AI for Teachers: Using Artificial Intelligence to Enhance Learning

September 24, 2023 / Oskar Cymerman

Whether we like it or hate it, want it or resist it, embrace it or repress it, Artificial Intelligence is here to stay. On one hand, the uncertainty AI brings with it is scary. On the other, AI has the potential to transform traditional education - it can make learning more personalized, efficient, and engaging for our students. But to harness its full potential, educators and institutions must carefully consider how to best integrate AI into the classroom. This article is an exploration of the key ways in which AI can (and already is being used to) enhance learning.

Personalized Learning

One of the most promising aspects of AI in education is its ability to create personalized learning paths for each student. AI algorithms can analyze students' strengths, weaknesses, and learning styles based on their performance and adapt the curriculum accordingly. AI driven personalization enables educators to both challenge and support their students, which ultimately leads to improved learning outcomes for all.

You may already know and use such platforms in your teaching.

Khan Academy is a well-known online learning platform that uses adaptive learning technology and offers personalized math and science instruction to students of all ages, adjusting the difficulty of exercises based on individual performance.

DreamBox and Carnegie Learning are adaptive math programs for students that use AI to adapt to each student's skill level and learning style, providing a customized learning path.

Duolingo is a language-learning app that incorporates AI to personalize language instruction. It adapts lessons based on a student's progress and adjusts difficulty levels to optimize learning.

Intelligent Tutoring Systems

Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) powered by AI are like having a virtual tutor available 24/7. These systems can provide students with immediate feedback, answer their questions, and offer additional resources for further learning. ITS can be particularly useful in subjects where students may require extra help, such as mathematics or language learning. You may already know and use such platforms in your teaching.

Besides the aforementioned Khan Academy et. al., the platforms such as SMART Learning Suite (customized lessons and assessments), ScribeSense (grading and providing feedback on handwritten assignments), and Pearson MyLab (adaptive assessments and feedback) are other examples of AI-driven Intelligent Tutoring Systems. As AI technology continues to advance, we can expect even more innovative and personalized learning solutions to emerge.

Automation of Administrative Tasks

Grading assignments and communicating with students and parents is time consuming. AI can automate these routine tasks, freeing up teachers' valuable time for more critical activities, like lesson planning, engaging with students, and professional development. Many private sector companies already use AI for such tasks. Why should education be different?

Enhancing Lesson Planning

By analyzing the Internet database of educational materials, AI algorithms can recommend relevant content, teaching strategies, and activities tailored to the learning objectives and the specific needs of the students in the classroom. This can help teachers deliver more engaging and effective lessons. Artificial Intelligence can also be used to provide examples for key concepts studied, real-life phenomena for research, and topics for student projects.

Data-Driven Decision-Making

AI can provide educators with valuable insights through data analytics. By tracking students' progress, engagement, and performance, AI can help teachers identify areas where students may be struggling and adapt their teaching strategies accordingly. Moreover, it can assist schools in making data-driven decisions regarding curriculum improvements and resource allocation.

Assessing Student Engagement and Emotions

Understanding how students are feeling and engaging during lessons is crucial for effective teaching. AI can analyze facial expressions, behavior, and sentiment to gauge students' emotional states and level of engagement. Teachers can use this information to adjust their teaching methods, provide additional support, or introduce more engaging activities. If this sounds too sci-fi for you sit down, take a deep breath, and accept the weird outrageousness of it all.

Accessibility and Inclusion

AI can play a significant role in creating an inclusive learning environment. For example, it can provide real-time language translation to assist ELL students, offer accessibility features for students with disabilities, and even adapt content for students with varying learning styles and abilities.

So What Does it all mean?

Artificial Intelligence is changing education. Teachers can focus on preventing students from using AI to cheat or harness its power to create more personalized and effective learning experiences for students. It’s important to remember that successful AI integration requires careful planning, training, and consideration of ethics. When used thoughtfully, AI has the potential to revolutionize education - to make it more accessible, engaging, and tailored to the needs of individual learners. AI is not coming - it’s already here and embracing it in the classroom helps us prepare students for the challenges and opportunities the future brings.

