What will the future of education look like in a world with AI

Jamie Kirkaldy vividly recalls a staff training session attended as a newly qualified teacher, where a member of the senior leadership team at the school enthusiastically described teaching as the most cutting-edge profession. The reason given was that teachers were not only preparing the adults of tomorrow but also equipping them for jobs that did not yet exist.

Ironically, the same leader restricted teachers from accessing YouTube on the school network, believing it had no place in the classroom.

This incident took place nearly 20 years ago.

The author shares this story partly because it always brings a smile but primarily because it highlights a central dichotomy in the teaching profession’s relationship with technology. On one hand, educators embrace change, continually refining their practices and seeking new, engaging ways to inspire students. On the other hand, technological advancements can evoke fear among teachers, mainly the fear of becoming redundant. If students have access to all human knowledge at their fingertips, what role is left for educators to explain concepts like Pythagoras’s theorem, plant respiration, or Macbeth’s motivations? Can’t students simply look it up?

The role technology will play in the transformation of education is particularly intriguing because it is difficult to quantify or predict. The author poses a direct question: What will the future of education look like in a world with AI?

The honest answer is that no one truly knows. However, there are some things we do know.

The most challenging skills for computers to replicate include insightful analysis, emotional intelligence, creative problem-solving, interpersonal skills, and collaboration. These skills should undoubtedly be at the heart of 21st-century education.

Critical Thinking, Collaboration, and Self-Motivation in the Digital Age

We know that critical thinking will be vital for young people trying to navigate a world where it will be hard to tell man-made content from AI-generated. We know that independence, self-motivation and metacognition will be key skills in an employment world that will be inherently flexible, working collaboratively with people face-to-face but with computers as well.

We also know that technological development, and AI in particular, bring huge possibilities for the teaching profession. Of course, there are issues we need to be aware of in terms of plagiarism and so forth, but banning AI from the teaching is as reductive as  Jamie’s old Deputy Headteacher banning YouTube. His worry was that staff wouldn’t bother teaching, we’d just find a video that explained the concept at hand, pop it on the interactive whiteboard and take the rest of the lesson off.

Needless to say, this isn’t what any of them had in mind. They saw an opportunity to access content that would exemplify the points they were making and engage students in a whole new way with our subject. Rather than stiltedly reading the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet as a class, let’s explore how two or three different directors have interpreted that interaction. Instead of drawing a diagram of costal erosion, let’s watch news footage of buildings crashing into the sea as the cliff face collapses under the sea’s assault.

And it will be the same with AI. Imagine students being able to turn an initial idea into a fully-formed reality within seconds, realising the true potential of their imagination in real time, or road-testing a theoretical solution to a physics problem in a real-life context to see how their approach would work in application.

Practical benefits for educators

There are practical benefits in terms of how using AI and other technologies will cut teacher planning time, freeing them up to focus on the more imaginative, high-impact aspects of the job. AI could even aid that most traditional teacher bugbear – marking – and the impact of students getting feedback instantly rather than waiting to have their books returned days later cannot be underestimated.

In the next 10 years or so, education needs to show genuine leadership in technology. AI is fast becoming a key skill for universities and workplaces; it is already contributing to industries as diverse as advertising, filmmaking, bioscience, medicine and law.

Technology is ultimately run and used by people, and it is their understanding of how to harness the power of AI that will drive its use in the modern world. This will be education’s role.

The author sees incredible potential in technology to enhance the experience of both teachers and students. Fundamentally, he believes his former colleague was right, all those years ago, teaching is a cutting-edge profession, because it works at the point where the present and the future meet. Part of the reason we don’t know what the future holds is because we haven’t finished teaching the people that will make it happen.

Article written by   

Jamie Kirkaldy, Head of Teaching and Learning Support, supports all schools delivering OxfordAQA qualifications. He was previously Head of English at an Oxford comprehensive school. https://www.oxfordaqa.com/news/what-will-the-future-of-education-look-like-in-a-world-with-ai/