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Technology in Education: An Overview - Education Week

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From blended learning to computerized testing, digital and online technologies are reshaping the classroom experience for millions of students.

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Like notebook, iPad, smart phone...

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Like Youtube, Wikipedia, databases...

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Tomorrow's Teachers

Robots will replace teachers by 2027.

That's the bold claim that Anthony Seldon, a British education expert, made at the British Science Festival in September.

Seldon may be the first to set such a specific deadline for the automation of education, but he's not the first to note technology's potential to replace human workers. Whether the "robots" take the form of artificially intelligent (AI) software programs or humanoid machines, research suggests that technology is poised to automate a huge proportion of jobs worldwide, disrupting the global economy and leaving millions unemployed.

But just which jobs are on the chopping block is still a subject of debate.

Some experts have suggested that autonomous systems will replace us in jobs for which humans are unsuited anyway - those that are dull, dirty, and dangerous. That's already happening. Robots clean nuclear disaster sites and work construction jobs. Desk jobs aren't immune to the robot takeover, however - machines are replacing finance experts, outperforming doctors, and competing with advertising masterminds.

The unique demands placed on primary and secondary school teachers make this position different from many other jobs at risk of automation. Students all learn differently, and a good teacher must attempt to deliver lessons in a way that resonates with every child in the classroom. Some students may have behavioral or psychological problems that inhibit or complicate that process. Others may have parents who are too involved, or not involved enough, in their education. Effective teachers must be able to navigate these many hurdles while satisfying often-changing curriculum requirements.

In short, the job demands that teachers have nearly superhuman levels of empathy, grit, and organization. Creating robotic teachers that can meet all these demands might be challenging, but in the end, could these AI-enhanced entities solve our most pervasive and systemic issues in education?

Room For Improvement

In 2015, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a plan for eliminating poverty through sustainable development. One goal listed on the agenda is to ensure everyone in the world has equal access to a quality education. Specific targets include completely free primary and secondary education, access to updated education facilities, and instruction from qualified teachers.

Some nations will have a tougher time meeting these goals than others. As of 2014, roughly nine percent of primary school-aged children (ages 5 to 11) weren't in school, according to the same UNESCO report. For lower secondary school-aged children (ages 12 to 14), that percentage jumps to 16 percent. More than 70 percent of out-of-school children live in Southern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. In the latter region, a majority of the schools aren't equipped with electricity or potable water, and depending on the grade level, between 26 and 56 percent of teachers aren't properly trained.

To meet UNESCO's target of equal access to quality education, the world needs a lot more qualified teachers. The organization reports that we must add 20.1 million primary and secondary school teachers to the workforce, while also finding replacements for the 48.6 million expected to leave in the next 13 years due to retirement, the end of a temporary contract, or the desire to pursue a different profession with better pay or better working conditions.

That's...a lot of teachers. So it's easy to see the appeal of using a robotic teacher to fill these gaps. Sure, it takes a lot of time and money to automate an entire profession. But after the initial development costs, administrators wouldn't need to worry about paying digital teachers. This saved money could then be used to pay for the needed updates to education facilities or other costs associated with providing all youth with a free education.

Digital teachers wouldn't need days off and would never be late for work. Administrators could upload any changes to curricula across an entire fleet of AI instructors, and the systems would never make mistakes. If programmed correctly, they also wouldn't show any biases toward students based on gender, race, socio-economic status, personality preference, or other consideration.

But we still have some ways to go before such instructors enter our classrooms.

Education systems are "only as good as the teachers who provide the hands-on schooling," UNESCO claims, and today's robots simply can't match human teachers in the quality of education they provide to students. In fact, they won't be able to for at least the next decade, Rose Luckin, a professor at the University College London Knowledge Lab, a research center focused on how digital media can transform education, told Futurism. Teachers rely heavily on social interaction to support their students and figure out what they need, Luckin continued, and so far no digital system can compete with a human in this realm.

