Eng
Eng
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AI in Education:
Change at the Speed
of Learning
UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education
Author: Steven Duggan, Terawe Corporation
Editor: Svetlana Knyazeva, UNESCO IITE
The choice and the presentation of facts contained in this publication and the
opinions expressed therein are not necessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit
the Organization. The designations employed and the presentation of material
throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever
on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city
or area of its authorities, or the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Whilst
the information in this publication is believed to be true and accurate at the time
of publication, UNESCO cannot accept any legal responsibility or liability to any
person or entity with respect to any loss or damage arising from the information
contained in this publication.
ISBN 978-5-6046449-2-8
Foreword............................................................................................................................................ 4
Executive Summary...................................................................................................................... 5
1. The Changing Role of Technology in Education................................................................. 8
2. Advancements in Technology................................................................................................. 9
2.1. Data, Analytics and Personalized Learning....................................................................... 9
2.2. Artificial Intelligence........................................................................................................... 10
2.3. Cloud Computing............................................................................................................... 11
2.4. Machine Learning............................................................................................................... 12
3. The Promise of AI..................................................................................................................... 14
3.1. Students.............................................................................................................................. 14
3.1.1. Personalization........................................................................................................ 14
3.1.2. Social and Emotional Growth................................................................................ 15
3.1.3. 21st Century Skills....................................................................................................15
3.1.4. Accessibility.............................................................................................................. 16
3.1.5. Well-being................................................................................................................ 16
3.2. Educators............................................................................................................................ 17
3.2.1. Effectiveness and Timesaving............................................................................... 18
3.2.2. Engagement and Enjoyment................................................................................. 18
3.2.3. Collaboration........................................................................................................... 19
3.2.4. Professional Development and Self-Reflection...................................................19
3.3. Parents................................................................................................................................ 20
3.3.1. Involvement and Engagement.............................................................................. 20
3.3.2. Reinforcing Values.................................................................................................. 21
3.4. School Leaders................................................................................................................... 21
3.4.1. Oversight and Insight............................................................................................. 21
3.4.2. Efficiencies and Resource Management.............................................................. 22
3.4.3. Teacher Retention................................................................................................... 22
3.4.4. Student Retention and Welfare............................................................................. 23
3.4.5. Communications and Community........................................................................ 25
3.5. Local, Regional and National Administration.................................................................25
3.5.1. Resource Planning.................................................................................................. 25
3.5.2. Curriculum Design.................................................................................................. 26
4. Challenges................................................................................................................................. 27
4.1. Equity, Equality and Access...............................................................................................27
4.2. The Ethical Dimension....................................................................................................... 27
4.3. Technology Dependence...................................................................................................28
4.4. Continuous Professional Development..........................................................................28
5. Change at Scale and Change at The Speed of Learning..................................................30
6. What’s Next?............................................................................................................................. 32
6.1. New Ways of Seeing........................................................................................................... 32
6.1.1. Cognitive Services................................................................................................... 32
6.1.2. Virtual, Mixed and Augmented Reality................................................................. 32
6.1.3. IoT and Edge Computing........................................................................................ 33
6.2. New Ways of Doing............................................................................................................ 34
6.2.1. Metacognitive Scaffolding...................................................................................... 34
6.2.2. Personalized Assessment and Credentialing......................................................34
Acknowledgements.......................................................................................................................... 36
In line with its mission to serve as facilitator and enabler for achieving Sustainable
Development Goal 4 through ICT-enhanced solutions and best practices, the
UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education launches a new series
of publications “Digital Transformation of Education”. The series will include policy
briefs, analytical reports and reflection papers developed to explore ongoing and
emerging fundamental changes in education due to the use of technologies and
their impact on education and other spheres of human life.
The first issue in the series is the policy brief on Artificial Intelligence (AI), which
promises enormous benefit to students, teachers, school leaders, parents and
education administrators. The appropriate and effective use of AI can provide
considerable benefit in time to be spent for lesson preparation, devising creative
and innovative ways to improve the learning experience for students, and
developing individualized learning pathways. The Compendium “UN Activities on
Artificial Intelligence” listing the actions of 35 UN agencies in this field to meet
the most urgent world’s challenges, from humanitarian crises to climate change,
mentions that ‘although it is still early days for AI’ it should be ‘a force for good, it
must face complex questions about trust and address challenges.’ This UNESCO
IITE publication describes the promises of AI and also highlights the ethical aspects
of its implementation and challenges that it might bring.
This policy brief was authored by Mr. Steven Duggan, who have worked in education
for more than 30 years. Mr. Duggan is Member of UNESCO IITE Governing Board
and Vice President of Terawe Corporation providing AI solutions for a wide range
of public sector and commercial industries. Previously he served as the Director of
Worldwide Education Strategy at Microsoft.
