Role of Artificial Intelligence in Education (Free Essay Sample)

We live in a world where artificial intelligence is prevalent. It has slowly but surely entered every aspect of our lives, from online shopping to personal assistants like Siri and Alexa. Artificial intelligence, or AI,refers to intelligence that comes from machines. As an important aspect of computer science, it focuses on the creation of intelligent machines that have human-like functions such as learning, reasoning, and self-correction. 

Artificial intelligence can prove to be extremely beneficial to the education sector. With the right materials and instruction, it can help students learn better and faster. AI will not diminish the classroom experience in any way. In fact, it will make it much better.

AI can provide students with numerous benefits. Personalization is one of them. Benjamin Bloom, a well-known education psychologist, proved that the one-on-one technique can significantly improve learning retention (Bloom, 1984).Based on a student's strengths and weaknesses, the system can adapt and give instructions that help make learning more engaging. This will create custom tailored education through AI. Amira is one such program that provides feedback while a student reads and can report on errors and progress for each session. Currently, AI-powered education programs are helping learners to learn basic skills, but when these programs grow, they will be able to provide a much wider range of services.

Several chatbots are specifically built to assist students with their queries, so they don't have to wait for their tutors to clear them. For example, with the help of Microsoft cognitive services, the University of Sydney created Corona-Bot, an AI-infused chatbot that responds to student enquiries about COVID-19. The university's approach allows students to receive instant answers to their questions, and this system is highly scalable so tens of thousands of students can utilize it. 

The main concern people have when introducing AI into an industry is that it will replace workers. This isn’t entirely true, though. AI wasn’t designed to replace educators. Rather, it's meant to complement them. It can assist tutors in identifying some weaknesses within the classroom. Slackwood Elementary School in New Jersey uses the teaching assistant Happy Numbers. The system analyses students' work in mathematics and shows teachers where students struggle most, also providing personalized guidance about how to improve. AI can also provide teachers with curriculum materials and appropriate solutions, saving them so much time, while also improving their skills. While AI isn't yet able to completely replace human grading, it can certainly simplify the process, allowing educators to spend more time on student interaction and classroom activities. According to the South China Morning Post, some Chinese schools have introduced paper-grading artificial intelligence into their classrooms.  

Artificial intelligence has gained momentum in the education sector in recent years. With newer implementations in place; this technology seems to have a bright future in education. Thus, we can say that the role of AI in education is very significant and is becoming more influential every year.