However, it is possible that no robot will ever be good enough to replace teachers completely. "I do not believe that any robot can fulfill the wide range of tasks that a human teacher completes on a daily basis, nor do I believe that any robot will develop the vast repertoire of skills and abilities that a human teacher possesses," Luckin said.

There is some weight to Luckin's assertions. While machines can handle a variety of specific tasks, we haven't yet come close to creating artificial general intelligence (AGI) - the kind of machine that could answer the tough questions outside the purview of the immediate lesson that good teachers should be prepared to tackle. Today's robots also lack the empathy and ability to inspire that teachers bring to the classroom.

That doesn't mean robots won't replace teachers, though. Very few studies directly compare human and robot teachers, so it's not clear how much better the human performs than the robot.

In any case, Luckin suggests a compromise: AI and automated systems could have collaborative roles in the education system. That would enable teachers and students to take advantage of the tech in ways that will benefit them both, and we wouldn't need to worry about lack of oversight for when our AI systems do encounter problems.

AI in Every Classroom

For teachers, the classroom is anything but serene. Kids giggle during lessons, call out, rustle papers, and fidget - teachers must compete with the chaos to simply get students to learn. And teachers take their jobs home with them, too, spending their evenings and weekends planning lessons and grading student work.

What if AI could act as an extra pair of hands in the classroom? That was the idea Luckin and her co-author put forth in a recent paper. This AI assistant could manage tasks such as taking attendance or routine grading. It could also help teachers generate new lessons by autonomously navigating online teaching resources, such as Teachers Pay Teachers, to find the lesson plans most likely to resonate with a classroom based on the details of the students and the school's specific curriculum.

Decreasing the workload dumped on teachers would hopefully make them less stressed. This could limit the burnout that has exacerbated the teacher shortage and make the position more appealing to others considering becoming teachers. In her paper, Luckin predicted that every teacher could have a dedicated AI assistant within the next decade.

But AI could do more than the drudgery of teaching - it could actually make teachers better by giving them greater insight into their students' needs.

Classrooms could be equipped with language processors, speech and gesture recognition technology, eye-tracking, and other physiological sensors to collect and analyze information about each student, Luckin writes. Instead of waiting for a test or a raised hand for a student to display her understanding of the material, teachers could access real-time information that could show them why the student might not be learning at full capacity. They'd know which students weren't getting enough sleep, if they had inadequate diets, if they were suffering from emotional stress - information that can affect a student's performance but that can be difficult to tease out in the classroom.

The teacher could use this information to tailor his or her teaching strategies to meet the needs of each individual student. They could simply look at a list generated by the AI to see what each student should work on that day. If a student needed extra one-on-one attention, the teacher could instruct that student to work with an AI-powered Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) that adjusts its approach to match the student's learning style. Meanwhile, the teacher may decide to give other students group work so they could hone their interpersonal skills.

The system could also help students modify their behavior to improve their own performance. For example, a student might learn that she scores lower on exams when she stayed up late the night before, drank coffee that morning, or took public transport to school instead of walking. By altering these habits in the future, she could score better on the tests and excel.

As Luckin told Futurism, the increased use of AI in education could have downsides. Schools will need to guard against the misuse of student data, and cybersecurity will be of the utmost importance. Still, these types of precautions won't be limited to education. Data protection will be a universal concern as the Internet of Things (IoT) grows and our world gets increasingly "smart."

A few decades in the future, every student and teacher could be the master of their own personal educational analytics, Luckin predicts. That information could be useful beyond the classroom - students may choose to share certain analytics along with their college admission packages, while teachers may include theirs in applications for future employment.

Not My Classroom

As previously noted, it will be a little while before every teacher has an AI assistant and every student has an AI tutor. Developing the necessary technology will be the simple part, Luckin said, and already, some researchers are working on such systems.

Convincing parents, teachers, and students to embrace AI in education will be the real challenge. Some may be biased against the technology for fear it will leave them unemployed, while others may have a hard time shaking thoughts of the doomsday scenarios posited by tech luminaries such as Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking.