AI will play a pivotal role in helping to realize the promise of personalized learning —
the ability to tailor the delivery, the content and the pace of learning to the
specific needs of each individual student. The ability to Ingest data from multiple
data sources, Interrogate that data and to derive Insights — using tools such as
predictive analytics and machine learning — is what makes AI such an exciting
advancement in education technology and why its use will prove transformational
for all stakeholders, from individual students to Ministries of Education.
For students, AI’s ability to make connections between disparate data sources will
help to identify areas where real-time interventions or additional assistance may
be required. As a result, AI makes it possible to devise a tailored or individualized
learning pathway for each student which is specific to them and designed to
accommodate their strengths, weaknesses, talents and challenges. Advanced
analytics and machine learning also hold significant potential for the development
of social and emotional learning skills as they allow educators to personalize
instruction and to analyse both qualitative and quantitative data to assist with a
student’s mastery of these skills. By enabling students to learn at any time, in any
place, technology is also helping to democratize education and offers learners
currently unable to attend a physical school the opportunity to achieve their full
potential.
The effective use of AI, Data & Analytics and Machine Learning can enable educators
to deliver engaging, immersive educational experiences. Far from becoming side-
lined by the emergence of these exciting new technologies the primacy of the
teacher’s role has been reasserted, and the role of the educator will be enhanced
rather than displaced by technology. The promise of AI for teachers lies in its ability
to increase the effectiveness of their teaching and to assist them in providing
the ideal conditions in which their students can learn and grow. By analysing all
of the available data sources and generating insights to guide in the creation of
personalized learning pathways, AI can save educators significant amounts of time
that would otherwise have to be spent studying and collating such data — an almost
insurmountable task when the data is continually changing and there are so many
success factors and data sources to be considered. Data and Analytics can also
support effective teamwork across a school. Subject teachers, department heads,
counselling and welfare services and school leadership can coordinate efforts and
collaborate in the building and delivery of individualized support programs based
on a shared set of learnings and indicators.
Students whose parents take an active part in their education are more likely
to attend school regularly, adapt well to school, take advanced classes, and to
excel academically. Such students also tend to have better social skills and are
more likely to graduate from high school and to attend post-secondary school. AI
supports parental engagement by allowing them to become participants in, rather
than reviewers of, their child’s progress.
Management of the institution (of its human and capital resources, of the
physical and digital environments, of compliance with and adherence to fiscal
and legal requirements, etc.) is often accompanied by a myriad of other logistical
and administrative tasks. For many school leaders the burden this imposes is
exacerbated by the reactive nature of the tasks involved. Sudden, unexpected
expenses for building maintenance and repair; provision of cover for absent
teaching, facilities or administrative staff; peaks and troughs in student enrolment
numbers — all of these can impose stresses and financial constraints upon the
effective management of the school. The use of Data and Predictive Analytics can
help school leaders to move from reactive to proactive management and to predict
issues before they arise.
Ensuring that school and college curricula are up to date and can adequately prepare
students for the world they will face upon graduation is a perennial challenge. In
many subject areas, including but not limited to the sciences and technologies,
the knowledge base is continuously changing and expanding, making it difficult to
ensure that course content is relevant and up to date. The ability to interrogate large
data sets, to analyse that data and generate insights, and to expose those insights
via dashboards and visualizations tailored to the needs and roles of those tasked
with curriculum design, can improve the currency and accuracy of the information
available and the preparedness of those engaged in this essential work.
If all learners are to reap the rewards of AI in education, regulation and ethical
frameworks will be required. How can we ensure that gender, racial, socio-
economic and ability biases are not introduced at the programming level? How can
we ensure that social and cultural stereotypes are not promulgated? How can we
ensure that all learners, regardless of where they live, have the same access to the
benefits which will accrue? Given the power and influence such technologies will
come to have in shaping the education — and by extension the opportunities and
potentially the values of learners — transparency and oversight will be required
to ensure that AI-enabled technologies conform to and strengthen fundamental
human rights. AI technologies are continually evolving — emergent technologies
such as Cognitive Services, Virtual, Mixed and Augmented Reality and the Internet
of Things are reshaping our world and providing all stakeholders in education with
opportunities to advance teaching and learning, and ethical challenges which will
need to be addressed.
AI will play an important part in tackling the next great challenge being offered
to education technologists: how to support personalized assessment. Current
forms of assessment are seldom aligned to the skills that will be demanded of
students when they enter the world of work. Multiple-choice, long- and short-form
examinations can serve to evaluate some of the higher-order thinking skills that
will be required in a 21st century environment — recall, comparison, analysis and
inference — but soft skills, ‘people skills’, moral character, teamwork, collaboration
and the ability to work effectively as part of a team are difficult to evaluate using
these traditional forms — and they are at least as important to future employers
and to a graduate’s ability to survive and thrive in a 21st century workplace.
