duolingo?wprov=sfti1).
- Rishi Sunak promises Artificial Intelligence in Schools to reduce teachers workloads: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/sunak-truss-education-artificial-intelligence-conservatives-b2139853.html
- What will schools look like in 2050? What Will Schools Look Like in 2050? – EdTechReview
- AI will soon replace traditional human teachers standing in front of a class of about 20-40 students and transacting a prescribed ( often obsolete and irrelevant) curriculum designed by an ‘authority’.
- We have to prepare ourselves for a future with driverless cars and teacher-less learning or what we may better call as SmartLearning. The learners will of course make this transition relatively easily as bots and recommender systems are already part of their environment. I have created a one month course to become a SmartLearner delivered through WhatsApp and augmented with Zoom sessions on Saturdays. More information about this course : https://mmpant.com/basl-become-a-smartlearner/
- But erstwhile educators/ teachers will have to make conscious efforts to transform to their new roles of mentors, coaches and cognitive development facilitators. Perhaps in their avatars as entrepreneurs for which I have created this course: https://mmpant.com/fostering-educational-entrepreneurship/
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