The use of artificial intelligence is increasing every day and is transforming different industries/sectors. The education sector is no exception, and today, students and even teachers worldwide heavily rely on AI tools.
As AI grows, its use in education is expected to increase. If you are also planning on using AI in the academic setting, we suggest you read this post, as we will discuss in detail the pros and cons of AI in the education world in this guide.
Let’s get into the details of both advantages and disadvantages individually!
Pros of AI in the Education Sector!
We’ll first review the pros and advantages of using artificial intelligence in education.
Personalized Learning Opportunities
First, most AI can provide students with tons of personalized educational material. Students can search for reference material and additional educational content in case they cannot understand the material they already have from the school.
AI tools can provide learning material based on the student’s preferred learning style, pace, and current performance. This personalized approach helps students improve their learning needs and improve their performance.
Cost Effective Learning
Using AI in the education sector can majorly reduce the cost of education when talking from the perspective of a school or teacher. AI can automate a huge number of tasks and can help all kinds of staff members, including teachers, administrators, and the IT team.
For example, AI tools can streamline grading, scheduling, and managing data. By streamlining these processes, AI can increase efficiency and free up time for educators to engage in more meaningful interactions with students
24/7 Availability
The biggest benefit of AI tools is that they are always available. Unlike traditional academic resources, you can access these tools whenever you want. AI-powered educational tools and applications can provide students access to learning materials and support anytime. This includes online tutoring, interactive exercises, and instant feedback.
Assistance for Teachers
Teachers can use artificial intelligence and modern tools to make their lives easier. They can easily develop unique lesson plans and project ideas and create unique quizzes within seconds using tools such as Open AI’s Chat GPT.
By automating such tasks using AI, teachers can focus more on helping students who are weak in the classroom and can spend more time with them. This improves the overall connection between the students and the teacher
Enhancing Text Quality
Students can rely on AI tools to enhance the quality of their assignments and essays without spending much effort or investing time in manual editing.
One can easily access utilities like a text paraphraser and get their drafts paraphrased to be better quality.
AI tools cannot only enhance the readability of academic essays and assignments but can also ensure originality.
Tools like plagiarism detectors can help students find duplication/similarities; subsequently, platforms like Grammarly AI can help remove human/technical errors from drafts.
Access to Interactive Tools
Today, learners can also access virtual and augmented reality technologies, which can create an interactive experience.
These tools can simulate complex scenarios and provide hands-on experience in a controlled virtual environment.
Such interactive tools can make learning more engaging and practical, especially in subjects that benefit from experiential learning, such as physics and history.
Improving Student Engagement
Learning can be boring for most students, especially if teachers use traditional learning methods. AI can provide engaging learning experiences for students so that they can remain motivated and focused.
AI-powered chatbots in the academic world can provide customized feedback and support to students. Additionally, students today can also play AI-powered educational games, which can make learning fun and effective.
After reading these pros, you will understand that AI has significantly improved and changed in different sectors, including education. However, you must also know that there are some serious cons to using AI. Some of the notable ones are mentioned below.
Cons of AI in the Education Sector
Read the cons so that you know both sides of the picture:
Lack of Human Interaction
One of the major cons of AI in the education sector is that it can reduce human interactions. Getting an education is not just about acquiring knowledge but also about developing students’ social, emotional, and interpersonal skills and relationships.
If students start relying on AI, they will miss out on the value and benefits of face-to-face communication and learning.
Bias and Fairness Problems
AI systems are trained on limited data, so they would be unbiased and fair based on the data they are trained on. If the data they are trained on includes bias against certain races, gender, and other factors, the AI tools will act similarly. In the education system, this can lead to unfair assessments and support.
Data Privacy Concerns
AI systems in the education world would often require access to student data. This can be both personal and academic information. Sharing information with AI systems can raise serious concerns about users’ privacy.
This is because there is a risk that this data can be misused or shared with other parties. Experts recommend never sharing personal or confidential data with AI tools.
Over-Reliance of Tec
There is always a chance that students will become over-reliant on AI tools. Over-reliance can diminish the role of traditional teaching methods and teachers.
Relying upon and trusting technology without any checks and balances will result in the underdevelopment of students’ thinking and problem-solving skills.
Cost of Implementation
Another big con or drawback of AI in the education sector is the cost required for its implementation. Introducing AI technology in schools, colleges, and universities can be costly.
Educational institutes can face financial barriers in setting, maintaining, and regularly updating AI systems. In addition to this, they would also have to pay a cost for training teachers and other staff members. So, in a nutshell, using AI in education can be expensive.
Source of Cheating
AI tools like ChatGPT have become a major source of cheating and fraud for students across the globe. These tools can help you write complete essay assignments and answer quiz/test questions.
It is true that today, teachers can use AI detector tools to find out whether students are cheating using AI tools, but one should know that these tools are not always reliable; moreover, today, students can also use humanizer tool capable of bypassing AI detection scans.
Ethical Considerations
The use of AI in the education sector also raises many ethical and moral questions. For example, using AI to monitor student behaviour or access their progress can be harmful and invasive at the same time.
There are serious concerns about to what extent AI should be used for making decisions, grading, or determining actions against students. Ensuring that AI is used ethically in education is a big challenge for any institute.
Conclusion
AI can transform the education sector, and it has been doing so for the last couple of years. AI is being used not only on an individual level anymore by students or teachers; rather, institutes are implementing AI systems to help students and stream administrative tasks.
In this guide, we have discussed the seven pros and cons of AI in the education world that, in our opinion, are important to be aware of. Knowing both the advantages and drawbacks would allow stakeholders in the education world to make a wise decision.