Teachers, in particular, are likely to be more resistant to automation because teaching is an "inherently human process," Terry Heick, founder and director of TeachThought, a publisher of teaching materials and resources that are focused on innovation in education, told Futurism.

He said teachers might take the suggestion that a "symbolically mindless robot" could do their work as an indication that others see their skillset as easy to duplicate. In fact, said Heick, the opposite is true - teaching is such an "impossible" task that anything that could make the job easier on teachers should be valued.

To ease this resistance, researchers and tech companies could involve educators, parents, and students in the development of AI systems designed for the classroom, as Luckin suggests in her paper. Stakeholders could see that their input and experience is valuable; they could even identify weaknesses in systems under development. Researchers can tailor systems to suit the needs of educators, students, and parents, improving the final product. Skeptics could see how AI could improve the learning experience.

For this process to go well, it needs to be slow and iterative. It will likely take decades at best.

"Considering that education still hasn't embraced mobile technology, the idea of Johnny 5 circling around a classroom teaching students in just a decade seems far-fetched," Heick said. But maybe someday.

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The solution to our education crisis might be AI

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Robots will replace teachers by 2027. That's the bold claim that Anthony Seldon, a British education expert, made at the British Science Festival in September. Seldon may be the first to set such a specific deadline for the automation of education, but he's not the first to note technology's potential to replace human workers.

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Artificial Intelligence has been in the news a lot lately, from ominous warnings of its future implications from academic leaders like Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk, to panic around Facebook AI developing its own language. And according to a recent report from the McKinsey Global Institute, roughly half of today's work activities could be automated by 2055. Could "teaching" be on that list? Today, Education World examines the current nature of AI's role in academia, including a prediction of where we're likely headed. It's not as scary as you think!

The Digitization of the Classroom

By now, the classroom is no stranger to online teaching and adaptive software. Khan Academy's AI identifies student strengths and learning gaps, and adjusts content accordingly. Adaptive assessment programs like MAP and SBAC are being used more and more often to help tailor school- and district-wide curricula. Software like McGraw-Hill Connect and Aplia allow teachers to manage coursework for massive amounts of students at the same time. Various other online learning programs tout their ability to reach students in ways they cannot quite access in the traditional classroom.

Despite these claims, however, some studies are showing that AI online courses and assessment programs are not getting the results that their real-world counterparts are in the classroom. But why? You'd think the tools students use on a daily basis, for everything from social media to entertainment, would be an "easy win" for engagement. You'd assume that the stress on computer literacy skills as an essential part of the 21st century workforce would make interacting with AI all the more necessary. You might also assume that the endless bounty of knowledge computers can store would render the limited ability of the human mind somewhat obsolete. And yet, for some reason, students generally are not responding to AI teaching resources in quite the same way.

What AI Can't Do

Before you go searching for a new career, consider the role of mirror neurons in human learning. Mirror neurons are "a type of brain cell that respond equally when we perform an action and when we witness someone else perform the same action." In short, an important aspect of learning in primates is observing and imitating. Human beings learn best from emulating and practicing with other human beings. The teacher in the classroom is a human model of mastery for a particular content area, with skills and values that are uniquely human-and a student is simply not going to relate to AI with the same capacity. Knowing their teacher is not human puts great strain on a student's ability to empathize and imagine themselves as mastering the content and skills at hand. A computer is a computer. Computers are capable of levels of calculations we could only dream of achieving with our minds alone. But when a human teacher is able to show the benefits to learning content-and indirectly proving not only that it can be done, but that it is something to aspire to-learners are more likely to be inspired to work harder and make progress.

In fact, some argue that due to this lacking connection, robots simply can't inspire us. Coursera president and co-founder Daphne Koller notes, "Instructors are valuable, first of all, in creating the content. That's really important. But I also think it's important to have someone there to answer the really challenging questions if you really get stuck. And also, people will tell you that one of the most inspirational experiences they've had, that have often shaped their life, is someone who's been a really inspirational teacher." Inspiration is a product of empathy. When a teacher can connect to a student by having "been there," through heartfelt listening, or even through nonverbal classroom demeanor, they can inspire their students to learn, create, and excel. Even AI with state-of-the-art face rendering technology can't accurately put to practice all of these variables.