AI will form part of the foundation for the educational experiences and opportunities
students will enjoy in the coming decade. For students, educators, school leaders,
parents, administrators and system owners, AI in education is already delivering
real benefits and will prove a powerful catalyst for change.
Conversely, many people held that access to technology and low-cost mobile
devices could help close the educational gap caused by failures of the formal
education system, and connect those who had left school or never had the
opportunity to attend a classroom to rich educational experiences which could
address foundational issues such as the global challenge of illiteracy.
In the event, the introduction of devices into the classroom did not bring about a
commensurate improvement in exam grades — though it did help to enable new
pedagogical modalities such as the flipped classroom — and illiteracy rates remained
virtually unchanged2. The role of the teacher has been proven paramount, along
with the need for adequate professional development supports which incorporate
the building of digital skills3. Far from technology replacing teachers, the role of the
teacher is now recognised as the most important factor in unlocking the potential
of technology to advance teaching and learning.
In concert with the emergence of these new technologies was a focus upon
what were termed ‘21st century skills’. Knowledge-acquisition was relegated in
importance, and the ability to work in teams, to collaborate and communicate
effectively and to develop analytical and digital skills to better prepare students
for the world they would face upon leaving school assumed a primacy in curricular
and pedagogical design. Learning how to learn and the importance of lifelong
learning were regarded as intrinsically linked to the acquisition of digital skills and
experience in the use of basic technologies.
1
The Guardian. (2009). In just 25 years, the mobile phone has transformed the way we communicate.
Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/business/2010/jan/01/25-years-phones-
transform-communication
2
World Population Review. (2020). Literacy Rate by Country 2020. Retrieved from https://
worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/literacy-rate-by-country
3
OECD. (2018). Teaching for the Future: Effective Classroom Practices To Transform Education. OECD
Publlishing, Paris. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264293243-en
The ‘data journey’ towards this state was comprised of the following key stages:
I. Data collection: the capturing of key student data relevant to some or all
of the following core measures of student success: academic performance;
attendance; participation; behaviour; consistency; resilience; persistence
or ‘grit’; confidence or self-belief; enjoyment or engagement; emotional
development; social development; ethical development; physical
development.
II. Data presentation: the display of data in a form which allows for review
and interrogation, including visualizations.
III. Historical analysis: the analysis of past performance and student progress
to date to derive insights and to identify areas requiring course-correction
or review.
The majority of schools, colleges and education systems are currently at stage I of
the data journey (data collection) but even at this stage Artificial Intelligence can
deliver real benefits. Before we outline those benefits, we need to define what is
meant by AI in an educational context.
Having access to all of the relevant and available data is not sufficient. None of
these challenges can be met with data alone. It is the ability of Artificial Intelligence
to make connections across these different data points — to provide predictions
4
OECD.Stat. (2020). Average class size. Retrieved from https://stats.oecd.org/Index.
aspx?DataSetCode=EDU_CLASS
Cloud Computing is not a single piece of technology but instead comprises three
different types of services: Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-Service
(IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS).
The key benefits of Cloud Computing — and the reasons why so many businesses
and public enterprises have made the move to the Cloud — are the following:
5
Max Roser and Hannah Ritchie. (2013). Technological Progress. Published online at
OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/technological-progress
6
https://www.microsoft.com/en-ie/microsoft-365
3. Backup and Recovery: all data stored in the Cloud is typically backed-up
by the cloud service provider, with multiple fail-safes and automatic data
replication across different locations, greatly reducing the danger of data
loss and allowing for rapid data recovery in the event of a ‘crash’.
4. Ubiquitous Access: key information can be accessed from virtually any place
with an internet connection, at any time, and using any device. This in turn
can improve communication and collaboration between team members
and boost productivity.
6. Flexibility: organizations can scale services to meet their needs and increase
or decrease capacity in line with demand to support fluctuating workloads.
Machine Learning is already widely used across many industries. On online retail
websites it is used to help identify products you might be interested in buying based
on your previous purchasing history, or upon searches you have made on the website
for particular goods or services. Banks and other financial organizations routinely
use machine learning to identify, predict and prevent fraudulent transactions. In
healthcare, machine learning can help to identify patterns or anomalies, which can
improve diagnoses and accelerate the provision of vital treatments.
3.1. Students
The application of Artificial Intelligence offers students of all ages, achievement
levels and differing socio-economic backgrounds a number of significant benefits,
each of which can result in enhanced learning experiences and improved learning
outcomes.
