Tag Archives: education

7 November 2023
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AI, Blockchain, Business

Unpacking Artificial Intelligence in Education

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Benefits

AI’s integration into education has opened the doors to a new era of learning. As mentioned in a recent Education Next article, AI carries enormous promises for the education sector. One of the most significant benefits is personalization. AI algorithms can adapt to the unique needs of each student, providing tailored learning experiences. This means that learners can progress at their own pace, receiving additional support in areas where they struggle and advancing more quickly in subjects they excel in. The result? Improved learning outcomes and a more engaged, motivated student body.

Furthermore, AI can assist educators in identifying students who may need additional help or specialized learning plans. This early intervention can be a game-changer, preventing students from falling behind and ensuring that no one is left out. These advancements align with the goals of creating more inclusive and equitable education systems.

Consequences

However, as AI becomes more integrated into educational settings, so too do its biases. A thought-provoking piece from Brookings highlights the risks associated with AI in education. AI systems learn from data, and if that data contains biases, the AI systems can perpetuate those biases. This means that students from historically marginalized groups may face discrimination in grading, recommendations, or access to educational resources.

Another concern is the depersonalization of learning. Relying too heavily on AI can lead to a lack of human interaction and emotional connection, potentially stunting social and emotional development.

Where It’s Heading

The future of AI in education is incredibly promising. AI’s influence extends far beyond personalized learning. As detailed in The New York Times, AI chatbots are becoming increasingly prevalent in the college application process. These chatbots assist both students and admissions officers by providing instant support and answers to common queries, streamlining the application process, and offering a glimpse into what future interactions with AI in education might look like.

Moreover, AI’s role in professional development is expanding. According to Voice of America News, AI tools can both aid and hinder worker performance. With careful implementation, they have the potential to create more efficient, productive, and adaptable workforces.

Who Is Using AI in Education

AI in education is not just a futuristic concept. In reality, many institutions, from primary schools to universities, are already embracing this technology. Many are leveraging AI to optimize administrative tasks, like scheduling and resource allocation. These efforts create more time for teachers and staff to focus on instruction and support for students.

Some pioneering schools have adopted AI-driven edtech solutions in the classroom. They offer personalized learning experiences, interactive lessons, and immediate feedback. This empowers teachers to become mentors, guiding students on their educational journeys.

How It Will Look in the Future

Looking ahead, AI in education is set to revolutionize the way we learn, teach, and administer educational institutions. We can expect more personalized, inclusive, and efficient education systems. However, the road ahead requires vigilance. Addressing the biases that AI can inherit from data and ensuring that ethical considerations are prioritized will be paramount.

As AI becomes more integrated into classrooms, we should also strive to maintain a balance between human interaction and technology. While AI can enhance learning experiences, the personal touch of educators remains invaluable.

Thoughts

In conclusion, AI in education is a double-edged sword. It offers tremendous benefits in terms of personalized learning, early intervention, and efficiency. Yet, the risks of perpetuating biases and depersonalization are very real. To harness the power of AI for good, education institutions, policymakers, and technology developers must work hand in hand to ensure that this powerful tool becomes a force for positive change. As we look to the future, it’s clear that AI will play an increasingly significant role in education, transforming the way we learn and teach, but it’s essential that we do so responsibly and with an eye toward equity and inclusion.

https://www.educationnext.org/a-i-in-education-leap-into-new-era-machine-intelligence-carries-risks-challenges-promises/

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/ai-is-coming-to-schools-and-if-were-not-careful-so-will-its-biases/

https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/study-finds-ai-tools-help-but-also-hurt-worker-performance/7296498.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/01/technology/ai-chatbots-college-applications.html

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/ai-how-plan-use-help-hurt-students

Engine used: ChatGPT 3.5

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30 January 2023
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AI

Universities and AI or how the educational system is going to adapt to new technologies?

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Use this cutting-edge AI text generator to write stories, poems, news articles, and more - The Verge

In the previous articles a lot of important topics were brought up, particularly about AI and how we have to change legislations or how corporations have to change their structures to be able to co-exist with new technologies.