And sometimes we underestimate the importance of empathy in the learning process. Don't. Because despite incredible advances in the field, this is the heart of the limitation to AI as it stands today. The central challenge faced by developers tackling the role of AI as it applies to the real world continues to be: how do you teach a computer context and intuition? As an example, let's imagine a full humanoid robotic AI educator at the front of the room. Surely, this AI is less likely to make content-area errors. It will be able to access absurd amounts of information in the blink of an eye. It would be able to listen to answer questions. It might soon even have the ability to read the faces of students and respond accordingly. We have this technology, and it is expanding every day.

What it won't be able to do is combine these elements along with a thousand other human variables to create meaning. When a student shuts down in your classroom, the human educator is able to do just that. We can read a student's face, body language, appearance, and any number of other pieces of data to infer an emotional state. However, we are also able to cross-reference that inference with context: how does the student usually respond to lessons, what is going on at home, what are you noticing in the general social dynamics of the classroom, did they get in an argument with their best friend this morning, did they eat breakfast, did they sleep well, was a new video game released yesterday, is it particularly humid in the building today, what's going on in the general school culture right now, has this student been taking tests all day, are elements like depression or anxiety potentially relevant, or is it just an "off day" for a great student? We can then use our intuition to create a solution for that student. Even the most impressive AI would still struggle with appropriately analyzing the complex needs and immediate cues communicated by a classroom full of students. The context of knowing each individual student holistically, combined with the intuition of assessing the richness and complexity of a "classroom moment" is simply out of reach for AI. And despite progress, developers can't imagine you holding your breath any time soon.

AI TA: The Classroom of the Future

So, chances are good your job is safe for the near future. But it is going to change, and AI is going to be a part of that ignition. For what AI lacks in its empathic abilities, it certainly makes up for in its pure computing power, simplicity of interface, and information storage capabilities. And although robots will not be ushering us from our desks, they will be joining us quite soon ... as teaching assistants.

It's already happening in the fields of law, medicine, and banking. IBM Watson has been helping doctors diagnose medical conditions and analyze MRIs. Platforms like Symantec's eDiscovery and Kroll Ontrack help attorneys to sort through thousands of documents in the blink of an eye. FutureAdvisor or Wealthfront help investors to make smarter decisions. In these specific cases, the fields have played to the strengths of AI in order to make more tedious tasks manageable within a smaller window of time. And if you ask any teacher what they'd love more of in order to be more effective in their field: it's time.

But how might this technology be adapted to our daily work? Recently, a Georgia Tech professor built an AI teaching assistant for his classroom, which allowed him the capacity to more effectively manage over 400 students all over the world. His AI tends to answer more routine inquiries, freeing him to tackle some of the more complex student conundrums. A variety of humanoid robots are also being used in South Korea and Japan as a resource to supplement language learning. Students can go through any variety of conversational practices, and the AI can monitor mistakes in usage and pronunciation. In fact, research shows that these programs can help resolve issues like shyness, confidence, and frustration that can arise when practicing repetitively with a teacher: a robot will not get tired, no matter how many errors a child makes.

This will be the future of AI in the classroom. Imagine robot TAs (either stationary or actively floating about the room) answering some of the important, yet more rote content questions that come with a particular assignment. Listening AI like Echo and Alexa could quickly access vast databases mid-lesson to share information at conversational speed. Robots could be programmed to monitor clerical work like collecting assignments, immediately alerting parents and guardians of missing work, facilitating bathroom passes, and quickly supplying testing data in easy-to-read formats. Robot TAs could work separately with struggling students to drill content and easy-to-monitor skills. All of these elements free the educator-the empathizer, the creator, the innovator, the adaptor-to do more and be more in the classroom.