Much of the data required may already be being collected, such as grade scores,
results from school and state exams, attendance and punctuality records, school
reports, comparative scores with regard to peers or classmates, Individualized
Education Programs (IEPs) and other sources of qualitative and quantitative data.
Typical forms of qualitative data can include notes from classroom observations;
minutes of staff meetings; feedback from a teacher, teaching assistant or
department head; samples of the student’s work with comments from their teacher;
disciplinary or student welfare reports, etc. These can be augmented through the
use of surveys, interviews and observations.
Typical forms of quantitative data can include assessment scores (individual and
comparative), aggregates of survey results, and numerical results or measures of
any sort pertinent to the student’s progress. Essentially quantitative data in this
context means any data which can be expressed as a set of numbers.
As schools and colleges proceed along the ‘data journey’, more of this information
will be available in digital form, which assists in data analysis. It is worth pointing
out that data does not need to be in digital form to be included in a data set. With
the use of emergent technologies such as Cognitive Services, it is also possible
to extract data from handwritten notes and audio or video recordings. Cognitive
Services add the ability to see, hear, speak, search, understand, and accelerate
decision-making to the processes of data collection and interrogation.
3.1.1. Personalization
AI, Data & Analytics and Machine Learning allow all those tasked with a student’s
education to access information and gain vital insights into key aspects of the
student’s progression, and into other factors which may underly a change in their
attitude, engagement or performance.
AI’s ability not only to ingest and interrogate vast amounts of data, but to make
connections between disparate data sources, can help to identify areas where real-
time interventions or additional assistance may be required. Extrapolating from
this AI makes it possible to devise a tailored or individualized learning pathway
for each student, which is specific to them and designed to accommodate their
strengths, weaknesses, talents, and challenges.
Students’ exposure to the internet and social media has also contributed to an
increased focus upon the development of these skills. The prevalence of ‘fake
news’, disturbing images and stories, issues of privacy and data protection, and
the pressures upon children and young people to project and protect an idealized
image of themselves against a backdrop of cyber-bullying and health and welfare
disorders, including body dysmorphia, eating disorders, depression and anxiety,
have underlined the importance of students acquiring the knowledge and skills to
navigate the world in which many of them now live.
Research8 has shown that artificial intelligence and multimodal social computing
can help to improve cognitive, social and emotional skills. Advanced analytics and
machine learning have long been employed in the private sector to deliver business
insights, and increasingly these applications are entering education. Advanced
analytics and machine learning hold significant potential for the development of
social and emotional learning skills because they allow educators to personalize
instruction, and to analyse both qualitative and quantitative data to assess and
assist with a student’s mastery of these skills.
7
The Economist Intelligence Unit. (2019). Emotion and Cognition in the Age of AI: white paper.
Commissioned by Microsoft. Retrieved from https://clouddamcdnprodep.azureedge.net/gdc/
gdcWRrXfv/original
8
Cassell, J., Bai, Z., Paranjape, B., Sinha, T., Slebodnick, D., Luo Yi Tan. (2016). Sensing Curiosity in
Play and Responding. The ArticuLab, Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved from http://articulab.
hcii.cs.cmu.edu/projects/scipr/
Technology can play a role in helping students to develop skills in all of these areas,
and the application of AI can help educators to orchestrate and personalise the
delivery of learning to meet their needs. It is the ability of AI to assess progress
against a large and disparate set of measures, to ingest data from all of these often
distinct and unrelated learning pathways, and to generate insights which provide a
holistic view of the progress of each individual student that most clearly illustrates
the value that AI can have in improving learning outputs.
3.1.4. Accessibility
Technology has long played a role in supporting students with disabilities. The first
beneficiaries of education technology within schools and colleges were typically
those for whom a laptop or similar device served to help ‘level the playing field’ for
them as learners, facilitating improved access to learning objects and opportunities,
freeing them from the constraints of set times and physical locations, and providing
access to new tools and services specifically tailored to their needs.
Features such as text-to-speech and screen narration provide help to people with
visual impairments; voice commands, descriptive audio and speech-to-text features
provide assistance to students with hearing difficulties; simple features such as
keyboard shortcuts and support for varied input devices and sensors have enabled
those with physical disabilities to operate a computer device even if their disability
is profound, as exemplified by the achievements of the late Stephen Hawking.
AI is opening doors for students with disabilities, which will profoundly alter their
educational opportunities and levels of engagement. Among recent advancements
driven by the use of AI have been Apps which can observe, analyse and describe
the world around a visually impaired person through their mobile phone, with the
ability to recognize the student’s friends and acquaintances, and even to describe
their emotions based on such factors as facial expression and posture9.