However, one vital thing has not been discussed yet – educational system. Not that long time ago in schools in the New York city, the use of the bots that could generate essays, articles etc., was banned. Should the same be implemented in the other educational places, especially at the universities?

On one hand, such bots as ChatGPT are the source of unlimited, quickly produced essays that can be used and presented as personal work. What is more, it is highly difficult to detect plagiarism in such bots, as the AI inside them can be aimed to rewrite the texts available on the Internet with using as much synonyms as possible. This is one of the concerns of professors at the universities in the US.

Nonetheless, on the other hand, those texts can be produced with a low quality, for instance mistakes, or sentence structures that barely make sense. This is an asset, as some students can use bots as a source for their research, that would take much less time, or, simply speaking, as an inspiration. For instance, extremely famous program ‘Grammarly’, that helps you to correct the mistakes or try to simplify or make your writing more academic, is also a bot, should it also be banned?

We cannot fully ban something, especially when it comes to the new technologies as they spread and become a part of our life’s. An interesting point was brought up on the Internet that we should develop a broader policy when it comes to the use of AI for educational purposes. Which would make a lot of sense, as far as this is approved by the professor, students can use different bots to enhance their papers.

At the same time, we come to the other problem, we need better tools to detect plagiarism or, what is more important, to detect texts/papers that have been fully made by the AI. This is a one more challenge for the IT industry, as, nowadays it is impossible to identify bot-written assignments, sure, if they have been done in a good way. 

To read more about plagiarism concerns: https://www.wired.com/story/chatgpt-college-university-plagiarism/

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13 January 2023
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CHAT GPT already baned at schools

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How teaching AI in schools could help equip students for future careers

ChatGPT is a chatbot trained using the GTP-3 language model. It uses language processing to generate responses to user input in conversational manner. Provides informations and assist with tasks within the limitations of its programming. It isn’t using real data yet, but that probably will happend in a next year.

Open AI’s CEO Sam Altman claims that: “ChatGPT is incredibly limited but good enough at some things to create a misleading impression of greatness. It’s a mistake to be relying on it for anything important right now.”

What the opportunities are created? Chat GPT’s writting skills are on the level of high school student satisfied with grade B. In other words, those good students will be able to use it as a tool to facilitate their work, it will be an addition which they will polish. While students without these abilities can completely rely on this and may not consider it as cheating, but as working smarter. Who will do it with a tool that can solve any task in a few seconds? And with gained extra free time do whatever you want. Then schools have to introduce innovative solutions, and also focus more attention into learning and work during school time, not outside of it, because homework is becomming useless.

But why do teachers assign so much writting homework to us? Why is it so important? Writing essays is a process of expressing one’s thoughts, ideas, and opinions on a particular topic in the form of a written document. It is a way to demonstrate one’s understanding of the topic, as well as their ability to articulate their thoughts and ideas clearly and effectively also to improve comunicational skills, develop critical thinking, demonstrate and improve research skills.

Education Department of USA says that: “While the tool may be able to provide quick and easy answers to questions, it does not build critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, which are essential for academic and lifelong success.” and that may be sharing “harmful instructions or biased content.”. In that case the tool is already restricted on New York City Public Schools’ networks and devices and more and more schools are following this lead or at least considering such step. However, a student still can access chatGPT from a personal phone or computer at home. Also, the AI-detectors (created to catch fraudsters in the act) still don’t work in my opinion, I checked one essay created by GTP chat and it detected it as 89% man-made. Whether teachers are doing the right thing by cutting us off from a world that is only moving forward with new technologies and increasingly relies on artificial intelligence ?

Schools are focused on memorisation as metod of teaching and learning, but in my opinion should change and shift its attention into: critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork, creativity, digtal literacy – to help students how to use technology effectively and responsibly that is increasingly important in today’s world and last but not least emotional intelligence to recognise, manage and understand owns emotions, to develop strong social and interpersonal skills. In my opinion, chat GPT and other innovative tool of artificial technology could bring about a great revolution in schools. We should learn to work with it, because it is a world that we will soon be surrounded by on all sides.

https://www.foxnews.com/tech/nyc-bans-ai-tool-chatgpt-schools-fears-new-cheating-threat

