Blog: Artificial Intelligence in the Educational Process

Back in 1950, the English mathematician and cryptographer Alan Turing published his article “Computing Machinery and Intelligence.” Today, Turing is considered one of the “fathers” of computer science, but at the time, the article was actually about a test that was supposed to determine the nature and level of computer intelligence. And now, more than 70 years have passed, and today there are heated debates around AI technologies.

But I want to start with the AI ​​market in the educational process, because it is where supply and demand are formed. Which means that the further development of technologies and their penetration into the educational process will largely depend on it.

The market for artificial intelligence in the educational process

The report “Artificial Intelligence in Education Market – Forecasts from 2024 to 2029” states that by the end of 2024, the size of the AI ​​market in education will be $10.2 billion. By 2029, experts predict that the market will grow fourfold – to $43 billion.

According to the report, the AI ​​in education market is highly fragmented, with the leading players offering innovative solutions expanding their presence in regional and global markets and seeking to capture a significant share of it.

Among the leaders in the introduction of AI into the educational process are GOOGLE, Microsoft Pearson, Anthology Inc., IBM and other world-famous companies. In part, such activity of companies is related to government policy. The report notes that, for example, the United Kingdom has set itself the goal of preparing more than 1,000 postgraduate students by 2025 and announced the provision of Turing scholarships for researchers in the field of AI. But China, back in 2018, made a decision at the state level under which at least 500 teachers and 5,000 students were to be trained in AI technologies.

At the same time, the market leader is the countries of North America – the USA and Canada, where there is an increased demand for AI technologies, which is due to increased investment in Educational Technology (EdTech – digital tools for learning and development, i.e., various online courses, educational platforms and applications) from the public and commercial sectors and a high level of penetration of educational technologies.

Pearson Chief Product Officer Tony Prentice notes that students who use AI tools to better understand and master complex topics later score higher on tests. He also highlighted the growing role of AI in education: “It’s clear that the future of education is not just on the horizon — it’s here, and we’ve invested in delivering richer and more engaging experiences for both students and teachers.”

Individual advantages

Personalization. AI-based systems are able to study and analyze a student’s progress, identify strengths and weaknesses, and, taking these factors into account, adapt educational material to individual needs. Thus, each student will have the opportunity to learn at their own pace. Given the fact that students have different levels of preparation and knowledge, such use of AI will allow for significant progress in learning.

Inclusion. AI systems can significantly scale inclusion for students with special needs – those who have, for example, cognitive impairments (impaired memory and perception, delayed cognitive abilities, language impairments, etc.), or visual or hearing impairments. According to the latest data from the World Health Organization, today more than 5% of the world’s population (430 million people) need rehabilitation to overcome disabling hearing loss. 34 million of them are children(!). The organization predicts that the number of such people will increase 1.5 times by 2050 – to 700 million.

The statistics for visual impairment are even worse. In 2019, the WHO published a report according to which there were up to 290 million people with serious impairments in the world. Almost 40 million of them are children, of whom 1.4 million are completely blind, and 17.5 million suffer from moderate to severe visual impairment.

It is clear that children and young people with similar needs also have the right to education. Therefore, in this context, AI, on the basis of which adaptive learning technologies are developed, can play a key role. Using the capabilities of artificial intelligence, we are able to create a more inclusive world and give people with certain disabilities and impairments the opportunity to improve their quality of life, improve their access to education.

It is very important that most AI technologies today offer qualitatively new educational opportunities for people with certain disabilities. In the future, they should completely eliminate inequality in educational opportunities for them.

Disadvantages and threats

Academic dishonesty.

Academic dishonesty is a problem that all teachers face, regardless of their experience or field of study. It usually manifests itself in forms such as plagiarism, misusing someone else’s ideas, or assisting with exams. Unfortunately, the advent of new technologies, including AI, has made the situation much worse.

From personal experience, I can give an example when a student submitted a paper created by AI as his own. The text was distinguished by its “ideal” structure and formulaic arguments, but most importantly, it was superficial. In addition, the information in the paper turned out to be false, and the student did not even check its reliability. The AI ​​indicated a fictitious court case number and described its essence, although such a case did not exist at all, and the student, without thinking, referred to this unreliable judicial practice. This case actualized the question of how exactly students perceive AI and how much they understand the risks of its use.

Some steps in this direction have already been taken. In January 2024, the People’s Deputies developed a Draft Law on Academic Integrity, and in June it was adopted as a basis. The document contains a list of academic integrity violations, including academic plagiarism, alienation and attribution of authorship, self-plagiarism, etc.

The draft law also states that “when using parts formed (generated) by computer programs in an academic work, this fact must be indicated by the author(s) with an indication of the method of formation (generation) or a reference to the relevant computer program or its description.”

Failure to do so will be considered academic plagiarism.

Although there are already discussions around this wording, because, for example, is the use of GOOGLE TRANSLATE during the preparation of a paper considered the use of a computer program? If so, then this will need to be noted.

Decreased socialization. The widespread and uncontrolled use of AI technologies will inevitably lead to a decrease in communication between the student and the teacher. Subjects of the educational process can largely immerse themselves in the so-called “virtual world”. This, in turn, will have a negative impact on social skills and reduce the ability to adapt in society.

Digital divide. Not everyone today has equal access to modern technologies. This partly depends on access to information technologies, but to a certain extent on one’s own technological literacy. This, accordingly, can lead to significant differences in the standard of living of certain social groups. Unfortunately, today Ukraine, due to a full-scale invasion, has encountered regular power outages, deterioration in the quality of mobile communications and the Internet. Therefore, such risks are largely scalable in our country.