3.1.5. Well-being
In recognition of well-being’s impact on learning — and the education system’s
role in shaping the emotional and mental health of young people — the OECD
9
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ai/seeing-ai
3.2. Educators
The effective use of AI, Data & Analytics and Machine Learning can enable educators
to deliver engaging, immersive educational experiences and to build personalized
learning pathways for each student utilising the augmented intelligence and insights
derived from their use.
It is worth reiterating that AI will not replace teachers. Dr Thornburg’s oft-quoted maxim
that “Any teacher that can be replaced by a computer, deserves to be” is a contentious
one, but it also serves to highlight the fact that no technology currently exists which
can replicate let alone supplant the myriad skills and qualities of a great educator. Far
from becoming side-lined by the emergence of these exciting new technologies, the
primacy of the teacher’s role has been reasserted. The promise of AI for teachers lies in
its ability to increase the effectiveness of their teaching and to assist them in providing
the ideal conditions in which their students can learn and grow.
10
http://www.oecd.org/pisa/
By providing educators with a detailed view of each student’s progress, they can
quickly identify gaps and challenges and address these, resulting in better student
outcomes and happier, more engaged class members.
AI can also save time for educators at the ‘other end’ of the process, by producing
rich student reports which can be made available to the institution, to parents or
guardians, and to the students themselves. Rather than historical reports which
reflect past performance at set points in time during an academic year, such reports
can be made available to all stakeholders as and when required and will be both
more accurate and up-to-date than traditional reports or reviews.
Freeing up time from laborious administrative tasks can also have an impact upon
educator recruitment and retention. Teachers spend an estimated 3-5 hours11 each
day grading papers and tests, preparing lesson plans and completing administrative
work outside of the classroom. Not only is this a leading cause of teacher attrition,
it also serves as a powerful disincentive when trying to attract top talent to our
schools and classrooms.
11
Murray, C. (2013). How Many Hours Do Educators Actually Work? Retrieved from https://
edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2013/08/how-many-hours-do-educators-actually-work
12
Goetz, T., Nathan C., Hall, B., Anne, C., Frenzel, A., Pekrun, R. (2006). A hierarchical
conceptualization of enjoyment in students. Learning and Instruction, 16, 323-338.; Shernoff, D.J.,
Csikszentmihalyi, M., Schneider, B., Shernoff, E.S. (2003). Student engagement in high school
classrooms from the perspective of flow theory. School Psychology Quarterly, 18(2), 158-176.
13
Department for Education and Skills. (2003a). Every child matters. London: DfES.
AI can help department and faculty heads to identify the range of strengths
and weaknesses across their educator cohort, and to structure collaborative
approaches which maximise the collective skills of the team. Best practices which
improve learning outcomes can be identified and shared, and mentorships and
peer coaching relationships enhanced by ready and ongoing access to quantitative
and qualitative data.
Studies would suggest that these needs are poorly served in many institutions and
education systems. Constraints of time, money and resources, and a tendency for
many forms of professional development to take place outside of the classroom,
often limit the number of hours or days educators can devote to developing their
skills in an academic year. Educators also need opportunities to collaborate in
their learning, to practice the same types of learning they will bring back to their
classrooms, and to share ideas and best practices. We cannot build 21st century skills
and support deep learning within educational institutions by subjecting educators
to outmoded forms of instruction during their professional development.
The effective use of technologies such as AI can provide educators with the same
access to anytime, any place learning, and enable them to build the same skills that
their students will require, via the same pedagogies and modalities they will be
asked to model in their schools and colleges. AI can also assist with on-the-job and
informal or independent professional development. Educators are assisted in the
processes of self-reflection and skills development when supported by objective
data rather than, or in addition to, subjective appraisals to which some educators
may be resistant, or in which they may be unwilling to participate.
Schools and colleges themselves also benefit from the active engagement of
parents. In addition to providing essential support to the institution, when parent —
teacher relationships are prioritized the learning environment is improved, which
in turn affects learning outcomes for all students. Teachers who focus on parental
engagement find that the more parents are involved in their children’s education,
the better their entire class’s motivation, behaviour, and grades become. School
leaders are also more likely to make effective and impactful decisions when parents
are included as participants in the governance and strategic planning.
14
For the sake of concision, the terms ‘parents’ and ‘parental’ are intended as representative of all
parents, guardians and care-givers.
15
Henderson, Anne T., Mapp, Karen L. (2002). A New Wave of Evidence. The Impact of School, Family,
and Community. Connections on Student Achievement. Annual Synthesis 2002. National Center
for Family and Community Connections with Schools, SEDL. Retrieved from https://sedl.org/
connections/resources/evidence.pdf
16
National PTA. (2000). Building Successful Partnerships: A Guide for Developing Parent and Family
Involvement Programs. National Education Service, Indiana, USA.