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/12/openai-chatgpt-writing-high-school-english-essay/672412/

https://ny.chalkbeat.org/2023/1/3/23537987/nyc-schools-ban-chatgpt-writing-artificial-intelligence

https://www.forbes.com/sites/barrycollins/2022/12/30/chatgpt-five-alarming-ways-in-which-ai-will-lie-for-you/?sh=4bbf93825cb9

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/12/technology/chatgpt-schools-teachers.html

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12 January 2022
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Polish Universities about to utilize blockchain technology

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Billon Group - Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding
Source: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/billon-group

In a partnership with OPTeam, which delivers software for academic entities, Billon Digital Solutions is introducing blockchain into polish universities. The company wants to completely replace the current way of storing students’ data by creating a blockchain ledger for polish universities. This ledger will consist of every document that relates to a particular student and aims to reduce the risk of forging them. It is easy to use because to save a paper in such a form, a member of the academic staff needs only several seconds, and any person can validate it in no time from any place in the world. A crucial factor that is worth paying attention to is that the system will store documents in their entirety. So not like so far, only cryptographic references to them. It is a significant step forward because it may allow storing, for example, the whole books, on blockchain in the future. The software already has its first user, the University of Technology in Kielce. The entity uses the technology to issue students’ diplomas, and so far, both students and academic staff are satisfied with its features.

Who would have imagined several years ago, when blockchain took its first step, it would be introduced even in such fossilized structures as the polish education system. It shows us how the future is unpredictable and orders us to pay close attention to new emerging technologies. Maybe in a few years, we will use blockchain on all levels of the education system.

Sources:

https://fintek.pl/polskie-uczelnie-skorzystaja-z-technologii-blockchain

https://fintek.pl/politechnika-swietokrzyska-publikuje-dyplomy-na-blockchainie-z-uzyciem-technologii-billon/

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28 October 2020
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AI in the Education System

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AI in the Education System

Nowadays technology and education go hand in hand. The usage of such simple tools like Microsoft Teams, Zoom and many others have been crucial for delivering knowledge in the current times. Even though some educational institutions are still figuring out how to work with it, we would be lost without all the new and amazing technology available today.

It is great to see that companies like Microsoft are working hard on improving AI for educational institutions. Students will benefit from this technology by using it on a daily basis and it will maximize their preparedness for the future. Also, teachers could be relieved from some of the tedious tasks that are time consuming and give more attention to their students.  Overall, there are some innovative ideas on how to use AI to improve schooling.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/03/04/905535/unleashing-the-power-of-ai-for-education/

But there is one important issue that all these great companies should pay more attention to: the increasing educational gap in the education system. While some are moving forward at an incredible pace, others are being left far behind.


We all know the importance of going to a good school and getting a good diploma to get a well-paid job.  For those of us who are fortunate enough to attend great schools, life will be much easier overall. But there is a great number of pupils who do not have this privilege. There have been numerous studies on how COVID has impacted the educational system. The low-income families and economically weak countries are among the victims that are struggling the most.

 

How can we use AI to narrow the gap between educational institutions and put everybody on equal footing?

Considering the vast amount of knowledge and finances that the big tech companies possess, I wonder if they could get more involved in the matter. It is likely that this wouldn’t be a top priority for any of them. But I think it is worth keeping in mind that poor education can be a devastating blow not only for the global economy but also the global community.

Now, I am not implying the progress should stop. On the contrary “full speed ahead”, give us more flexibility while studying online and for when we return to the classrooms. I just hope that the significant number of less fortunate will not be left behind.

Down below I have attached two links on the situation in UK and USA. But keep in mind that this is an issue for many other countries.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/05/us/coronavirus-education-lost-learning.html

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/sep/01/disadvantaged-and-bame-pupils-lost-more-learning-study-finds

 

 

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6 January 2020
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Duolingo – the best machine learning startup to work for in 2020

Reading Time: 3 minutesDuolingo is starting the year off strong. They have been named one of the top startups to work for, in the growing field of machine learning. These and many other insights are from a Crunchbase Pro analysis completed using Glassdoor data to rank the best machine learning startups to work for in 2020. Why is Duolingo a unique company?

