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Benefits of AI in Education, with
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award-winning February 23, 2023 - Helen Hooper
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In this article we’ll discuss AI and the benefits and changes it’s
Explore bringing to education.
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We’ll also be sharing some useful links to tools and platforms using AI
in education.

Some educators are understandably fearful of the recent advances in

AI technology, particularly with the release of OpenAI’s latest
language model, ChatGPT. Students can easily ask the platform to
complete homework assignments for them in just a few seconds.

And by showing it a sample of previous work, the AI can even write an

essay in the student’s own personal style – complete with grammatical
and spelling errors, if desired – adding to the authenticity and to make
cheating almost impossible to detect!

So, given all this, what should educators do? And is AI the end of
education as we know it?
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Ban AI?
fear of plagiarism, of students not engaging in tasks or of not learning
at all, several universities around the globe are resorting to a blanket
ban on the use of AI.

Top French University Sciences Po for example, now “strictly forbids

the use of ChatGPT or any other tool using AI”, citing sanctions “which
can go as far as expulsion from the establishment or even from higher
learning”.

There are, of course, many AI detection tools out there –

Originality.ai, GPTZero, Writer.com’s Ai detector tool to name but
three but no such tool is foolproof.

Speaking to the Guardian for Australia, Toby Walsh, Scientia professor

of artificial intelligence at the University of New South Wales said:

“There are technical solutions – digital watermarking, but you

can just run another program over it to destroy the watermark.
It’s an arms race that’s never going to finish, and you’re never
going to win.”
 How is artificial intelligence (AI) used in education?

Or Embrace AI?
Whether we like it or not, in the long run, AI technology is going to
become a staple part of our lives – so rather than fight it, it seems
clear that we, as educators, need to move with it; use it to our
advantage and adapt the way we teach accordingly.

Qualification body, The International Baccalaureate is taking this

approach. Likening the AI language model to calculators or spell check
tools – that when used correctly can add value – they have announced
that students will be able to quote from work generated by ChatGPT.

It’s almost inevitable that the nature of learning will change

dramatically in the future – both in terms of the content and skills to be
taught and also the way students learn.

Rather than focusing solely on written output, for example, students

may be encouraged to spend more time working on devising pertinent
questions, analysing the creative process, debating, group work, high
level critical thinking, communication and presentation skills – all very
human activities that the likes of ChatGPT cannot replicate.

In addition, more and more educators are starting to look to AI

solutions combined with online or VR activities as part of their
teaching methods – which can result in some of the most creative,
motivating and highly effective immersive learning experiences.

Speaking of the adoption of VR technology, Graeme Lawrie, Director

of Innovation and Outreach Sevenoaks School, UK, recently wrote that
his school was “moving away from simply ‘learning’ a subject or topic
to ‘feeling’ the content.” He explained that approach:

“allows a student to explore, to experience or to be involved in

something, as if they are actually present in that environment
or place.”
Benefits of AI to students
By immersing students in technology from a young age, we are likely
to be giving them a head start in the future workplace – where use of
such technology will inevitably become more and more commonplace.
But that aside, let’s consider some of the ways in which AI is already
bringing enormous benefits to learners:

Analyse Learning gaps: Specially designed AI platforms can

analyse past performance, and identify learning gaps that can
easily go otherwise undetected.
Personalisation: AI can adapt content to the student, creating a
personalised learning experience rather than a one- size fits all
approach.
Questions answered instantly: With the help of AI students can
have their questions answered within seconds rather than waiting
for a human response – this has the further advantage of
encouraging shy students to ask questions without fear of being
judged.
Timely feedback & just-in-time learning: Students can also
receive more frequent and timely feedback at the point of
learning, when the topic is still fresh in mind and they are more
open to learning.
Engagement: Learning with AI allows for gamification and other
engaging learning environments such as VR and AR, which can
greatly increase student motivation and engagement.
Time saving: Using AI to help generate ideas or structure content
frees up student time to focus on higher level skills such as analysis
or creativity.
Improved accessibility: With smart data gathering, custom tasks
and personalised schedules, the boundaries between students,
teachers and educational administrators can be bridged with the
help of AI technologies. Barriers based on physical location,
language, money can be overcome as we move closer to 24/7
access to all.
Neurodiversity: Some neurodiverse students who may struggle
with traditional settings or learning methods thrive in AI powered
environments.
Benefits to educators
There are also many ways in which educators are already taking
advantage of AI and these benefits are only set to grow:

Time saving: AI can take on many of the time consuming jobs that
educators are currently expected to do – for example record
keeping, and marking. It can also help streamline the planning
process – this feeling up the teacher to engage the creative and
very human actions that are required to take learning experience
to the next level.
Idea & content generation: AI can save teachers time in creating
content, ideas and even learning objectives for teachers to review,
amend and use creatively in the classroom, project work or
assignments
Answering student questions: In using AI as a personal tutor,
students not only benefit but teachers too. More questions can be
answered, teachers can track what’s been asked whilst focusing
their efforts on designing interventions to further engage students
and plug any learning gaps.
Analysing student performance: AI can track class attendance,
assignment submission and performance on specific tasks to help
identify learning gaps or flag up worrying behaviour. This makes it
far easier for a teacher to design appropriate interventions in a
timely manner.
Motivating and engaging students: In today’s fast paced,
technology-driven world, people crave fun and exciting methods of
learning to keep them engaged.

Use cases
Moving on to some interesting use cases, we’ve selected just a handful,
but there are so many innovative companies developing AI enhanced
solutions to support and enhance learning in students of all ages.
 Seneca: A UK based homework and revision platform that is so
sure of its product that it guarantees its students will receive top
exam grades or your money back!
Thinkster Maths: A digital maths tutoring platform that uses AI and
machine learning to visualise how a student thinks and
personalises content.
Knewton’s Alta: Designed for higher education, this adaptive
learning courseware is designed to optimise the way students
study and learn while completing assignments.
Gradoscope: A platform that not only grades papers but provides
students valuable feedback and insights to help instructors
monitor progress and learning gaps.
VirtualSpeech: Focusing on all important soft skills, such as
presentation, meeting and interview skills, VirtualSpeech uses
immersive VR technology to replicate
InnerVoice by iTherapy: is an app designed to help neurodivergent
children form connections between objects and language and
helping them learn.

Conclusions
AI is developing at a rapid pace. It has already impacted the
education system and will continue to disrupt.

Educators who stay put, relying only on old methods will find
themselves increasingly at a disadvantage – whereas those who
embrace the power that is AI and who adopt tools and platforms to
reduce time consuming work will be freed up to focus on the more
human and creative work of creating learning experiences that really
count.

And from the students’ perspective, they are increasingly coming to

expect instant feedback, creative, interactive learning activities and
gamification as standard.

It seems inevitable that not only the way we teach but also what we
teach will change with the continued development of AI. The skill sets
required for future generations in the workplace will be more focused
on higher level skills of critical thinking, creativity and communication.

Working in education in this era of rapid technological change is

exciting and whether in terms of innovating, testing, implementing or
simply continued student guidance, every teacher and educator has a
role to play in helping define what the learning of tomorrow will look
like.
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