Not long ago, while emptying one of the twins’ kindergarteners’ rucksacks, I received an unusual package from his school. It contained my son’s name, a series of passcodes, and a download code.
My husband and I were convinced that kindergarteners don’t need computers, so we were stumped. But now, thanks to the educational tools of an AI-based testing company, my kids will learn through apps, at their own pace, and completely on their own, possibly without our help. I guess.
I have spent decades researching misconceptions about the nature of intelligence. So, as a parent, I was intrigued, but also as a scientist, I was curious to see how this would play out: Can AI really teach my children?
I am also a professor at a large public university with a limited budget. How AI transforms education is critically important to schools like mine, teachers like me, and hardworking caregivers such as parents in my community. Will AI offset our efforts to get our children to grasp new concepts and skills? Will AI be equipped to help them harness their own intellect?
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Image Credits: Courtesy
After a few days of watching my bouncy twin scroll and click, I know the easy answer is no.
Please note that I am by no means anti-AI. Our house is already flooded. I have Alexa. Our family all use AI programs at work. We also often let all three of her children, a kindergartener and her toddler sibling, do their own projects using our tools.
After OpenAI introduced Dall-E in 2021, Grandpa helped kids mash up their favorite images and themes to create artwork. When ChatGPT launched last year, my husband had the kids use it to dig deep into yetis and cephalopods.
Not skeptical of your ability to have fun
However, the more we observed children, the more it became clear that while AI could provide information to learners, it could not think for them and help them truly learn. I was.
As you can see, human intelligence is different from computational intelligence. First, human intelligence cannot be quantified. The brain is plastic, constantly developing and growing as it learns from its environment.
Furthermore, human intelligence relies on human interaction. Exercising intelligence is what we do naturally when we connect with others, consider the world around us, and try to improve our relationship with that world.
We all share this drive to know and connect. But to take advantage of this most basic birthright, we must follow our learners’ natural curiosity and passion. Without that socio-emotional part, information is simply aggregated and later lost to other pursuits.
In education, there has been a movement towards socio-emotional and problem-based learning as a starting point for scholarship, and for good reason. Research shows that students of all ages and skill levels learn more effectively when they are given the opportunity to see how the material they are learning relates to their lives outside the classroom. We know that information can be retained longer.
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As such, educators seek to foster subject interest and skill acquisition by turning learning moments into collaborative problem-solving events. Combining analytical learning with social-emotional learning makes students more proficient in what we want to know and more excited about the learning process.
Student use of AI
AI learning often involves individuals working alone with bots. Bots do research to “get answers quickly,” as one AI tool puts it. It crowdsources information to help students find facts about their environment, solve problems, and come up with creative ways.
But AI doesn’t force students to think out or hold onto anything. And simply being given facts and information is not the same as “learning.”
Ultimately, if we want our students to learn, we need to strengthen our neural networks and use neuroplasticity to develop our own intellect. This is the weakness of AI. Nothing beats collaboration in real life. That is, connected and mutual learning between students and their peers and teachers, stimulating the brain’s natural urge to develop and grow.
When my kids engage with AI, interactions inevitably fail. Ultimately, you will have to work on new skills such as moving your body and communicating by looking each other in the eye.
In contrast, they can read and do math with their little brother for a long time, and even longer when it’s human-to-human, analog, lovingly teaching him.
My students are using AI with even lower success rates. Just ask ChatGPT to answer the assignment question. Then pass the class with a higher score. Will they be able to finish their degree quickly? Of course. Does the person doing this keep course information? Unlikely.
It’s tempting to imagine that bots might cure us of our ailments. Public school systems, like the ones my children were taught and the ones I teach, are chronically understaffed. Many parents do not have the resources (time, money, energy) to teach their children at home. If a bot could fill that gap…wouldn’t it be great?
But the atomized nature of AI “education” as it exists today means that students simply level up without learning. When it comes to cultivating intelligence, nothing beats what we humans have done face to face for centuries.
Rina Bliss is a professor of sociology at Rutgers University and author of “Rethinking Intelligence: A Radical New Understanding of Our Human Potential.”
