Is Your District Falling Behind Without AI in Education? Start Here!
June 13th, 2024
The education sector is welcoming the support of AI with open arms. This is evident from the projection that the global market for AI in education will grow at a whopping CAGR of 47.2% between 2024 and 2030 to reach $55.4 billion. The World Economic Forum says that AI plays a pivotal role in shaping the future of Education 4.0. Leveraging AI in schools isn’t a new idea, given that 47% of education leaders use AI every day in K-12 and higher education. Now, the growing demand for automating administrative tasks and personalized education has made it critical for educational institutions to adopt AI for multiple academic purposes.
Digital learning platforms cannot maintain their relevance without harnessing the potential of this technology for K-12 and higher education, both in schools and in remote learning settings.
Benefits of AI in Education
AI is an evolving technology with 4 key promises for the education sector:
1. Support for Teachers
Integrating AI for administrative tasks can streamline operations and free teachers’ time to focus on education delivery. Plus, AI supports K-12 teachers via AI-powered learning assistants that can guide students when teachers are unavailable, enabling anytime, anywhere, self-driven learning. This reduces the burden on teachers and gives them more time for personal well-being. This then translates into better student support.
2. Streamlining Assessments and Analytics
A key role of AI in education is expediting assessments and providing immediate feedback. This drives higher engagement and faster grading. Additionally, machine learning capabilities offer invaluable insights to educators that facilitate the personalization of education, improvement of learning design, and much more.
3. Bridging the Digital Skill and Learning Divide
AI not only improves curricular learning for K-12 students but also facilitates digital education to prepare today’s youth for the workforce of tomorrow. It offers learning tools that foster critical thinking, problem-solving, creative thinking, and other soft skills.
4. Personalizing Education
One of the most highly appreciated benefits of AI is the personalization of learning paths. AI-powered education tools allow educators to offer modular digital education. These tools assess the strengths and weaknesses of learners and identify their learning patterns. This information is used to offer tailored instruction that drives learners to their desired learning outcomes.
Digital Learning Platforms and AI Integration
Online learning platforms can leverage AI to elevate student experiences via:
1. Adaptive Learning
Digital learning platforms, equipped with analytics capabilities, allow educators to offer adaptive education. Learning paths, content formats, and assessments evolve with each learner’s unique requirements.
2. Intelligent Recommendations
AI algorithms assess students’ proficiency levels through their activities, responses, and pace of learning. These are used to enrich learning experiences with targeted content recommendations to broaden their understanding and propel them further toward their learning goals.
3. Real-Time Feedback
Immediate feedback is the USP of AI in online learning platforms. This allows students to rectify their mistakes, improve their understanding, and access reinforcement suggestions. While AI can handle routine feedback, teacher oversight is crucial to maintain fairness and equitability.
Implementing AI in Your District
The American School District Panel (ASDP) is working to bring AI to all classrooms in the country, bridging the technology gaps in urban, rural, and high-poverty districts. The panel found that over 66% of teachers had never used AI tools in classrooms. Only 23% of districts had teachers with AI training in 2023. The report emphasized that “quick attention is imperative” to bridge the digital divide, offer equitable learning opportunities, and effective interventions to bridge learning gaps among learners with disparate access to technology. District educational heads can follow the below steps to encourage the use of AI in schools for teaching, learning, and administrative purposes:
- Assess your district’s readiness in terms of resources, technical skills, and AI awareness.
- Prepare an AI adoption plan.
- Identify and choose the right AI-powered online learning platform.
- Conduct staff training to familiarize them with AI tools and their potential.
- Monitor the progress and refine the approach to optimize AI usage in classrooms.
Considerations While Choosing the Right AI Tool
Strategically planning and executing AI adoption while maintaining scalability is paramount at district level. Follow these tips to optimally extract the value of AI in education:
- Adopt AI best practices.
- Educate parents and teachers about the advantages of AI in education.
- Ensure that machine learning models are explainable, fair, and overridable.
- Maintain compliance with state and national privacy guidelines, and include a robust security framework.
- Employ AI for more than automation. For instance, learning assistants, feedback, analytics, and security.
AI use is inconsistent and fragmented in American school districts due to the lack of tools and training. Educational publishers must help the sector by elevating their online learning platforms with AI. Facilitate teacher training to help schools embrace AI in education. Speak to the experts at MagicBox™ to learn how you can elevate teaching-learning experiences in your district with AI-powered digital learning solutions.
