This article by Geoff Johnson raises the interesting question of where AI can be helpful to educators, and where it may fall short. Certainly, AI has its advantages—as Johnson points out, teachers can spend more time actually teaching, and less time grading, setting short answer tests, keeping attendance records, organizing syllabi, and the like. And it is also possible that, as we learn more about students’ strengths and challenges, we can tailor educational software to the learner’s profiles. I have termed this possibility “individuation.”
But it’s more difficult to envision how an AI program can establish a personal relationship with a student, one in which the student’s needs and aspirations are taken into account. And most important, as educators, at our best, we provide a model—the most salient model other than parents—of how one deals with the various challenges and opportunities that life affords. I shudder to think about what it will mean to be a human being if this role is downloaded onto an avatar. Long live positive human role models!
Click here to read the full article by Geoff Johnson.