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Key points:
- ai can help develop interpersonal skills, but they are exclusively human capabilities
- The transformative role of ai in accessibility
- When it comes to using ai, educators are more comfortable than students
- For more news on ai in education, visit eSN's digital learning hub
With the explosive growth of artificial intelligence, many parents are wondering: Should I let my children use ai as a learning aid?
As a parent of an elementary school student, I am one of those parents. I want my child to be successful in their learning, so how can I offer effective and meaningful academic support? Should I turn to ai for tutoring when my child is struggling? Since I have experience in the educational technology industry, I have some ideas about what I think the key question should be: How can I cultivate a genuine love of learning?
we know that Today's students are still struggling. academically, and research shows that Mentoring can have a strong positive impact. on student learning outcomes. We also know that there are three essential instructional skills that support effective learning. Those are the ability to personalize instruction, encourage critical thinking, and inspire a passion for learning.
ai can provide these skills to a certain extent, but there is a limit to how useful artificial intelligence can be in each of the three essential areas. Here's what we know about how ai can be useful and where it isn't:
- Personalized tutoring engages students with instruction tailored to their individual needs, learning style, and pace.
- Useful: ai can tailor content delivery to suit your child's individual learning style, whether visual, auditory or kinesthetic. You can provide a variety of resources, such as videos, interactive exercises, and reading materials, to meet these preferences.
- It is not useful: While ai can adjust content, it cannot fully adapt its teaching methods the same way a human tutor can. Tutors who know their child's interests and strengths can tailor their teaching more effectively, providing a level of personalization that ai can't match.
- Encourage critical thinking and problem solving depends on the use of intentional mentoring strategies and practices.
- Useful: ai can present challenging problems and scenarios for your child to solve, encouraging them to think critically. You can offer practice exercises that develop analytical skills and provide immediate feedback on your performance.
- Not useful: ai strives to foster deeper critical thinking and problem-solving skills that require nuanced understanding and interactive discussions. Human tutors can guide your child through complex reasoning processes and encourage them to question and explore ideas further.
- Effective mentoring motivates, models and inspires. a genuine love of learning.
- Useful: ChatGPT and its competitors are moving beyond simple text-based interactions toward more complex interactive capabilities. These platforms can dazzle with their quick responses and impressive research.
- Not useful: However, algorithms lack lived experiences that can inspire in your child a true love of learning. For example, ai can never tell real-life personal stories to capture your child's imagination. Human tutors can share their own deep interests in different topics, creating a much more engaging and meaningful learning experience.
Unlike ai, human tutors can identify what excites and motivates your child. This individualized attention can significantly increase student confidence and motivation. As students experience success and improvement, their self-esteem tends to increase, fostering a more positive attitude toward school.
Effective tutors also foster a sense of responsibility in their students, and this makes students more likely to commit and persevere to find answers for themselves. Finally, tutors can leverage their experiences and passions to inspire a love of learning in students.
For ai to serve as some kind of learning support, rather than simply a tool for getting answers, parents also need to know their children's typical skills and behaviors. These three questions can clarify the situation for you:
- Can your student create the types of prompts needed to foster learning?
- Can (and are they willing) to use those prompts or will they simply ask the ai for answers?
- If the answer to any of the questions is “no” or “maybe not,” will you or another adult be able to step in to help and supervise?
To navigate a rapidly changing world, our children will need high-level education. 21st century skills. These include problem solving, creative thinking and collaboration. Although artificial intelligence can help develop these soft skills, they are (and will likely remain) uniquely human capabilities. And this type of deep learning is best supported through meaningful learnings and human interactions between children and their guardians, teachers and parents.