The focus upon 21st century skills has also had an exponential impact upon the
process of student assessment. Whereas in the past it might have been deemed
sufficient to monitor academic progress, it is now accepted that preparing a student
for the world beyond the school gates requires the development of a variety of
skills and abilities, all of which need to be assessed as integral parts of a student’s
learning pathway. In addition to core factors such as Behaviour and Attendance,
17
Education Week Research Center. (2018). School Leaders and Technology. Results from a National
Survey. Retrieved from https://www.edweek.org/media/school-leaders-and-technology-
education-week-research.pdf
18
For the sake of concision, the term ‘school leader’ is intended as representative of all school
leaders at primary, secondary and tertiary level.
For many school leaders the burden this imposes is exacerbated by the reactive
nature of the tasks involved. Sudden, unexpected expenses for building
maintenance and repair; provision of cover for absent teaching, facilities or
administrative staff; peaks and troughs in student enrolment numbers — all of
these can impose stresses and financial constraints upon the effective management
of the school. The use of Data and Predictive Analytics can help school leaders to
move from reactive to proactive management, and to predict issues before they
arise. AI solutions can be used to lower energy costs by ensuring that heat and
light are provided in line with actual demand, with accurate forecasts generated
using machine learning based on historical patterns. Management of staff rosters
can be improved, and contingency plans drawn up in advance of any last-minute
crisis. Resource planning can be optimized, reporting can be automated, and rich
dashboard views presenting real-time data can be made available to all key staff,
specifically tailored to their roles. Higher Education institutions in particular are
embracing the promise of AI and the Internet of Things (IoT) to increase efficiencies
and reduce the number of unforeseen events (and the bureaucratic overhead
which often accompanies them).
However, globally a teaching crisis is driving what has now been recognised by the
World Bank as a Learning Crisis19. School enrolments in developing countries, at
both primary and secondary level, have shot up in recent years — but attracting and
19
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank. (2018). The World
Development Report 2018 (WDR 2018). LEARNING to Realize Education’s Promise. Retrieved from
https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/wdr2018
Artificial Intelligence cannot create new teachers — nor replace the great teachers
we already have. However, it can help school leaders to manage and reduce attrition
rates by addressing some of the root causes why teachers opt to leave. Surveys have
repeatedly shown that higher pay is not the central issue for teachers, nor will it of
itself address retention rates. What teachers want, it appears, is more autonomy,
more time to spend teaching and preparing classes, less bureaucracy, and less
time spent conducting tests and writing reports21. What drives great teachers,
moreover, is their desire to make a difference in a student’s life. By allowing them
to create personalized learning paths for each of their students — to identify and
address each student’s specific needs — and to generate automated, real-time
reports with the click of a button, AI can help to remove many of the frustrations
teachers currently face while enabling them to do what they love best in a more
effective and rewarding way.
For schools and colleges, student retention is an important issue for a variety of
reasons. A student who drops out can represent a financial loss due to lost tuition
20
Education Week Research Center. (2020). The Substitute Teacher Gap: Recruitment and Retention
Challenges in the Age of COVID-19. Kelly Education.
21
Riggs, L. (2013). Why Do Teachers Quit? And why do they stay? The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://
www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/10/why-do-teachers-quit/280699/
Financial difficulties, family or health crises, and difficulties settling into a new
environment with new people and increased academic demands — often while
having to do so when living away from home for the first time — are all recognised
as major causes of a student leaving a college or university. Increasingly, schools
and colleges are looking beyond these factors towards a deeper and more insidious
threat — student mental health.
A recent survey of New Zealand students reported that 56% of all respondents
had considered dropping out of tertiary study, the main reasons mentioned were
feeling of being overwhelmed, living with mental illness, and fears of failure22.
Student well-being and student welfare are increasingly important areas of focus
for schools and colleges, with historic levels of anxiety, stress and depression being
reported by students. Whether this represents an increase in mental health issues,
or a welcome reduction in the stigma attaching to mental health (or both) what is
inarguable is the benefit which accrues when a mental health crisis is averted.
Student suicides are on the rise in countries around the world. In the UK, a major
survey in 2018 saw a significant increase in the rates of young people aged between
10 and 24 killing themselves, with the overall rate for that age group reaching
a 19-year high and the rate for young females reaching an all-time high23. That
same year saw a 33% increase in the number of Japanese elementary, junior high,
and high school students who died by suicide24. The most recent survey by the
National Crime Records Bureau in India found that of the total number of suicides
in the country, 6.7% were by current students, the most common factors identified
were stress and depression25. The use of Artificial Intelligence to interrogate vast
amounts of data and to identify a specific individual in need of help is increasingly
viewed by counselling services as a valuable, if not an essential tool in their efforts
to prevent these tragic losses.
