AI has vast potential in the classroom and in helping run a school, whether it’s providing students with personalised learning experiences, helping teachers grade work, or taking care of their admin for them. But the new technology comes with risks, too, that may threaten to propagate educational inequality further and cause other serious consequences.
In today’s blog we’ll explore whether AI can tackle or exacerbate inequality in the classroom, and how you can make sure that when you use it, it does the former.
Opportunities for AI to tackle inequality in education
There’s a huge number of AI use cases that, if implemented correctly, can not only improve attainment but also make education more accessible for all.
AI tutor chatbots, for example, can provide students with a one-on-one learning experience, as well as additional support tailored to gaps in their knowledge and their optimal learning techniques.
Some AI tools designed for teachers to use, like tools that automate tasks such as marking homework or generating reports, can give them more time back that they can devote to their students, too, ensuring they all receive more and better support.
AI can enhance data and analytics tools that probe student performance, as well, generating insights and pinpointing trends around metrics like attendance, behaviour, and attainment, and suggest ways to help individuals improve them.
Many AI tools are making education more accessible for SEND students, as well, like speech recognition tools that can transcribe spoken words into text and vice versa.
While the future looks bright (and fairer) with AI, achieving equality with AI depends on equal access to AI. You can learn more about the different use cases of AI in this blog.
Overcoming the Digital Divide
So long as all students across the UK have access to devices able to run AI tools and a reliable internet connection, AI can most certainly reduce educational inequality – but the Digital Divide may hamper this.
The Digital Divide is the unequal access to digital technologies, like laptops, the internet, and smartphones. It can seriously impact a child’s learning and their future job prospects, particularly with today’s reliance on technology to complete schoolwork and the requirement for digital skills in the modern workplace. The Digital Divide is very much present in UK schools, with the government announcing an investment of £45m to tackle this issue directly.
The Digital Divide in schools and educational inequality are both fuelled by a range of factors, but the most significant is unsurprisingly a child’s socioeconomic background. AI may well go on to enhance the learning experience of those with sufficient access to AI tools, but this could increase education inequality.
How to use AI to tackle educational inequality
To ensure students get the most out of AI, it is essential both students and staff confidently know how to use AI tools and can easily access them when required. Here’s our top tips for helping your staff and students use AI in the most effective ways.
- Support teachers with AI adoption
Just like any new technology, it’s common for the most digitally capable teachers to readily deploy AI and others to shy away it. This could result in only some students benefiting from AI learning tools.
It’s critical school leaders ensure all staff are well trained in the evolving capabilities of AI and how to use different AI tools, and are also fully aware of the risks it can pose.
- Educate students about AI
With more children using AI whether in school or at home, it’s important they know how to use AI safely and appropriately, such as not sharing personal data with it, thinking critically about its output, information, and not using it to plagiarise work.
To find out more about getting started with AI in your school, check out our AI in Education guide. It covers the AI basics including different AI use cases in schools, and even gives you actionable advice so you can start using AI today.
Learn more about how to use AI in schools in our upcoming webinar
Following our hugely popular AI webinars during the last academic year, on November 7th we’ll be hosting the fifth instalment of the series – AI Beyond the Classroom: From Prompt to Practice. To register for the webinar click here, and to watch recordings of our previous webinars click here.