Duolingo logo
Source: https://www.duolingo.com/

Duolingo AI Research

Duolingo AI Research is one of Duolingo’s fastest-growing teams. They are using real-world data to develop new hypotheses about language and learning, test them empirically, and ship products based on their research. Duolingo has revolutionized language learning for more than 300 million people around the world. They keep on bringing creative, interdisciplinary ideas on how to deliver a high-quality education to anyone, anywhere, through AI.

 

Duolingo AI team logo
Source: https://research.duolingo.com/

 

Tools and data from Duolingo

Duolingo use AI to adapt longer learning content to learners’ level. The startup is regularly releasing their internal tools to the public so everyone can read more about their research innovations. One of them is CEFR Checker. This tool determines whether texts are appropriate for beginner, intermediate, or advanced learners of English or Spanish. It works by analyzing vocabulary and highlighting words by their reading proficiency level according to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). Duolingo uses interactive tools like this one to help people revise content (e.g., Podcasts and Stories) for particular levels.

The Duolingo CEFR Checker: an AI tool for adapting learning content
Source: https://making.duolingo.com/the-duolingo-cefr-checker-an-ai-tool-for-adapting-learning-content

The Duolingo CEFR Checker: an AI tool for adapting learning content
Source: https://making.duolingo.com/the-duolingo-cefr-checker-an-ai-tool-for-adapting-learning-content

 

Duolingo is also committed to sharing data and findings with the broader research community. SLAM Shared Task is an example project. It contains data for the 2018 Shared Task on Second Language Acquisition Modeling (SLAM). This corpus contains 7 million words produced by learners of English, Spanish, and French. It includes user demographics, morph-syntactic metadata, response times, and longitudinal errors for 6k+ users over 30 days.

 

Why people should consider working at Duolingo?

The language-learning app Duolingo is valued at $1.5 billion after a $30 million investment by Alphabet’s CapitalG. Bookings growth has risen from $1 million to $100 million in less than three years for the most downloaded and top-grossing education app worldwide. What is more, Pittsburgh’s first venture capital-funded $1 billion start-up plans to increase staff by 50% with the new funding. Duolingo has been adding user and revenue at an impressive pace, continuing to solidify its position as the No. 1 way to learn a language globally.

 

Why people should consider working in the machine learning field?

Demand reminds high for technical professionals with machine learning expertise. According to Indeed, Machine Learning Engineer job openings grew 344% between 2015 to 2018 and have an average base salary of $146,085 according to their Best Jobs In The U.S. Study.

It can be safely stated that Duolingo is developing very dynamically. There is also no doubt that the rapid growth of a startup also means the development of its employees.

Would you choose to join Pittsburgh’s unicorn if you had such a chance? What do you think about Duolingo’s contribution to the development of the education sector?

 

References:

[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2020/12/29/the-best-machine-learning-startups-to-work-for-in-2020-based-on-glassdoor/#71505e744886

[2] http://blog.indeed.com/2019/03/14/best-jobs-2019/

[3] https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/03/google-funded-duolingo-first-1-billion-start-up-from-pittsburgh.html

[4] https://making.duolingo.com/the-duolingo-cefr-checker-an-ai-tool-for-adapting-learning-content

[5] https://making.duolingo.com/how-machine-learning-helps-duolingo-prioritize-course-improvements

[6] https://cefr.duolingo.com/

[7] https://research.duolingo.com/

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21 October 2019
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Is Minecraft going to revolutionise education?

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Znalezione obrazy dla zapytania minecraft classroom

Remind Yourself about lessons in Your primary or secondary school. Some of them were presumably boring and even if they took place only once a week, You did not want to participate in them at all. Such a phenomenon occurs because how the information is delivered, for instance, boring lectures, during which no one except a teacher is permitted to say anything. Nowadays it became very difficult to make young students interested in a subject with traditional teaching methods. That’s why more and more apps and educational platforms are being developed to help teachers to make their lessons impressing.

Following the trend of a growing number of interactive tools, which help to teach, Microsoft decided to get into the market introducing “Minecraft: Education Edition”. Most of today’s children know what Minecraft is and probably have played it. For those, who don’t know it, Minecraft is a computer game, with infinite possibilities to discover the world by building things and completing achievements. More and more teachers around the world start using this method.  All of them could easily introduce this approach on their lessons because there are special guides and scenarios of classes on the Internet and also everyone can consult a professional mentor, who will help to implement Minecraft Edu in real life.

