Impact of AI In Education:

To be or not to be? To AI or not to AI?

As Gen Z prepares to be the next batch of adults, they arrive as “tech experts” in that they can use technology and have no fear of technology. However, using technology and having no fear of technology does not guarantee that the user understands the technology or the impact of it.

This is where an opportunity lies for educators and education institutions to address a new way of teaching and learning.

Gen Z will use ‘AI’ to get their work done, but will they be ‘using AI tools’ to help them complete their work? To do the latter requires an understanding which comes from education.

Opportunity #1 to educate or be educated in the meaning and application of AI. I have been exposed to a number of high school students to whom I have given talks on AI and participated in workshops also focusing on AI. It is clear that today, as it has always been, the next generation will use the new cool tool available to them without necessarily understanding what they are doing.

Opportunity #2 to encourage educators and the education institutions to adopt new learning methodologies. The pivot to online learning, which was not new by the way, i.e. ‘Open University’, that was forced by the COVID lockdowns, is a great example of how, in order to continue, we must do it differently and in a new way.

Solution Offering #1 to encourage students to use AI tools in the same manner as if physically going to the library, and to:

Include prompt(s) to the AI engine say, in appendix of assignment.

Include the full transcript of the AI response, also in the appendix.

Their body of work to show abstracts from the AI transcripts.

If student is using AI tools, then they should be encouraged and scored for using Generative AI to create innovative solutions including images and videos as part of their work.

Include citations and references of additional research and reading prompted by the AI response transcript.

─ By Claudius Thomas