One practical way in which AI is being used is through the use of machine learning
to add context to internet searches. Not only can AI help to avert cybersecurity
breaches and protect sensitive student data, it can also generate an alert, if, for
example, it noticed a student searching about self-harm.
22
New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations. (2018). Kei Te Pai? Report on Student Mental Health
in Aotearoa. Retrieved from https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b109fde7924adea2d9afaa28d/files/
ad0db517-d37f-4075-9984-6236b5838f0d/Kei_Te_Pai_Mental_Health_Report_Main_.pdf
23
Office for National Statistics. (2018). Suicides in the UK: 2018 registrations. Retrieved from https://
www.ons.gov.uk/releases/suicidesintheuk2018registrations
24
The Nippon Communications Foundation. (2019). Child Suicides at Highest Rate Ever in Japan.
Retrieved from https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h00572/child-suicides-at-highest-rate-
ever-in-japan.html
25
Saha, D. (2017). Every hour, one student commits suicide in India. Hindustan Times. Retrieved from
https://www.hindustantimes.com/health-and-fitness/every-hour-one-student-commits-suicide-
in-india/story-7UFFhSs6h1HNgrNO60FZ2O.html
Although administrative bodies may be at different stages in their data journey, AI,
Data & Analytics and Machine Learning technologies have the ability to ingest the
available data and to generate insights to assist in the planning process. Because
AI is capable of generating those insights in real time, and can continuously update
that guidance as the data is refreshed, it enables planners to predict as well as to
measure vital components within the planning process. With access to augmented
intelligence the finger in the air can become the finger on the pulse.
The intervening years have seen significant advances, with hardware devices
becoming cheaper, more powerful and more mobile, and increased battery life and
alternate forms of connectivity enabling an additional number of learners to get
online. However, the most recent global report on internet penetration26 reported
that 43% of the world’s population still do not have access to the internet, and an
estimated 40% of people have never once been online. The disparity between the
most and least connected regions is stark. In North America and Northern Europe
95% of all citizens have access to information via the internet. In Middle Africa only
12% have the same opportunity.
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed this disparity, revealing what has been termed
a ‘homework gap’. Whilst internet access was widespread in most of affected
countries (as of August 2020) it was not ubiquitous. A significant percentage of
underserved students also report having access to only a single device — most
often a smartphone — and insufficient internet access at home27. When considering
the challenges of writing a paper, analyzing data, or even reading extensively, this
differentiation of access puts these students at a serious disadvantage.
AI begins with data. Although the manual recording of data by educators and
institutions can help to address this divide, as electronic data capture becomes
the norm, learners who have limited access to the information required to assist
them in their studies, and the ability to generate and share electronic data, may be
disadvantaged when it comes to the building of personalized learning pathways
which adequately identify and address their needs.
26
Pensworth, L. (2019). 2019 Internet Statistics, Trends & Data. DailyWireless. Retrieved from https://
dailywireless.org/internet/usage-statistics/
27
ACT Center for Equity in Learning. (2018). The Digital Divide and Educational Equity. Retrieved from
https://equityinlearning.act.org/wp-content/themes/voltron/img/tech-briefs/the-digital-divide.pdf
Given the power and influence such technologies will come to have in shaping
the education — and by extension the opportunities, and potentially the values of
learners — transparency and oversight will be required to ensure that AI-enabled
technologies conform to and strengthen fundamental human rights; and that the
application of AI in education helps to advance the Sustainable Development Goals,
in particular SDG 4 which enshrines the need to “Ensure inclusive and equitable
quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.”
The role of the educator therefore is likely to be enhanced rather than displaced
by technology. An increased reliance upon AI will not be entirely to our benefit.
We can expect to see an increased number of jobs replaced by automation, in
both the developed and developing world. There is also a danger that our ability to
delegate tasks and cognitive functions to machines can increase our dependence
upon technology whilst eroding our own ability to perform these, in what might be
termed a ‘use it or lose it’ scenario. Do students who rely on a computer keyboard
lose the ability to write legibly? Do those who perform calculations using a
spreadsheet or calculator become less skilled at mental arithmetic? Has a reliance
upon GPS affected our ability to navigate — quite literally to ‘find our own way’? As
these technologies become smarter and more capable, it will also become more
important than ever to know where it is we want to go.
As all technologies, the software and cloud services will likely evolve and go through
successive iterations, or may be replaced by services or solutions from different
organisations or vendors. In this context, it is important that educators remain up
to date with any new features and changes in the user interface (UI).