Discussions with students showed that many see AI as a “simple and quick solution”, without thinking about the harm such an approach can do to the quality of their education. There are also ongoing debates among teachers: some see it as a threat, others as an opportunity to adapt the educational process. But in my opinion, university is not about copying, but about developing critical thinking. And until we force students to think for themselves, the situation will only get worse.

AI in the educational process: some approaches and practices

In August 2024, Jacob Justice (University of Kansas) and Bret Bricker (University of Mississippi) published an interesting article – “Human intelligence: justifying debate in the Age of AI”. The co-authors recognize the strong impact of AI on the field of education, but draw attention to research data indicating that the use of AI tools in writing student papers leads to a 25% decrease in accuracy in operating with concepts and a 12% decrease in reading comprehension.

“The impact of AI on the education system is a subject of debate and detailed study. At first, we tried to fight it, considering neural networks as a threat. Artificial intelligence offers the shortest path to writing various essays, but the essence of education is for a person to master the skills of writing, speaking and thinking independently,” Jacobs notes, and you can’t argue with that.

Understanding that students will continue to use AI in their learning, they propose to introduce a very interesting tool – debates. Integrating debates into the learning process should, in their opinion, develop understanding, research skills and empathy. After all, debates are not just about expressing one’s point of view, they are the ability to draw conclusions in a limited time, respond to the arguments of the opponent and, based on this, rebuild one’s position. And even if the student has completed his work with the help of AI, during the debate he will have to immerse himself 100% in this discourse, which requires critical thinking, knowledge and skills from him.

“Ранні спільноти філософів могли люто розходитися в думках щодо будь-якого питання, але вони були готові сидіти за столом один навпроти одного і ставитися до аргументів один одного з повагою. Це було цінним мистецтвом. У рамках його розвивалися не тільки вміння дискутувати, а й зростала емпатія по відношенню до супротивника”, – пише з цього приводу Брет Брікер.

I believe that artificial intelligence can be a useful tool in the educational process if used rationally and responsibly. For example, it can help students quickly find and structure material for research. However, it is important that students check the reliability of the information they receive to avoid spreading errors or unreliable data.

In addition, AI can be used to personalize learning. Adaptive programs allow you to adjust tasks to the student’s level of knowledge, providing additional explanations or exercises when necessary. For teachers, artificial intelligence is an effective tool for automating routine tasks, such as checking tests or generating reports, allowing them to devote more time to individual work with students.

AI can also inspire and assist students in generating new ideas or analyzing texts, but it is important to use it as an auxiliary resource, not as a replacement for personal thinking. The teacher’s task is to teach students to be critical of the results obtained so that they remain independent in their conclusions and decisions. The main thing is to perceive AI as an assistant that enhances the learning process, not a substitute for human thinking.

In the context of modern trends, we should also focus on the integration of AI platforms and traditional learning models. And here much will depend on the position of the authorities – in particular, the Ministry of Education and Science. Specialized industry higher education institutions should pay special attention to this phenomenon in their research. This way we will be able to achieve another goal – the systematic study of AI intelligence, its capabilities and effective use. Moreover, in completely different sectors – from education to economics, from industry to agriculture, from medicine to the military.

By the way, since we are already talking about the authorities, I would like to remind you that in Ukraine the Concept of Artificial Intelligence Development until 2030 was approved four years ago, in December 2020. According to it, the main task of the education sector in the development of AI is to provide the relevant sphere with qualified personnel. And in the field of higher education, it provides for the creation of educational platforms and programs, the involvement of specialists from the IT industry and other industries in the formation of qualification requirements for AI specialists, the integration of online courses on the topic of AI into educational programs, the establishment of international cooperation, etc.

However, in my opinion, given the rapid development of this area in recent years, there is every reason to periodically revise the Concept to take into account new challenges and needs.

Ethics of artificial intelligence

In 2021, UNESCO published recommendations on the ethics of artificial intelligence. They aim to ensure that countries make efforts to maximize the benefits of AI while reducing the risks it may pose.

UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences Gabriela Ramos gave a very clear message: “The world will change at a pace not seen since the advent of the printing press six centuries ago. Artificial intelligence technologies bring significant benefits in many areas, but without an ethical framework, they can lead to the spread of prejudice and discrimination in the real world, fueling divisions and threatening fundamental human rights and freedoms.”

Indeed, it is very important that all stakeholders (developers, national governments, international organizations, users) at each stage (from development to use) are guided by generally accepted standards, a set of principles and values, so that the use of AI is ethical and the above-mentioned threats can be prevented.

By the way, part of UNESCO’s recommendations concerns education. In particular, it states that the organization’s member states should encourage research initiatives on the responsible and ethical use of AI technologies in teaching, teacher training, and e-learning.

In addition, the value of traditional forms of education is emphasized, which “are vital in teacher-student and student-student relationships,” and it is they who should be taken into account when implementing AI technologies into the educational process.

UNESCO also insists that AI “should support the learning process without reducing cognitive abilities” and emphasizes that future developments related to AI technologies should be based on thorough and independent scientific research.

Instead of a conclusion, I would like to quote Andrew Yin, an American scientist who works on machine learning and artificial intelligence. During one of his speeches, he said the following: “I think the world will be a better place if artificial intelligence helps us. It will lower the cost of goods, give us good education, change the way we run hospitals and the healthcare system – it’s just a long list of things.”

Actually, a similar vision is shared by the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, which developed and published a document for discussion on June 26, 2024, the “White Paper on AI Regulation in Ukraine”. However, it is more focused on the regulation of AI and business, as well as the achievement of several goals – competitiveness, protection of human rights and European integration. The prerequisite for the creation of this document was the need to find a balance between the interests of society, the development of innovative business and the presence of modern challenges in the field of AI regulation.

In fact, we must remember that artificial intelligence is a tool, a tool created by humans. And the choice of what purposes and how we apply it ultimately remains ours.

Source: ЦензорНет