Artificial intelligence is poised to transform how we teach in classrooms across the country and around the world, and Louisiana is leading the charge.
While much has been written about the potential pitfalls of AI in education, few have discussed just how beneficial AI will be in improving educational outcomes. From students just starting out in elementary schools to students at higher education institutions, AI can maximize their education to a level previously out of reach.
AI is not a substitute teacher, nor can it replace teachers in the classroom. This fact is undeniable. But AI can allow teachers to do far more with their finite time.
Creating and grading assignments, for example, can consume substantial amounts of time for teachers. AI can help reduce the time needed to grade papers, allowing teachers to quickly turn around assignments and identify areas where additional instruction could be helpful.
AI can further help teachers quickly create detailed and tailored lesson plans and assignments for students, allowing them to spend more time teaching and less time planning a one-size-fits-all all lesson plan.
Another aspect of education where AI can be transformative is ensuring students in rural areas, like many of those we have here in Louisiana, have the same educational opportunities as their peers.
AI tools are being used by educators to create online courses, a previously highly time-consuming and challenging task. These tools are helping students learning online in remote regions to work collaboratively with their counterparts, take notes and handle tasks previously only available to students receiving in-person instruction.
One of the most significant and promising applications for AI is in early reading. Teachers can rarely spend all their time on a single student, even if that student is potentially struggling. In many cases, a single teacher could be assigned 10, 15 or even more than 20 students at a time.
Yet, with the help of AI, teachers can improve their efficiency and help students catch up with individualized strategies and assignments. They can further utilize AI as a practice reading partner for their students, a partner that can guide their reading progress with teacher supervision.
Training students to make the most of AI’s strengths also prepares them for success in the workforce later. While many AI tools are intuitive and easy to use, making the most of them requires knowledge, patience and practice. This is where AI can really make a difference in higher education. Whether it’s helping students research more efficiently by processing troves of data in a blink of an eye or running simulations to give student researchers real-time analysis and feedback, AI is a critical tool in the toolbelt in academia and research.
Beyond helping academic researchers and experts, AI is also helping to broaden fields traditionally limited to those with specific technical skills, such as knowledge of certain computer programming languages. AI cannot replace human coders, but it can allow people who do not know how to code to produce limited segments without prior knowledge or expertise, and in many places, that limited assistance is enough to make what was previously impossible possible.
There are countless places where a little bit of AI can go a long way, and we are discovering more every day.
It is thus vital that we prepare students to be able to make full use of these tools to supplement their weaknesses and build upon their strengths. Louisiana is boldly facing the future head-on, and we are not alone in doing so.