Znalezione obrazy dla zapytania minecraft education

“It is better to build it and understand it than write it on paper and understand it”

Some people would probably doubt if Minecraft is appropriate for every school subject, but the idea is admired by teachers of various subjects, from all around the world. On the website of Minecraft: Education Edition there are special materials for teachers uploaded. Subject kits for Language Arts, Science, History and Culture, Computer Science, Math, Art and Design can be found there.

It has been proven that children, whose teacher implemented Minecraft Edu, tend to learn more efficient, but on the other hand, such way of learning cannot be introduced in every case. The first and main reason is that in some countries, schools have not enough money to provide their students with such facilities as computer labs and they cannot require children to have their laptops. Secondly, would old teachers, who have been teaching traditionally for all of their lives introduce such an innovative method? Probably most of them would not do that. Finally, teachers and parents are not always able to monitor how much time do children spend in front of the screen, so if this was neglected, young students could be exposed to “screen addiction”.

References:

1)https://minecrafteducation.zendesk.com/hc/en-us

2)https://www.microsoft.com/pl-pl/education/minecraft

3)https://education.minecraft.net

4)https://www.educationandbehavior.com/how-does-minecraft-education-edition-work-is-it-good-for-students/

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29 January 2017
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Is technology killing education?

Reading Time: 3 minutesWe all believe or want to believe that technology development is something good. It shows we’re moving forward, we’re getting better, we’re pushing the limits. But does it always make sense? Do we always need to introduce more gadgets and software to all fields? Is it always justified with thorough thinking and planning?

I doubt that.

I want to raise a taboo subject of technology in education (and in classrooms in general). More and more schools are facing this problem, including Kozminski University.

smartphones in the classrom

Source: www.bostonglobe.com

The first thing you notice when you enter the classroom is that literally 90% of students do not pay attention to the teacher, but do pay attention to their smartphones, tablets and laptops. What is the point of going to a class if all you do is scrolling Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat? And why do teachers never react?

It is said that problems with attention can be blamed on technology. You can argue and say we’re a generation of multitasking, but guess what? Researches show multitasking is actually impossible and what you do is more of a “task-switching”.

My point is not criticizing students for not paying attention in a class. I’m guilty myself! Moreover, being addicted to social media is not something my generation chose. It’s rather something we inherited from previous generations and are forced to live in.

 

no-powerpoing

Source: www.someecards.com

Let’s look at the problem from a different perspective. Why would someone pay attention to the full-of-text PowerPoint slides that he knows he’ll receive before the exam? Slides that can be read at home in 1 hour? Of course, there are teachers who try to make their classes more interesting and engaging, but even in spite of those efforts, PowerPoint in killing education. There’s no point in making notes when they’re already made and sent to you. Not to mention taking notes with a pen and paper, which happens to be the best way to learn.

Another taboo is cheating. We’re in Poland where cheating is, unfortunately, socially accepted. Teachers pretend they don’t see that, but smartphones and access to the Internet make cheating easier than ever before. With practically no reaction and no penalties, the value of your diploma is getting low. It is also said that with easy access to academic information, any academic writing is no longer original. Is that what we wanted?

Of course, there are amazing companies that help people learn (like Brainly, Skillshare, Khan Academy, Lynda, Codeacademy and many many others), knowledge is now more accessible than ever before. But is school really teaching us how to learn? Or just how to pass the exams?

Some people say technology is making us stupid and it’s hard not to agree with that. Others will list trends that are changing education for better and you can’t argue with that either. Technology is getting better every day and we probably should be excited about it, but are we actually ready for it? Maybe it’s time to stop for a moment and think not only about how we can implement technology at schools, but also how we can reduce its negative influence. After all, education is our future.

 

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20 January 2016
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What is the future of our education system?

Reading Time: 2 minutesmooc-cartoon

 

All of us, at some point have heard of MOOC, pronounced mook, or better yet, participated in MOOCs. For the less fortunate, here is what it is. MOOC – Massive open online course. Continue reading →

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