Artificial intelligence is transforming Dubai's education landscape, say several leading regional experts.
Earlier this week, Dubai Crown Prince Hamdan bin Mohammed announced plans to “equip every teacher in the emirate with artificial intelligence skills.”
Educators are already using the platform to plan lessons, give feedback to students, and perform administrative tasks.
Schools across Dubai are also training teachers to use AI to assist them in planning modules and completing administrative tasks, giving them more time to focus on their students.
“Our goal is to build an education system that equips students with future-proof tools and provides an optimal learning environment supported by AI technology,” Sheikh Hamdan wrote on Wednesday.
The city school principal National Teachers had already been trained in using AI.
“AI is not a one-time workshop, it has to be an ongoing process, so we will continue to invest in upskilling our teachers and also in providing courses and content for students,” said Baz Nijar, principal advisor for education technology at GEMS Education.
“It certainly helps with better planning and reducing planning time.
“This will improve the administrative task of tracking and analysing data, and allow us to personalise activities so teachers can work towards the highest standards.”
“But now, instead of doing it manually, they can simply review the content that's being curated and add their own personality.”
One of their programs is called “Teachers Lead Teachers,” and as the name suggests, it involves teachers training their colleagues in best practices.
“When teachers see their colleagues using a particular tool and are shown examples of how it's being used, they're motivated to learn because they can see how it can reduce their workload, improve student-related outcomes or aid in their planning,” Nijar said.
“Many administrative tasks and personalization are supported by AI and are constantly evolving. This is just the beginning of the journey.”
He said the use of AI “gives teachers back time to focus more on their own skills, because the skills that AI cannot replace are the ones that humans can provide, and that is personal skills like collaboration and communication.”
“We are already planning to provide training and support in AI tools to all teachers and to provide opportunities for students as well,” he said.
Reduce workload
Many private school teachers say they often work up to 70 hours a week, especially before annual inspections, and AI can reduce their burden and workload. National Reported in 2020.
Joseph Netticaden, chief information officer at Esol Education, said that using AI would allow teachers to get lesson plan suggestions and use templates instead of spending time planning lessons.
He said that as more information is fed into the AI platform, it will eventually get to the point where it can create individualized lesson plans based on students' strengths.
“All of this expands personalization efforts and allows assessment data to automate lesson plans and reduce workload,” Netticaden said.
“This initiative from the government will put huge pressure on private schools to step up.
“I think AI will be a real equalizer because it's available to everyone.”
AI Platform can help you plan modules on a particular subject and also provide you with an outline of the materials, ideas or content you will deliver.
Bloom World Academy principal John Bell said the school's plan is to systematically train all teachers in how to use AI, and the school has a group of teachers who will be AI leaders.
“We will discuss the ethics of AI, we will discuss the practical uses of AI in education, particularly lesson planning, and we will train teachers on platforms for using AI with students in the classroom,” Bell said.
“It can take some of the burden off, especially when it comes to planning, and it can help speed things up.
“We really focus on teachers' real knowledge and understanding and encouraging teachers to really know the subjects they're teaching and not necessarily take on too much administrative work.”
Catch the cheaters
He said technology has made it more difficult to prevent students from cheating.
“Fraud is really hard to prove in a physical sense. We spend an incredible amount of time here talking about values. We also spend a lot of time talking about integrity and intellectual honesty,” Bell said.
“At the end of the day, if they want to cheat, that's possible and they can do it, but we screen for it and we stop it.”
“In all our lessons we also use pen and paper, workbooks and notebooks.
“We challenge our students to write, draw and use manual tools because those are skills in themselves, and because we don't want kids to become completely dependent on or drawn to technology, especially AI.”
Education provider Taaleem has set up an AI taskforce with head teachers from each school and is now working together to share best practice and consider how to safeguard human intelligence.
Glenn Radkovich, Taleem's education director, said that although the task force was formed this year, the use of AI in the classroom has been going on for years at various schools.
“We're trying different things in different areas, including providing support, feedback and planning,” Radojkovic said.
Radojkovic said technology was being put in place to detect cheating and plagiarism.
“We have the technology to check content with AI,” he said.
Additionally, it aims to educate students on the responsible and ethical use of AI.”
Updated: June 14, 2024, 3:00 AM