Surprisingly, the West is much more hesitant about embracing the integration of robots and AI in the our classrooms, but the tides are quickly turning. Should you start packing up your desk? Absolutely not. The bottom line is that these technologies work best when paired with an active human facilitator. But it certainly could make your job easier and more efficient. Best practices for the classroom do not go long unheeded. And AI might soon be a teacher's new best friend.
Written by Keith Lambert, Education World Associate Contributing Editor Lambert is an English / Language Arts teacher in Connecticut.

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Could Artificial Intelligence Replace Our Teachers?

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Artificial Intelligence has been in the news a lot lately, from ominous warnings of its future implications from academic leaders like Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk, to panic around Facebook AI developing its own language. And according to a recent report from the McKinsey Global Institute, roughly half of today's work activities could be automated by 2055.

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The dawn of the age of holograms | Alex Kipman

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Alex Kipman wants to create a new reality - one that puts people, not devices, at the center of everything. With HoloLens, the first fully untethered holographic computer, Kipman brings 3D holograms into the real world, enhancing our perceptions so that we can touch and feel digital content.

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Imagine a scenario you can use technology in your classroom...

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Imagine a scenario you can use technology in your classroom...

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Updated September 25, 2017 19:15:16

Bestselling author and Australian Children's Laureate Leigh Hobbs is on a mission to save school libraries from "disappearing".

Mr Hobbs is best known for his Horrible Harriet and Old Tom children's book series and said despite living in the digital age, libraries and librarians were essential for schools.

"I've got a real view about bureaucrats and politicians talking about literacy all the time, and at the same time libraries and librarians are disappearing, sort of seemingly one after another," he told News Breakfast.

"The problem with that is that parents don't know about it, because teachers aren't allowed to write letters to the paper."

Mr Hobbs is the current Australian Children's Laureate - a position appointed by the non-profit Children's Literature Alliance to promote reading and literacy - and has been touring the country visiting schools and libraries.

He acknowledged the rise in digital resources presented a handy alternative to some physical books, but said librarians had expertise that could not be replicated online.

"They fulfil a very important role. Like teaching kids how to research and all these literacy skills," he said.

Exact figures on the number of teacher librarian roles remaining in Australia - and what these roles look like - are hard to come by.

A 2010 Federal Government inquiry into school libraries concluded there was a "fundamental need to collate some hard data to ascertain how many teacher librarians there are in Australia's primary and secondary schools".

"It is indisputable that the value of teacher librarians' work has been eroded over the years and undervalued by many in the community," the inquiry also found.

For those in the business, the trend towards downsizing or closing school libraries is clear.

Rick Susman set up the Booklegger company in 1978 to sell non-fiction books to school libraries, and in June this year finally made the call to shut down the distribution business. He will now focus on digital subscription services.

"Six years ago I was selling $1.25 million worth of print books - that's non-fiction reference books - into school libraries around Australia," he said.

"Last financial year it was $100,000.

"That's a 93 per cent drop in five or six years."

Mr Susman said when he first started Booklegger 39 years ago, every primary school in Victoria had a teacher librarian, but times had changed significantly.

"There are schools, including private schools, where there's no commitment to a library at all and where schools have just hived off responsibility and said, 'Oh we'll just put a whole lot of books in classrooms'," he said.

Australian company Softlink provides library management systems and for the past seven years has also conducted research into school libraries and their relation to literacy rates.

Its 2016 report echoes the findings of the 2010 Government report that there appears to be a link between library funding and literacy achievement.

"The 2016 findings continue to indicate a relationship between well-funded and well-staffed libraries and student achievement," Softlink found.

"The findings show, once again, a correlation between high NAPLAN literacy results and a well-resourced library."

Topics: library-museum-and-gallery, education, australia

First posted September 25, 2017 14:55:25

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Is the school library a thing of the past?

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Updated September 25, 2017 19:15:16 Bestselling author and Australian Children's Laureate Leigh Hobbs is on a mission to save school libraries from "disappearing". Mr Hobbs is best known for his Horrible Harriet and Old Tom children's book series and said despite living in the digital age, libraries and librarians were essential for schools.