Computers for schools were first introduced in the 1960s, mainly as an aid to school administration and teachers. It wasn't until the 80s and 90s that they became a regular part of classrooms. Today's educators are now looking to bring AI-powered computers to schools to aid students in learning better, by providing more personalized education, enhancing teacher training, and improving overall school management.
- What is AI in School?
- Applications of AI in Schools
- Benefits of AI in School
- AI in School: Challenges and Concerns
- Picking the Right AI Computer for the Classroom
What is AI in School?
Artificial intelligence, or AI, is any machine-based system designed to perform tasks that would otherwise require human intelligence. These include, but are not limited to, visual perception, speech recognition, learning, decision-making, and natural language processing. AI in schools is the latest form of educational technology (edtech), which are devices that support educators, students, and administrative staff.
Applications of AI in Schools
AI can gather, sort, and process massive amounts of data, learning as it does so. Various algorithms, like machine learning, extract the requested data and present it to the user in the desired format. The following are a few of these applications.
AI Tutors and Chatbots
These virtual tutors provide each student with a personalized learning experience, whether it's a math problem or a research question. The advantage of such a system is that it's interactive (prompting students to deepen queries), provides instant feedback, learns from responses, and is available 24/7. The Chicago Public Schools have provided guidance for students when using such AI edtech in their everyday studies.
Smart Content Creation
With this application, teachers utilize AI to generate quizzes, lesson plans, practice tests, and other educational materials for their students. They can be customized not only for each class, but also for each student's strengths and weaknesses. An example of such smart content creation and curation would be the gathering and then filtering out of all source materials that are not appropriate for the students or their educational level.
Adaptive Testing Platforms
The AI adjusts the exam difficulty in real-time based on students' answers. Educators do so to gauge the student's knowledge more accurately. They can then generate the proper curriculum and lessons to match the students' capabilities.
Performance Analytics
Performance analytics measures how an entity, whether a company or an individual, is meeting specific goals. In the case of the latter, the AI tracks particular metrics, such as a student's grades, attendance, and engagement, to identify those who are struggling or at risk of dropping out. Teachers and administrative staff can then intervene, providing additional support and resources as needed. One study achieved a 69 percent success rate using AI-driven predictive analytics to identify at-risk students.
Benefits of AI in School
Schools have found numerous applications for AI's ability to process and learn from large amounts of data quickly. Those uses and their benefits can be broken down into three broad categories:
AI Helping Students
As the name suggests, this category aims to aid students in their learning directly. Edtech tools, such as tablets, whiteboard tools, and online forums, are already accessible to most students. AI can be used to bolster such edtech by:
- Tailoring students' learning to their needs, pace, strengths, culture, and interests.
- Translating lessons for students with English as a Second Language (ESL). Students with disabilities can also be assisted using computers with more advanced computer accessibility features.
- Providing more engaging experiences through the use of AI and virtual reality tools.
AI used in adaptive tutoring systems, automatic writing evaluation systems, and chatbots are being evaluated to help kids learn better in school.
AI Aiding Educators
Well-trained teachers mean better-educated students. Teachers already keep their skills honed and up-to-date thanks to virtual teacher coaching, virtual teacher communities, and numerous online courses. AI aids teachers by:
- Tracking workload schedule to ensure work-life balance.
- Alerting them of any student's learning difficulties, which in turn leads to swift intervention, instruction, and support.
- Aiding in all relevant teachers' licensing exams and tests.
- Developing new applications, programs, creative works, and AI and non-AI tools and equipment for students and teachers.
Assessment supports, lesson planning tools, and resource curation systems are just a few examples of how AI in education aids educators in keeping their skills top-notch for the classroom.
AI Management of Education Institutions
Schools are busy places and are filled with administrative tasks that can detract from educators' teaching. Educators and administrators are increasingly turning to digital tools to handle many of these tasks, allowing them to focus on students. AI backs such assistance by:
- Helping manage administrators and staff daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly courses and schedules.
- Monitoring the status of building operations from power to Wi-Fi to water services. They can then alert facilities management workers through their industrial computers when any problems arise.
- Managing numerous vital but non-teaching school operations, including student records systems, transportation, IT, and budgeting.
AI in School: Challenges and Concerns
While AI's capabilities make it highly versatile as edtech, they also make it incredibly complex. That complexity makes implementing AI technologies in schools a challenging task. Three of these include:
Cost and Equity
The cost of bringing AI into K-12 education ranges from as low as $25 per month to tens of thousands of dollars. While such figures will put a crimp in most school budgets, they could potentially widen the digital divide between well-resourced school districts and underserved ones. Students from low-income families may not have as many learning opportunities, rendering moot the very equality AI was supposed to bring to education in the first place.
Teacher Training and Adoption
Teachers will need training and support on how to use the various AI tools. This includes not only how to use the tools, but also how to ensure students use them responsibly (that is, not as a constant crutch when completing school work). AI edtech is to reinforce the teacher-student relationship, rather than replace the teacher, who continues to provide empathy, mentorship, and inspiration.
Cybersecurity
Schools collect vast amounts of private data on students as well as intellectual property. AI requires such data to function effectively, making it a target for cyberattacks. Educators and school administrators must enact protocols to safeguard such sensitive information with user authentication best practices, ranging from RFID cards to multi-factor authentication.
Picking the Right AI Computer for the Classroom
AI in schools aims to bring a variety of advantages when supporting students in learning. To run all of them effectively and seamlessly, school systems should utilize business all-in-one touchscreen PCs designed for AI, rather than off-the-shelf consumer models. School IT departments, when deciding to roll out AI programs on their computers, should be on the lookout for the following features:
GPU: The Graphic Processing Unit has the intense parallel processing capabilities needed to power AI processes, such as Natural Language Processing and machine learning. You'll want as much power as your IT budget will allow.
CPU: The "brains" of the computer, the Central Processing Unit handles many of the calculations used by a computer's non-AI accessories and processes.
RAM and HDD/SDD: Both are crucial for managing and processing the large amounts of complex computations run by many AI programs. Like GPU, you'll want as much memory and storage for your PCs as you can afford.
IP65: Sealed front bezels with rated Ingress Protection 65 protect your education computers from typical substances found in schools that could cause damage to a PC's interior, such as drinks, paints, chemicals, and liquid food items. The sealing also makes regular cleaning of the devices with harsh cleaning solutions easier as well.
Rugged Design: The classroom can be a rough-and-tumble place with kids jockeying for their seats and scrambling at any bell ringing. At these times, computers are often bumped, banged, jostled, and dropped, which can lead to potential damage. Business computers, such as business tablets, have been built from the ground up to withstand such abuse.
Let Cybernet Help Keep AI In School And Better Education
Students, whether they're kids starting their first day in kindergarten or college graduates returning for a postdoctoral degree, find edtech invaluable in their studies. School staff and administration also benefit from the technology in everything from teaching students to providing a safe and secure learning environment.
Contact Cybernet Manufacturing if your school is interested in incorporating AI into your classrooms, as well as other school departments and facilities. Our team members will be happy to review the numerous features that make our education computer lineup the ideal solution for your needs. And as an original equipment and design manufacturer, we can further customize our products to meet your exact demands and specifications.