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The Systems Approach in Education: Nurturing Holistic Learning

August 23, 2023 / Oskar Cymerman

In a world of rapid change and increasing complexity, traditional education often falls short in adequately preparing students for the challenges we are currently facing. Population growth, resource demands and exploitation, climate change, disease, sustainability, poverty, peace and security, human rights… are all interconnected. One affects another no matter how hard we try to separate them and deal with each issue one by one, and perhaps this is why it is time to give up the status quo way of educating in favor of the systems approach.

Understanding the Systems Approach

The systems approach finds any system as not just a collection of individual parts, but an integrated whole where the interactions between these parts create emergent behaviors (behaviors that emerge from the interactions of various parts of the system).

In traditional education, we often compartmentalize subjects and treat their topics in isolation. In contrast, the systems approach encourages an interdisciplinary perspective. It emphasizes the interconnectedness of subjects, encouraging students to understand how knowledge and skills from various domains can be used to solve real-world problems. This approach mirrors the complexity of real-life situations, where challenges rarely fit into a single academic field.

Key Principles of the Systems Approach in Education

Interdisciplinary Learning: The systems approach promotes learning that transcends disciplines. By encouraging students to explore connections between subjects, it equips them with a more comprehensive understanding of complex issues.
Holistic Problem Solving: In the real world, challenges are multifaceted. The systems approach teaches students to analyze problems from multiple angles and consider the broader implications of their solutions.
Contextual Understanding: Education should not occur in a vacuum. The systems approach encourages students to consider the cultural, societal, and global contexts in which their knowledge can be applied.
Adaptability and Resilience: Complex systems are adaptable and resilient. The systems approach equips students with the ability to adapt to new situations and learn from failures.
Collaborative Learning: Systems thinking involves understanding of relationships and interactions, which encourages collaborative learning. Students learn to work effectively in teams, leveraging diverse perspectives to achieve optimal solutions.

Effective Implementation of the Systems Approach

Curriculum Design: A systems-focused curriculum incorporates Phenomenon-Based Learning (PhenBL), which promotes case studies, real-world simulations, and interdisciplinary projects. Investigating multifaceted phenomena exposes students to the complex connections between topics associated with seemingly disparate subjects and how a more holistic understanding can be used to create more meaningful solutions.
Assessment Methods: Traditional exams cannot correctly evaluate systems thinking skills. Performance assessments, such as designing and performing investigations, creating multimedia products, and solving real-world problems can better measure a student's ability to connect various subjects and issues.
Teacher Training: Teachers are key to promoting the systems approach. Adequate PD should focus on enhancing teachers' ability to design more holistic lesson plans, facilitate collaborative learning, and guide students in applying systems thinking.
Technology: Technology can facilitate the systems approach by providing tools for visualizing and simulating complex systems and connecting with experts from various fields, transcending geographical limitations.

Benefits of The Systems Approach

Embracing the systems approach in education offers numerous benefits. Students develop critical thinking skills, a deeper understanding of real-world complexity, and an enhanced ability to innovate. By fostering collaboration and adaptability, this approach prepares students for careers in a rapidly changing job market.

Future Implications of The Systems Approach

However, transitioning to a systems approach requires a paradigm shift in education. Curricula need to be replaced by approaches such as Phenomenon- or Project-Based Learning. The evaluation metrics for student success need to evolve in kind to gauge the complex, multifaceted, and transferable skills developed through using the systems approach.

The systems approach aims to bridge the gap between the classroom and the real-world. By cultivating holistic thinking, interdisciplinary learning, collaboration, and learning from mistakes, the systems approach equips students with the skills necessary to navigate the complexities of the modern era. The world of education must continue to embrace and improve holistic learning models such as the systems approach to move the society closer to a future in which students learn how to solve (and solve) global challenges in the classroom.

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Creating Performance Assessments for Phenomenon-Based Learning

August 15, 2023 / Oskar Cymerman

As concerns grow that traditional assessments such as tests frequently fall short of capturing the depth of students' understanding and fail in measuring their ability to apply knowledge in real-world scenarios, Phenomenon-Based Learning (PhenBL) has emerged as a student-centered approach that prioritizes building comprehension through active inquiry. To align with this innovative instructional method, educators are turning to performance assessments – powerful tools that have the potential to unleash creativity, transformative skill-building, and deeper learning.

