Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1289033
17.09.2020 8 OPINION Alexiei Dingli Prof Alexiei Dingli is a Professor of AI at the University of Malta and has been conducting research and working in the field of AI for more than two decades, assisting different companies to implement AI solutions. He forms part of the Malta.AI task-force, set up by the Maltese government, aimed at making Malta one of the top AI countries in the world I n the past few months, edu- cational systems all over the world trembled under the might of the global pandemic. Children and educators were ripped from their classrooms overnight. Some managed to adapt in no time with the help of technology while others strug- gled desperately. But above all, the pandemic was an eye-open- er, and it would be a mistake to think that we will go back to normality once it passes. We need to be bold and har- ness the power given to us by Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education. AI can help us ad- dress the shortage of profes- sionals in various fields, and as- sist our educators in achieving more with the limited resourc- es which they have. It will also optimise our human capital by ensuring that our children get the most out of our educational system. Most important of all, it will encourage each child to keep on studying. We cannot afford to lose anyone! Although several educational initiatives were implemented along the years to move away from a one-size-fits-all ap- proach, we still need to do more for our students. Every child is different, and children shouldn't go through the same education- al experience. We should take into consideration their unique abilities, skills and predispo- sitions if we want them to get the most out of the education- al system. e introduction of mixed abili ty classes, together with differentiated teaching and learning, was a step in the right direction and led to a more per- sonalised approach, but at the cost of increasing the workload of the educators (which were al- ready overworked). To tackle these issues, we need the help of an Education AI system that can personalise and optimise the learning of children automatically: from those who are struggling to those who are gifted. It is a known fact that some- times, teachers struggle be- cause they have to deal with different class dynamics that arise from time to time. Be- cause of this, the quality of the education given to the students may suffer. An Edu- cation AI system would act as a repository of best practices, thus ensuring that the experi- ence of every child is consist- ently high. It would guarantee that every child gets the best learning possible, automati- cally customised and adapted to his or her abilities. It also ensures that the tasks expect- ed of them are achievable without piling useless stress. e system handholds weaker students and helps them to ex- cel, while also challenging the gifted ones. Furthermore, since the system handles the correc- tions in real-time, the teacher would have more time to focus on other tasks; such as helping those students in need, im- proving themselves or creating new resources. We are lucky to have the de- ployment of tablet computers in our schools. Children are al- ready very confident with such systems, and an Education AI system runs on the tablets, we do not need to invest in other resources but use the ones we already have. e system would also pro- vide contextual support to children even after school (when the assistance of the teacher is not available), thus helping them get through the most challenging questions on their own. A debate which emerges from time-to-time is the right amount of homework assigned to children. Is it five minutes. irty minutes? Two hours? In reality, there is no magic number. But the Educa- tion AI system can tackle this by giving each child the right amount of work, thus avoiding an overwhelming workload. Moreover, the homework giv- en changes dynamically, based upon the responses provid- ed by the student. In contrast to standardised testing, this bottom-up and well-ordered learning environment will ex- pand with the individual stu- dent's performance and mas- tery of content, thus allowing for an adaptive, smoother and more pleasant educational ex- perience. On the other hand, the educa- tors will not be loaded with ad- ditional burdens, since the sys- tem is highly autonomous. It will equip them with appropri- ate tools and statistics that will help them monitor their entire class and make them focus on those students who need their help. e system will also pro- vide real-time feedback that both teachers and students can act upon to improve future learning. It will predict the fu- ture grades of students, thus al- lowing educators to intervene before it is too late. In essence, the Education AI system assists teachers in managing the class and supporting all students more effectively. Hundreds of students already tried the system through their tablets. Many of them were su- per-excited, probably because it spoke the same technologi- cal language they understand. Most of them begged us to keep on using it after the trials. What surprised us most were the preliminary results we ob- tained. After using the system for a limited period, most of the students showed an improve- ment when compared to the control group (who did not use the system). Surprisingly, the weaker students benefitted the most from this approach. Of course, these results are not con- clusive and should be taken with a pinch of salt, though we plan further longitudinal studies. However, they are very en- couraging and clearly show that the future of education is in AI. Considering we live in a country where the only re- source is the human capital, we believe that the Education AI system will help our nation produce a future generation of highly skilled professionals ready to face the challenges of today while designing the world of tomorrow. Back to school, back to normality?