I posed several questions that have been on my mind in EdTech AI Evolution Questions. After reflecting a bit, the main hope of #AI for teachers is to save time. #EdTech tools have been slow to automate education and it remains a stubbornly manual process. I’m not advocating that it become automated in ways that hurt the relationships between students, faculty, and staff. Rather, I’d like to see #AI as a catalyst to save everyone time.
How would this work? Saving time requires teachers and students to have a larger role in their learning. Teachers who have embraced PBL and a flipped classroom report a less frenetic learning environment. Students have learned resources curated by the teacher, as well as peers and their own efforts. Students assist each other and provide some preliminary feedback. I think #AI could be a unifier that enables more and better-guided collaboration.
Seriously, how would this work? I envision a scenario where #AI provides a bridge between students and various people involved in their learning. I expect the #AI will facilitate collaboration efficiently as it learns a great deal about individual students. This previously uncaptured data (e.g., questions not asked in school, homework questions, etc.) will help fine-tune the learning environment. Imagine a teacher seeing how a lesson landed by reviewing homework logs. This would be powerful data to help teachers improve their craft.
The collaborative learning environment would involve other students, school resource teachers, online tutors, and parents and it would alleviate teachers from having to orchestra and provide feedback on every aspect of the learning journey. Teachers could design less granular lesson plans and students could iterate them to best fit their needs. With others involved and providing some lower-level feedback, teachers could focus on providing the more important levels of feedback.