If we accept the promise of AI, then perhaps the greatest challenge which will face
governments and those responsible for education systems is how to extend these
benefits to all learners. At both the institutional and the systemic level there is a
clear progression in the development and implementation of AI in education:
i. Data Collection
v. Predict Outcomes
It is not possible to skip any one of these key stages and arrive at a point where AI is
not simply providing useful information, but is helping policymakers to formulate
policies to bring about real change. Different systems or institutions are likely to be
at different stages in this process, so the most immediate step is to establish where
on the continuum they currently sit. The process of data collection is continuous,
so even if a majority of the available data is not currently digitised and/or available
for analysis, it is still possible to proceed. As more data is added, the AI solution will
become more effective and accurate.
The phrase ‘data-mining’ is often used when referring to technology solutions of this
kind and is an apt term in this context. We can think of data sources like unexplored
fields of information, with ‘nuggets’ buried and waiting to be unearthed. The vital
insights you need are already there — you just need the right tools to locate them.
Once they have been exposed, they can provide immediate benefits. As a result,
any strategy to employ AI in education should align with the learning process. One
of the ways in which AI proves transformational derives from its ability to identify
necessary course corrections or intervention points during as opposed to after the
delivery of learning. Most assessment systems are historical — they look at past
performance as measured by assessments conducted after the fact. AI is more
than simply another form of continuous assessment — used effectively, it allows
educators and administrators to predict future performance, and inform action
plans to proactively address needs — to affect change at the speed of learning.
The implications for education are immense. For learners with a disability in
particular they can help to remove barriers of access and opportunity, and serve to
democratize education. For learners with foundational learning challenges, such as
literacy and numeracy deficiencies, they can enable active participation in higher-
order learning at the same time as the students develop those skills, rather than
excluding them until those capabilities are mastered. When added to existing AI
solutions and services they can accelerate the generation of vital insights — an
educator can simply ask the AI a question, rather than having to input a detailed
query using their keyboard or mouse.
In Augmented Reality (AR), users can still see and interact with the real world, while
viewing digital content made accessible to them via special glasses or headsets,
which overlay the digital content onto the real-world environment.
AI will make it possible not just to deploy these exciting new technologies — but
to analyze their effectiveness and to optimize the benefits they can provide to
students and educators alike.
The IoT is already being used by many education institutions to help manage
their infrastructure more efficiently and cheaper — from using sensors to control
heating and lighting based on the actual occupancy of classrooms or buildings,
leading to increased energy efficiency and reduced operating costs; to the use of
remote cameras and biometrics to help make campuses more secure.
28
Microsoft HoloLens. (2017). Windows Mixed Reality: An Evolution for Education. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xv8A9vqeBw
29
International Data Corporation. (2019). The Growth in Connected IoT Devices Is Expected to Generate
79.4ZB of Data in 2025, According to a New IDC Forecast. Retrieved from https://www.idc.com/
getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS45213219
AI will also play an important part in addressing the next great challenge being
offered to education technologists: how to support personalized assessment. We
know that current forms of assessment in our schools and colleges are seldom
aligned to the skills that will be demanded of students when they enter the world
of work. Multiple-choice, long- and short-form examinations can serve to evaluate
some of the higher-order thinking skills that will be required in a 21st century
environment — recall, comparison, analysis and inference — but soft skills, ‘people
There is also an increasing demand for new forms of credential which can provide
a fuller picture of student capability and accurately represent the breadth of
what students know and can do — and who they have become — as a result of
their learning. Many institutions and an increasing number of school systems
are investigating the use of micro-credentials that measure complex and general
learning capabilities, including such 21st century skills as critical thinking, creativity,
communication skills and entrepreneurship30. To establish the relevancy of these
micro-credentials and to help to build a closer connection with the local business
community these are often designed in conjunction with employers and/or
endorsed by them.
30
Milligan, S., Luo, R., Hassim, E., Johnston, J. (2020). Future-proofing students: What they need to
know and how educators can assess and credential them. Melbourne Graduate School of Education,
The University of Melbourne. 17-29. Retrieved from https://education.unimelb.edu.au/__data/
assets/pdf_file/0005/3397469/MGSE_Future-Proofing-Students_Web_Updated-9-7-20.pdf
The author is indebted to the following experts for their assistance in the drafting
of this brief: Dr Kevin Marshall, Gavin Dykes, Mark Sparvell, Ian Campbell, Alan
Kilduff, Dominic Register, and Dr Ram Peruvemba.
He would also like to thank the Director, staff and the Governing Board members of
the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education for their guidance
and wise counsel.