This paper explores the burgeoning field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and more specifically some of the research questions emerging for educators, institutional leaders and policy-makers. In 1996, Deep Blue outsmarted Soviet Grandmaster and World Chess champion Garry Kasparov; and more recently in 2011, Watson, an IBM supercomputer, defeated Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings.
These two much-publicised moments in the history and development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) lay the foundation for potentially significant and disruptive changes to traditional models of education. Indeed, some critical commentators, such as Donald Clark (2016), speculate whether or not AI is potentially the ‘next big thing’ to impact both education and the future of work. Set against growing hype and a number of bold predictions, this paper reports our desk research on a number of current initiatives with bots and virtual agents (see for example, Bayne, 2015; Boulay, 2016) and in looking to the future considers the potential impact the latest generation of AI may have on the work of 21st Century educators.
Although history suggests there is a danger of overpromising the potential of new technological advances at the expense of understanding the complexity of pedagogy and the implementation of educational change, there is no doubt that AI requires a new line of educational research in order to better understand the opportunities and challenges facing today’s educators (Dillenbourg, 2016). More to the point, if educators rather than techno-centric perspectives from within the industry are to shape the focus and direction of this research we need to be proactive in asking how will the affordances of AI impact on the nature of the learning experience? How can educators best harness the potential of such developments in the service of more effective teaching and better learning outcomes? Is it really possible that robots, virtual agents and other forms of AI could in the foreseeable future replace the traditional role of teachers?
In exploring these questions and a selection of the emerging popular and more research-oriented literature, the presentation attempts to demystify the complexity of AI by sharing real examples already being applied in other sectors. In so doing the objective is to help identify and scope out the types of research questions, methodologies and pilot initiatives that the educational community might benefit from investigating in terms of better understanding both the potential and pitfalls of new AI influenced approaches to teaching and learning in the future.
References
Bayne, S. (2015). Teacherbot: Interventions in autmated teaching. Teaching in Higher Education, 20 (4), 455-467.
Boulay, B. (2016). Artificial intelligence as an effective classroom assistant. IEEE Intelligent Systems, November/December, pp. 76-81.
Clark, D. (2017). 7 myths about AI. Blog: Donald Clark Plan B, available from http://donaldclarkplanb.blogsp...
Dillenbourg, P. (2016). The evolution of research on digital education. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 26 (2), 544-560.
Topics: Global challenges in Higher & Further Education , Topics: Innovations and design in online & blended learning
