Role of Artificial Intelligence in Education - a very simple perspective

image by dierk schaefer

When we look around and see what is next in education, an obvious but largely under-valued possibility is the application of Artificial Intelligence in education.

Why it is obvious? Mainly due to significant surge in the acceptance of smarter technology in education and its natural evolution into smarter and smarter systems that can think, act, and teach like humans do.

Why under-valued? Artificial Intelligence has much more to offer than current expectation of smarter systems that can compliment the efforts of a teacher.

An AI based system of education can help teachers focus on each individual's learning needs and zoom-in to deliver the education that is right and finally provide the solution for one of the biggest educational dilemmas we face today; the industrial style batch education.

Every child, and adult for that matter is different and have unique educational needs and requires those needs to be addressed individually in order to utilize his or her learning potential to the maximum. However, this is impossible for any educational institution to deliver without incurring monumental cost. This is where AI technology must come to rescue and assist the educators.

MAC

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Re-Post - Teachers, get ready for iPads

A re-post of an interesting blog by a friend, Rumaisa Mohani. Rumaisa is an educationist, a positive thinker, and a part time blogger.

Actual blog post can be found on the following URL:
http://rumaisamohani.blogspot.com/2011/03/teachers-get-ready-for-ipads.html

Teachers, get ready for iPadsWelcome to the new era of education ... 
iPad is seen as making inroads to various sectors of education. We are seeing such new kids on the block, more frequently in the homes and classes now. In some international schools, the online homework is a commonplace .. and what could be more convenient than an iPad, for such an exercise !!! Students already have been practising on these lines making us (teachers) wonder, what more is there to come :)                                                 
Its not a new phenomenon in education just as desktops and laptops were adopted by students and teachers whole heartedly in a relatively short span of time, as seen here :Schools Embracing iPad in Education to Improve Learning, Save Money http://t.co/YPFFCYj

iPad is signalling the opportunity for a transformation in how technology is used in schools, colleges and universities. We should be looking at all age ranges across all areas of the curriculum and keen to see if the iPad makes technology cross-curricular as it should be.

Of course at this stage, we don’t know the true extent of the impact of the iPad on teaching and learning as it is too early to say. However, as it becomes widely available in the other countries outside of the USA, teachers and learners will start to explore its potential and begin to document how they use it, what works and what doesn’t. Especially in the countries, where American and British curricula are taught regularly.There are clearly many more questions than answers and in a way, this is the exciting part. Apple is pitching the device as occupying and therefore creating, a new space between the laptop and the smart phone (and iPod Touch), whilst at the same time describing that it as most definitely not a Netbook.

Although the vast majority of iPod Touch & iPhone apps will scale up to fit the iPad, or can be used in their original format, teachers should be focussing on educational apps which have been written to take advantage of the larger screen size and processing power of the iPad.

One of the great aspects of the whole iPhone and iPod Touch eco-system into which the iPad was launched, is the amount of free and cheap apps written for these devices. The iPad can take advantage of this existing situation and can run the vast majority of the current educational apps on the App Store. Fortunately many of the free and cheaper apps have been re-written for the iPad and its larger screen. Given the current financial situation for most schools, the resource of free and affordable software on the App Store is particularly valuable.

So teachers... be ready and make the best use of a new revolution beyond laptops in the classes....

iPad is signalling the opportunity for a transformation in how technology is used in schools, colleges and universities. We should be looking at all age ranges across all areas of the curriculum and keen to see if the iPad makes technology cross-curricular as it should be.
Of course at this stage, we don’t know the true extent of the impact of the iPad on teaching and learning as it is too early to say. However, as it becomes widely available in the other countries outside of the USA, teachers and learners will start to explore its potential and begin to document how they use it, what works and what doesn’t. Especially in the countries, where American and British curricula are taught regularly.There are clearly many more questions than answers and in a way, this is the exciting part. Apple is pitching the device as occupying and therefore creating, a new space between the laptop and the smart phone (and iPod Touch), whilst at the same time describing that it as most definitely not a Netbook.
Although the vast majority of iPod Touch & iPhone apps will scale up to fit the iPad, or can be used in their original format, teachers should be focussing on educational apps which have been written to take advantage of the larger screen size and processing power of the iPad.
One of the great aspects of the whole iPhone and iPod Touch eco-system into which the iPad was launched, is the amount of free and cheap apps written for these devices. The iPad can take advantage of this existing situation and can run the vast majority of the current educational apps on the App Store. Fortunately many of the free and cheaper apps have been re-written for the iPad and its larger screen. Given the current financial situation for most schools, the resource of free and affordable software on the App Store is particularly valuable.
So teachers... be ready and make the best use of a new revolution beyond laptops in the classes....

