Artificial intelligence has become more prevalent in society, reaching not only social media — where it can be used to create photos, music, videos and other content — but education as well.
With a perspective of a more beneficial use of AI technology in the classroom, the CEO and co-founder of Numerade, Nhon Ma, described how AI can assist in education for students.
Ma’s belief is reflected in the education technology company he helped create. According to the Numerade blog, the platform and all of its features exist to help students continue learning what they’ve learned.
“It’s a very critical concept,” Ma said. “What we want to do is ensure that students are actually doing that [learning].”
Ma discussed how some of these features can help students begin to build a more personalized learning experience. Personalization has become an advantage for using AI both in and out of classrooms, where students study and refresh on concepts they learned in class.
“The current most popular chatbots out there, they don’t actually put the student first to help understand the concept,” he said. “A lot of it is also about the approach to the output of AI.”
While discussing free new Numerade features such as scribe, their AI tutor known as Ace, and flashcards, Ma explained his company’s efforts to combat an ongoing problem in education.
“I think one of the biggest issues that we are seeing today, that we’re trying to solve for … is that over the past 40 years, the achievement gaps have actually widened even more so,” Ma added.
Multimodality in education has the potential to improve learning retention among students, which is why companies such as Numerade have begun to further integrate AI within their own systems. The platform leverages the use of multimedia to further education in a way that benefits the student, rather than provide quick answers.
Since the onset of AI in education, a prevalent concern remains the potential for students to use AI tools to breeze through assignments — which has, in turn, brought up a larger concern regarding the ethics in AI.
“We [at Numerade] want to provide scaffolding, not the answer,” Ma said. “We want students to essentially have their own personal tutor, anything that they need help [with], someone or something that is infinitely patient.”
According to an AIPRM report, 60% of teachers reported already beginning to integrate AI into their teaching practices, while 54% of children who use AI reported using the tech to complete schoolwork.
Ma explained that teachers’ fear of AI also contributes to the challenges facing the effort to use AI in classroom settings.
“In education, there is a lot of fear within AI, and it is justified. People are scared that this will be taking their jobs,” he said.
Numerade partners with teachers and aides to formulate videos and chatbox features which connect students to a teacher to provide deeper understanding on particularly STEM subjects, but students can receive help in just about any area they need.
“Teachers are not as regarded as much as other fields. AI has the potential to lift teachers [up] again into society,” Ma said.
Ma also suggested students begin to use AI as a supplement or aid rather than a crutch, as the multimodal shift begins to become more integrated into society.
“Students should experiment with AI. It’s here, it’s going to be the future,” he said.
