AI in education: How teachers adapt

As technology transforms the way students learn, Makoda Gascon shares insights into how educators can respond to AI with awareness, intention, and balance.

Photograph: Pixabay: Alexandra_Koch

Text: Makoda Gascon

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is getting increasingly popular across all aspects of life. As education reaches a crossroads with AI, there is a vital discussion to be had about how teachers must adapt.

What is Artificial Intelligence?

AI can be described as a branch of computer science that has developed advanced systems capable of performing human-like cognitive tasks. When these systems are fed information, they can build a complex knowledge database based on the experiences they have been given. In essence, it is the process by which computers mimic human learning by recognising patterns and data they are fed.

AI in education

The impact of AI on education varies by context. For some teachers, they may welcome the idea of implementing AI in their classrooms, perhaps to the point of overusing it and losing sight of its purpose. On the other hand, there may be teachers who are frightened by it and will never want to understand it. Though some educators may not realise it, AI is slowly slipping into many aspects of education, with the impression it leaves determined by the teacher, grade level, access to electronics, and/or subject matter. When faced with this reality, each teacher must make the conscious choice to adapt to the changing times.

How teachers can adapt

Teachers need to be aware of how education is changing with the use of AI. Even if they themselves do not use it in their classrooms, it can be much harder to stop each of their students, or a school as a whole, from using AI in a manner of ways. As a result, teachers must learn to adapt to AI to stay alert to its impact on their profession. The most important aspect of adapting is to be knowledgeable about AI and what it is doing for education; from there, each teacher can use their own judgment of how they would like to implement, or not implement, its usage in their own classrooms. Follow along as we go over some ways teachers can use AI in their classrooms to adapt to an ever-changing profession.

Fast information

Using AI to look up answers to questions quickly can be a great, non-inevasive way to incorporate AI into the classroom. Many search engines now offer AI-enhanced answers to questions, which can help a teacher get faster answers. Usually, this feature draws on many different websites to provide a culminating answer based on the information originally given to it. This, however, does not replace fact-checking and actual research. Still, it can be used in a pinch when the information you are looking up is based on common knowledge or even subject-specific questions with a simple answer.

Creating learning materials

As an educator, there may be parts of teaching that need an extra boost. One of the biggest ways teachers can use AI is to create learning materials for further instruction, from small tasks like quizzes to full lesson plans. With many generative AI websites, placing a prompt can result in a whole new product. If you want to create a quiz or classroom activity, AI can use information students have already learned and generate suggestions or even full materials for use in the classroom. If students don’t know the information, AI can instead recommend ways to create meaningful lessons that support each student’s growing knowledge. As much as AI can aid in this scenario, it cannot fully replace the unique knowledge a teacher has of their students; a big part of being a teacher is ensuring that every student grasps a concept to the best of their abilities through constant adjustments throughout the teaching process.

Making peace

Looking to the future, it does not seem that AI will be leaving our world anytime soon. Rather than being completely against it and fighting it, learning to understand it and how it can aid teachers and students can be a step in the right direction toward striking a balance. No matter how AI may impact an individual, it is important to understand that AI does not need to be the centre of education; it can provide tools and tricks to help teachers become even more effective educators.