Regards,
Mubarak

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We have moved from Wordpress to provide you an even better blog experience

We have moved from Wordpress to Blogger.

Old link is still available @ http://maceducationservices.wordpress.com/

Stay Tuned for some great posts!

Regards,
MAC

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Compliance is simple - a repost from Seth Godin

There is no way, anyone can say it more effectively in few lines.

The original post can be found here:

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/02/its-easier-to-teach-compliance-than-initiative.html

 

Compliance is simple to measure, simple to test for and simple to teach. Punish non-compliance, reward obedience and repeat.

Initiative is very difficult to teach to 28 students in a quiet classroom. It's difficult to brag about in a school board meeting. And it's a huge pain in the neck to do reliably.

Schools like teaching compliance. They're pretty good at it.

To top it off, until recently the customers of a school or training program (the companies that hire workers) were buying compliance by the bushel. Initiative was a red flag, not an asset.

Of course, now that's all changed. The economy has rewritten the rules, and smart organizations seek out intelligent problem solvers. Everything is different now. Except the part about how much easier it is to teach compliance.

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World Innovation Summit for Education - WISE

The World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) is an initiative of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, launched in 2009 under the aegis of Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser.

Please check it out here:

http://www.wise-qatar.org/

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Innovation in education systems

In last few years, Information technology in general and Social Media and Internet in particular has changed the way we communicate, socialize, do business, and connect with loved ones. This complete transformation along with wide-spread adoption of high-tech and light-weight tablets and smart-phones has made us consume information on much faster rate then we could ever imagine. This is all no secret and we all know it and see it unfolding right in front of our eyes. Comparatively a more obscure affair is the impact of this transformation on the very system of knowledge acquisition. With unprecedented and mind-boggling amount of information available throughout the internet, it is extremely hard to separate the valuable information from noise and there is a strong need of disciplined channels of education just like we had in the good old days of printing press.

This, however is a very complex and challenging issue. There are numerous questions that are being asked like:

1. Is traditional education system still relevant in the digital age? Why do people still have to commute to "education booths" while they have every possibility to get educated n their homes, offices, and on the move?


2. Why completely different individuals have to go through the same curriculum despite clearly having different educational needs? Why the learning path cannot be customized for each individual despite advancements in psychometric analysis of educational needs?


3. What will happen to an individual who never goes to school but instead acquires all his education from a more relaxed social group of peers and guardians with individual focus and no strict rules that are put in place to keep hundreds of students disciplined at the first place?

In this blog, you will see all of these questions and much more discussed. Stay Tuned.

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The case for Globalization of Educational Services

What is Educational Services Industry and why do we need more people paying serious attention to it?

As we all know that Education is one of the most important aspect of civilized world but in last couple of decades, education has stretched to its limits both in terms of its capacity to transform our lives and ability to answer the questions that cause confusion among the minds of young and old alike. Educational systems are also stretched between those who want to keep it localized and "regionalized" to protect their social and religious values and doctrines and those who want to internationalize every word anyone learns and standardize it to the point where it truly start showing a global face to what we know and what we should learn.

The perfect balance is somewhere in the middle. With increasing globalization, our educational system and pedagogical processes must reflect global standards while preserving the local and regional essence both in educational system and content. This means that a significant number of individuals and companies across the world must start investing time and resources in educational services industry and not leave it to few rich countries.

The amount and type of education provided to individuals directly influences their career and intellectual capacity. In addition, rapidly changing environment demands that more and more avenues of learning are available closer to home and are affordable if we want to see our educational system adequately responding to the changing world.

Centralization of education systems influenced by few rich countries has also caused lack of diversity and increase in bias within educational systems and processes. This has made such systems less suitable for global deployment and with increased awareness and awakening across many regions of the world, these systems have rapidly become obsolete and although there are efforts in place to transform, in my opinion, it needs a big push and an informed effort by academic leadership to complete the transformation.

Stay Tuned for more!

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