AI in education sector: making a future-ready workforce

As we are approaching towards ending another decade, it’s time to reflect the future. FUTURE-READINESS OF SCHOOL ECOSYSTEM. As education continues to evolve and develop its curriculum and programs to prepare students with 21st-century skills, let’s talk about the 4th industrial age, an age driven by AI, machine learning and other technologies like IoT, blockchain, AR, VR and so on. The rate of change has become very fast. Today organisations and people are looking for skillset and most importantly mindset. So suddenly a set of skills needs to be developed while you’re learning the subject matter hence knowledge, mindset and skillset all are necessary to meet the global requirements quoted by Prof. M M Pant (Mentor at MASH Virtual)

The World economic forum created a list of 10 most important skills of 2020 which included critical thinking, creative thinking, complex solving, emotional intelligence, people management, service orientation, cognitive flexibility etc. It is estimated that 37% of the jobs that will exist in 2022 will require different skills than what is available in the present education system.

The entire education system will completely transform and technologies like Artificial Intelligence will make some remarkable changes to make the students future-ready.
Education is the transformation of knowledge and construction of knowledge, therefore when we have automotive tools to enhance that it will be a hugely impacting factor.

Limitations of typical Education model

1. In the present system, there is no one-on-one interaction between the learner and the teacher.

2. Most of the technology used till now in a typical Education Model was of a broadcast nature like computer, MOOCS, Tv, media etc.

3. Students are bounded to restrict their learning to their curriculum and are not able to identify their learning potential.

Solutions/ New age Education model

1. Artificial Intelligence promises personalization of learning experience. Just like Netflix, AI will create a recommendation system of books, exercises, videos etc. Students will also have access to flexible ways of learning which will be personalized to suit their grasping abilities. It could also be an engine driving you towards what YOU NEED to know.

2. New technology like AI that has been introduced in the Education Model is working towards personalised interaction, like the rise of the use of tablets in classrooms which connects both the teachers and the students on a common platform thus promoting personal approach from the teachers end.

3. It will also enable the students to go beyond learning goals which lack in the Traditional Education Model. The students will not be bounded to learn their curriculum but will have the option to test their potential and learn beyond their present curriculum. Educators will be guided towards building a motivational profile of experiences that encourage community-based learning through a fine balance between innovation and execution.

As we look at the upcoming decade, we are now on the verge of having intelligent technologies supporting teachers and while it may act as a threat to the teachers but technology will replace teachers who are not using technology with teachers, who are using technology. Therefore, the role of teachers will be to amplify the knowledge. As AI educational solutions continue to mature, the hope is that AI can help fill needs gaps in learning and teaching and allow schools and teachers to do more than ever before.
Since the students of today will need to work in a future where AI is the reality, it’s important that our educational institutions expose students to and use the technology.

Virtual classrooms will change the educational ecosystem in unimaginable ways making the interaction between students and teachers across the globe simple and seamless. The availability of text, audio, video and interactive resources anytime anywhere will reduce large overheads and infrastructure that account for a major share of expenditure on education.

Answers are moving towards AI-empowered and enabled who are themselves, lifelong learners. We are in between the process of transformation and will only be possible with the help of commitment & contributions of the community of educators.

We can hope that people with technology-enabled education will be future-ready to face all the upcoming challenges. Replacing the present method of teaching and evaluation with a greater sensory environment, next-generation schools are all set to encourage critical thinking and problem solving which is essential in preparing global citizens to take on the world.

Author: Prof. M M Pant (Mentor at MASH Virtual)