#271 - Cutting Through the Noise on AI in Education
Aug 25, 2023
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Nina Huntemann, Chief Academic Officer of Chegg, and Lord Jim Knight discuss the challenges and opportunities of AI in education, including ethical considerations, regulation, and measuring higher-order thinking skills. They also explore the misconception of AI replacing teachers and emphasize the importance of excellent teachers. The speakers highlight the need for integrating skills across curriculum, trust in AI-based educational products, media literacy, data ownership, and the need for regulation and user empowerment.
Ethics should be a priority in AI education to ensure trust and maintain the same quality levels as human experts.
Finding a balance between innovation and regulation is crucial in the rapidly evolving AI landscape, protecting users while promoting effective use.
AI has the potential to enhance teaching and learning by personalizing education and assessing higher-order thinking skills.
Navigating the abundance of information surrounding AI requires media literacy and critical thinking to determine trusted sources and promote transparency and ethical use.
Deep dives
Importance of Ethical AI in Education
In this podcast episode, the guests discuss the importance of ethics in AI, particularly in the educational context. The Chief Academic Officer of CHEG emphasizes that ethics should be a priority when employing AI in education, ensuring that students can trust the academic support they receive. They highlight the need to maintain the same level of quality for AI-generated educational material as for human experts. Additionally, they emphasize the importance of teaching students how to use AI responsibly, including validating information and being critical consumers. The guests agree that AI should complement teachers rather than replacing them, especially in providing support to students who lack access to human teachers.
Challenges of Regulating AI in Education
The podcast delves into the challenges of regulating AI in education. The guests discuss the tension between innovation and regulation, particularly in the context of the rapidly evolving AI landscape. They highlight the difficulty of keeping regulations up to date with the constant stream of new AI products and services. They also address concerns regarding bias in AI, intrusion, and potential disparities in access to technology. The guests argue for finding a balance between promoting innovation and ensuring effective regulation that protects users and maintains ethical standards.
The Role of AI in Redefining Education
The podcast explores the transformative potential of AI in education. The guests discuss how AI can enhance teaching and learning by personalizing education and promoting cross-cutting skills. They highlight the opportunity for AI to measure and track higher-order thinking skills that were previously challenging to assess. They emphasize the need to redefine education to adapt to the changing landscape, incorporating AI as a tool to empower and improve teaching. The guests encourage embracing AI as an opportunity to redefine educational practices rather than fearing its impact on traditional teaching roles.
Navigating the Complexity of AI Information
The podcast addresses the challenge of navigating the vast amount of information surrounding AI. The guests discuss the abundance of conflicting opinions and perspectives, making it difficult for individuals to determine which sources to trust. They emphasize the need to develop trusted sources of information and help individuals understand and engage with AI. They discuss the importance of media literacy and critical thinking, teaching users to question the purpose, business model, and data usage of AI tools and services. The guests highlight the responsibility of companies, regulators, and individuals in promoting transparency and ensuring ethical use of AI.
Rose plays host to Nina Huntemann, Chief Academic Officer of Chegg, and Lord Jim Knight, in the EdTech Podcast Zoom studio this week, attempting to understand how best to cut through the white noise surrounding AI's hype, misinformation, exaggeration and marketing, and determining just how positive for education AI can be if done responsibly.
In our previous episodes on AI, Rose has been in conversation with universities from the US and the UK, examining what the role is for emerging technologies in higher education and what capacity exists to implement AI effectively. The podcast also saw a contributions from Karine George in discussing whether or not the release and widespread use of ChatGPT has actually done education a favour. Has its proliferation sparked debate about human cognition and limited understandings of AI, or initiated conversations in schools around digital transformation and strategy?
In this episode, we’d like to extend these same thoughts on AI to pedagogic effectiveness in education and academia, and how emerging technologies like AI can be incorporated into plans for companies’ commercial services.
Talking points in today's episode includes:
The development of ethical AI in commercial enterprises and how they ensure their responsible technologies are developed
Tensions between the wealth of AI tools available and regulation of the market and educational use of such technologies
Assessing AI tools' effectiveness
Cutting through the huge amount of hype, headlines, and sensationalism at the heart of the communications and marketing around AI