Education is a human right and a strength for sustainable development and peace. It affords people with the values, knowledge and skills to build their lives, to live in dignity, and to support society.
Today, ‘more than 262 million children and youth globally are out of school due to the pandemic’ (UNESCO). Multiple schools, teachers and learners had to abruptly shift to remote teaching and learning, causing lack of quality Education that enhance poverty and marginalisation.
According to the International Telecommunication Union, about 95% of the global population lives in regions with a rudimentary 2G mobile-cellular network. Whilst some of them could effectively carry on with Education with the support of educational technologies and online learning, many others even now, are left behind or distrust the efficacy and level of commitment of students.
New tech to multiply educational and lifetime learning opportunities for all are, for instance, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI); its proficiency and applicability in the educational agenda implies to trigger innovation in Education and to make it more individualised and more useful. Thus, it seems not implemented enough to level in-progress crisis.
UNESCO is in charge of coordinating the international community, through a guide directed to governments and all partners on how to turn commitments into action to accomplish this goal through capacity development, advocacy, partnerships, policy guidance, and monitoring.
Intelligent platforms and AI in Education
Nowadays, we use many excellent digital resources for schools, but when we use AI correctly, we can develop home-schooling much more.
An AI device for Open Educational Resources (OER) items works on two levels. 1) it processes educational material data, estimates the quality of this material, and if connected into an OER network, it calculates and recommends learners the most proper tools; 2) it acts as a hub enabling users to get into other sites to discover new content.
· It computes the user representation as accurately as possible to deliver personalisation transparently.
· It computes the material representation, as they come in different formats and languages.
· They comprise personalised learning platforms.
· Applications can detect reading, writing and handwriting abilities for formative assessments.
· It includes advanced-language applications with speech recognition.
· It counts on AI teaching assistants and algorithms to enhance the quality of OER.
· They have a portfolio of prototypes and applications, including mobile apps and some Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow software interoperability.
Some apps allow children from low-resource areas the access to language learning tools; it counts on evaluation systems and pronunciation and vocabulary practices, voice recognition and AI algorithms; the operations are mobile-friendly available in all platforms and devices.
This kind of platforms significantly accelerates and increase the understanding of the human learning process, whilst reducing inefficiencies in the learning development, through various types of cognitive exercises, content, systematically making learning more efficient. These platforms predict what people know, what they will remember or forget at any given time.
Many teachers and learners using now digital devices for online learning were not skilled enough for this sudden shift. Distance Learning is not suitable for all teacher to attune and support students, as they would do in the classroom, possible leading to a lack of commitment and deficient learning outcomes.
In contrast, a wide-ranging of non-intelligent digital learning technologies are on hand. They do not make intelligent adjustments, but they do afford teachers with dashboards to check on students’ progress and students with direct feedback.
The support of AI in Education during the pandemic
During the crisis, several new functions have been added to learning technologies for home-schooling. For instance, integrated-communication segments make possible teachers talk directly to their students, or the possibility to have ‘live’ virtual lessons, in which teachers give guidelines. Teachers can provide personalised instruction and feedback, favouring social presence and a sense of community without physical communication.
Further comments: governments and school authorities would need extra support like ‘detection technologies’ to understand the power of AI, such as tools that diagnose dyslexia -Dytective, or Letrus - that evaluate the functional writing skills of students. It is likely to improve education success due to the personalised characteristics, even for children from less supportive-home environments or those who have special educational needs.
To warranting the right to quality education, it has to be a universal-collective commitment, including all governments, to put together the robust structures relevant, equitable and inclusive to all teachers and learners.
Are you building the world’s first ecosystem connecting Open Educational Resources?
Dave Food
Prophetic Technology
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