Understanding Phenomenon-Based Learning

Phenomenon-Based Learning is an inquiry-driven approach that uses real-world phenomena to engage students in exploration. Rather than starting by explaining facts and concepts to students, PhenBL is predicated on the learners investigating phenomena and forming understandings of the underlying principles (facts and concepts) behind these phenomena.

The Limitations of Traditional Assessments

Traditional assessments, such as multiple-choice exams, often assess rote memorization and superficial knowledge. They rarely measure skills such as critical thinking and problem-solving or in-depth knowledge. These assessments also fail to show students' ability to apply knowledge to real-life situations, which is a central goal of PhenBL and should be the goal of all learning.

Benefits of Performance Assessments

Performance assessments offer a transformative alternative to traditional testing methods. They focus on students' ability to apply knowledge, skills, and strategies to authentic, real-world scenarios. By leveraging performance assessments in phenomenon-based learning, we can:

Measure Deeper Understanding: Performance assessments allow educators to observe how well students comprehend and apply scientific concepts in practical contexts. For instance, students could conduct experiments, analyze data, and draw meaningful conclusions based on their observations.
Promote Critical Thinking: Performance assessments encourage students to think critically and creatively as they tackle complex problems related to the phenomenon. This enhances their ability to make connections, analyze information, and devise innovative solutions.
Teach Collaboration: Many performance assessments involve group projects or problem-solving, which cultivates effective teamwork and communication skills. Collaboration also enables students to share their unique perspectives and learn from each other.
Provide Timely, Constructive Feedback: Many meaningful performance assessments take more than one day to complete allowing opportunities for formative assessment. As teachers check in with various teams, they can provide timely feedback that guides students' progress. Such personalization enables teachers to assess understanding, keeps students on track, drives continuous improvement, and supports students' growth.
Enhance Engagement: Performance assessments take advantage of student interests and provide real-life relevance. Engaging in hands-on investigation and creation builds intrinsic motivation and enthusiasm for learning of content as the PhenBL vehicle connects the world of school with the world outside of it.

Examples of Performance Assessments in Phenomenon-Based Learning

Design and Conduct an Investigation: Students can be tasked with designing and conducting their own investigations related to the phenomenon in question. They can develop hypotheses, plan experiments, gather data, and draw conclusions, showcasing their inquiry and experimental skills and gaining deeper knowledge of the concepts. For example, you could challenge students to design a school-wide survey on a social or psychological topic or to use the web as a resource to design an experiment that demonstrates and helps them explain (and thus learn) a science concept.
Create a Multimedia Presentation: Students can create multimedia presentations such as explainer videos that contain models of phenomena concepts, or infographics that explain and exemplify a phenomenon to a broader audience. The key for teachers is to combine visual and verbal communication skills and challenge students not to read the information they wrote down, but rather convey the complex ideas in a simple way that is effective in both showing what the students learned and teaching the audience about the concepts and mechanisms responsible for the phenomenon studied. Check out my Coral Bleaching Project to get an idea for how to set this up.
Solve Real-Life Problems: Challenge students to apply their understanding of the phenomenon to solve real-world problems. For example, they might devise sustainable solutions for an environmental issue around you school, such as lack of composting or recycling. Or they might propose an engineering design solution for some observed inefficiency. The idea is not to have students change the world in situ, though that’s highly desirable if possible, but to have them practice critical thinking, problem-solving, and design skills in an authentic way while learning content at the same time. For example, they could research and design a safer, or more interesting playground for the elementary school nearby. Their dream playground might not get built but their skills will be.

Learning and Growing through Performance Assessments

Performance assessments can provide a dynamic and effective means of evaluating students' learning in Phenomenon-Based Learning. By focusing on application, critical thinking, and collaboration, these assessments align perfectly with the goals of PhenBL. Embracing performance assessments empowers students to demonstrate the depth of their understanding and equips them with the skills they need to succeed in an ever-changing world. As educators continue to explore the potential of Phenomenon-Based Learning, performance assessments stand out as a valuable ally in nurturing a new generation of engaged, inquisitive, and capable professionals.

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