Artificial Intelligence In Education: Promises and Implications for Teaching and Learning

by Charles Fadel, Wayne Holmes, Maya Bialik

“The landscape for education has been rapidly changing in the last demographic changes affecting the makeup of families, multiple school options available to children, wealth disparities, the global economy demanding new skills from workers, and continued breakthroughs in technology are some of the factors impacting education. Given these changes, how can schools continue to prepare students for the future? In a world where information is readily available online, how can schools continue to be relevant? The emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has exacerbated the need to have these conversations. Its impact on education and the multiple possibilities that it offers are putting pressure on educational leaders to reformulate the school curriculum and the channels to deliver it. The book “Artificial Intelligence in Education, Promises and Implications for Teaching and Learning” by the Center for Curriculum Redesign immerses the reader in a discussion on what to teach students in the era of AI and examines how AI is already demanding much needed updates to the school curriculum, including modernizing its content, focusing on core concepts, and embedding interdisciplinary themes and competencies with the end goal of making learning more enjoyable and useful in students’ lives. The second part of the book dives into the history of AI in education, its techniques and applications –including the way AI can help teachers be more effective, and finishes on a reflection about the social aspects of AI. This book is a must-read for educators and policy-makers who want to prepare schools to face the uncertainties of the future and keep them relevant."
—Amada Torres, VP, Studies, Insights, and Research, National Association of Independent School (NAIS)

“The rapid advances in technology in recent decades have already brought about substantial changes in education, opening up new opportunities to teach and learn anywhere anytime and providing new tools and methods to improve learning outcomes and support innovative teaching and learning.Research into artificial intelligence and machine learning in education goes back to the late 1970s. Artificial intelligence methods were generally employed in two to design and facilitate interactive learning environments that would support learning by doing, and to design and implement tutoring systems by adapting instructions with respect to the students’ knowledge state.But this is just the beginning. As Artificial Intelligence in Education shows, AI is increasingly used in education and learning contexts. The collision of three areas – data, computation and education – is set to have far-reaching consequences, raising fundamental questions about the nature of what is taught and how it is taught. Artificial Intelligence in Education is an important, if at times disturbing, contribution to the debate on AI and provides a detailed analysis on how it may affect the way teachers and students engage in education. The book describes how artificial intelligence may impact on curriculum design, on the individualisation of learning, and on assessment, offering some tantalising glimpses into the future (the end of exams, your very own lifelong learning companion) while not falling victim to tech-hype. The enormous ethical, technical and pedagogical challenges ahead are spelt out, and there is a real risk that the rapid advances in artificial intelligence products and services will outstrip education systems’ capacity to understand, manage and integrate them appropriately. As the book “We can either leave it to others (the computer scientists, AI engineers and big tech companies) to decide how artificial intelligence in education unfolds, or we can engage in productive dialogue.”I commend this book to anyone concerned with the future of education in a digital world.”
—Marc Durando, Executive Director, European Schoolnet

Genres: Education, Artificial Intelligence

242 pages, Paperback

Published February 28, 2019

About the author

Charles Fadel is a global education thought leader and author, futurist and inventor. He is the founder and chairman of the Center for Curriculum Redesign (CCR), the chair of the education committee at BIAC/OECD, and a Member of OECD AI Experts group. He has worked with education systems and institutions in more than 30 countries.

Previously he spent 25 years in technology management (M/A-COM, Analog Devices, and as founder of NeurodyneAI), founded Fondation Helvetica Educatio (Geneva, Switzerland), Global Education Lead at Cisco Systems, visiting scholar at MIT ESG and Wharton/Penn CLO, project director Harvard GSE, member President’s Council at Olin College of Engineering, and angel investor with Beacon Angels.

BSEE, MBA, seven patents awarded & one pending.

Reviews

[Bryan Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

Artificial Intelligence in Education is the first major book on the topic. It's vital for anyone interested in technology and education.

The book's first half is a deep dive into how curricula can change under the impact of AI. Partly this explores which classes and practices students need in order to grapple with a post-AI world, but the discussion also revisits fundamental curricular questions, such as how learners apply content from one class to another, and which overarching frameworks can animate an entire course of learning.

The second half switches gears to explore direct applications of AI to learning. Holmes, Bialik, and Fadel develop a very useful taxonomy, breaking things down into intelligent tutoring systems, dialog-based tutoring systems, exploratory learning systems, and automatic writing evaluation software, along with an "other" category, each supplied with real-world examples. They add to this a cogent reflection on AI in education's implications.

Two appendices add more detailed background on curriculum and AI, respectively.

Taken together, this should help just about anyone in education and technology thinking about automation's impact.

[Eduardo Hoppenstedt]

Thought-provoking book about AI and its applications in education, without falling for the easy path of applying AI in standardized testing.
The book contains 2 parts, the first one describes the need for reinventing education for the 21st century, the second part describes how AI can be applied to improve education. This is not a technical book, it only lists AI applications but does not provide a technical guide into the development of AI tools. A good book for educators wanting to learn more about tech, or for tech developers wanting to learn more about education.

[Wei Cui · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book if you would like to understand how AI influences education.

I especially like the structure of the book: the first half of the book is about what students should learn with the advance of AI, the second half of the book is about different areas AI has already been applied for education (and I realized that I was not aware of them). I personally am more interested in the second half, but the first half is also very valuable.

[Daniele Di Mitri]

Probably the only existing book on AI in Education. It contextualises AIEd with respect to digital and technological advances. It provides a long list of examples in AIEd.