The roles of AI and Human Subject Matter Educational Experts in an Adaptive Learning Technology environment.
Dr. Kim William Gordon
EDTECH Research Scientist: Artificial Intelligence augmented Education
As I conduct the literature review regarding the emergence of Adaptive Learning Technology (ALT) for my dissertation, I am struck by the fact that although there is significant innovation and progress in the technology of Artificial Intelligence driven ALT, little attention is being paid to how disruptive this technology will be in its actual implementation and field usage in the classroom. If you project the implications of these ALT systems to their logical conclusions, ultimately you begin to suspect that:
- Classrooms as we know them will be eradicated.
- There will be no such things as grades, only the achievement of the mastery of a topic.
- Class levels predicated upon age are eliminated, the “class level” is determined by the achievement of mastery, at whatever age it is attained.
- Every student has a personalized, self-paced educational environment. Achievement of mastery is no longer tied to pre-defined timelines such as “semester” or “course length”. Mastery takes whatever time it takes.
- The Artificial Intelligence takes on the role of “teacher”, and the teacher of today takes on the role of mentor by providing inspiration, enthusiasm, excitement and assistance in gaining deeps insights in the subject knowledge. The teacher of today is the Subject Matter Educational Expert (SMEE) of tomorrow (my invented term).
- Lifelong learning is not an option, it is an expectation.
- The “system” knows how you learn, when you learn and supplements your daily activities with supportive educational materials.
- Academic degrees may require ongoing “certification” or similar based upon the increasingly fast paced nature of change in most all disciplines.
And here is a frightening thought: the “system” begins to know what your personal learning limitations may or may not be and adjusts the learning requirements and expectations accordingly.
And this is just a short list of this technology’s potential tsunami like impact.
As this technology is integrated into our educational / training implementations, the rapidly shifting roles of humans and AI will need to be addressed. Things will never be the same again.
Your thoughts?