How will artificial intelligence impact K-12 education in the United States?
“It is difficult to predict exactly how artificial intelligence will impact K-12 education in the United States, as it is still a rapidly developing technology. However, it is likely that AI will be used in a variety of ways to improve and enhance the education experience for students. For example, AI can be used to personalize learning and provide customized educational content to individual students, based on their unique needs and abilities. AI can also be used to automate grading and other administrative tasks, freeing up teachers to spend more time working with students. Additionally, AI can be used to create engaging and interactive learning experiences, such as virtual reality environments and educational games. Ultimately, the impact of AI on K-12 education will depend on how it is adopted and integrated into the educational system.”
You probably already know where this is going.
I didn’t write that opening paragraph. Nor did I do a web or literature search to find that text. Instead, I put the question into ChatGPT. The answer above showed up in less than ten seconds.
Just a few months ago I wrote about education technology broadly. Regarding AI, I wrote:
We have yet to find, or hear about, AI being used at scale in K-12 public education, even after exploring this topic with our DLC members.
That fact doesn’t mean, of course, that no such examples exist…
AI is being talked about and hyped, and there’s no doubt it holds great promise. But as with VR, there is confusion about what AI actually is. In particular, the use of fixed algorithms is commonly conflated with AI.
(SNIP)
AI is tomorrow’s technology, and perhaps always will be. More likely, it’s just a long way off still.
OK, I got that one wrong, partially because I was focused on the use of AI to personalize learning by providing different content to each student, which was how it was being talked about. But more recently it has become clear that AI chat capabilities (and graphics generation) are developing faster than many people realized—me among them!
In the past weeks, there have been many articles on AI in education. Here’s a quick primer on some of the latest AI/education activity and commentary:
Education Week has been covering AI with articles including What Is ChatGPT and How Is It Used in Education? (That article is an excellent primer.)
In a more detailed review, Daniel Hickey of Indiana University explores What Does the Media Say about ChatGPT and Education?
Post-secondary education bloggers are exploring AI with posts such as I Would Have Cheated in College Using ChatGPT. (The writer goes on to say “But I wouldn’t have thought of it as cheating.”)
Getting Smart argues that Education is about to radically change because of AI.
The End of High-School English is predicted in The Atlantic.
NYC education department blocks ChatGPT (yeah, that’ll stop students from finding it).
Perhaps as a response, an opinion in Ed Week argues Don’t Ban ChatGPT. Use It as a Teaching Tool.
Some articles are discussing AI shortcomings, although my read on these is they are making a major mistake on focusing on the current versions of AI instead of recognizing that AI is in early stages—and in fact the free version that most people are accessing is already a version or two behind.
All this activity hasn’t escaped some of our Digital Learning Collaborative members and colleagues. One, from a district in Minnesota, wrote in just before the holiday break to say he wanted to run a session about AI at DLAC, because he and his teachers are seeing students using AI to write essays and are thinking about how to address this issue. Separately, the ED of Montana Digital Academy emailed to make sure this topic is on our DLC/DLAC radar, as MTDA has been looking at it for some time.
But even with all the media stories, I still think the wide availability of this AI may be an under-appreciated development, perhaps because ChatGPT’s release—and much of the initial publicity—was around the end of the fall semester and then the end of year holidays, when educators have other pressing issues on their minds.
Technology, society, and education often go in directions that we can’t predict. Raise your hand if in your early exposure to ideas about AI in education, the writer or presenter led with was “the first thing you’ll see is students submitting essays they didn’t write.”
Would you know I hadn’t written the opening paragraph, if I didn’t tell you?
Will AI “transform” or “revolutionize” education? I don’t know. But it’s worth exploring.
In subsequent blog posts I’ll present some arguments for why it will, and why it won’t.