Artificial Intelligence in Education

Ethical Considerations

Reviewing gains and losses of AI implementation compels internet users to explore deeply and extend critical awareness toward technological advancement. AI currently offers plenty of options in intelligent applications and computational tools. Therefore, further examining the tools is pivotal, considering the various roles of AI. It plays a significant role in developing education. However, there may be some concerns regarding the implementation of AI. Some of which are the privacy violence, tracking system surveillance, autonomy, and the biggest issue is the ethics of using AI responsibly. Ethical issues should be solved by guideline provision and suggested to be contextualized. It is important to tackle the challenges and create strategies to cope with them with responsibility and high awareness. The implementation should come and attempt with an effort of validating necessary guidelines. The ethical guidelines can be provided based on the students’ levels (Akgun & Greenhow, 2022).

Now that the advancement of technology is inevitably developing, GAI will keep accelerating in the future and has become part of our society systems and soon a culture. Culture embedding, it is time to raise an awareness that computational and futuristic society should live with values. Facing this challenge, educators and other professionals must relinquish silence and think forward. They should be aware that the acceleration will make a severe impact and, thus, it requires public decisions for reliable guidelines. Considering the fast growth of AI, students also must be prepared by being given specific and educational guidelines regarding how to use AI tools suitable for their ages and levels, as well as guidelines for dos and don’ts.

Although all educational stakeholders and systems would benefit from advanced AI computing technology, there is no guarantee of a higher learning quality. Very few studies examine the connection of AI to existing educational theories and their influence on instructional practices (Ouyang & Jiao, 2021). Some would make ethical implications for their researches that there is a need for responsible leadership and enforcement of ethics of AI in education (Halaweh, 2023; Crawford et al., 2023).  Therefore, it is more relevant that the use of AI tools is concurrently done with expedient choices and responsibilities. Educators should teach their students the values and firmly train them to preside in this new computational era – that is to become a leader in their own learning. Making decisions with integrity and solving problems on their own and taking AI just to augment their developing cognition.  

Having read literature and written this brief reflection, my perspectives towards technological advancement have changed to be fully critical of the use of AI. Being an elementary teacher for more than fifteen years, I have developed my pedagogic or teaching skills along with the development of AI to help my students engage in learning. I have also witnessed the positive impacts on my students’ English language development in the early stages with AI. Most of my students have developed their major English skills by reading and actively listening to a ‘talking book’, for instance. With the help of AI tools, my students can learn to speak English independently. Other AI tools and applications used in teaching to improve learning output are commonly those kinds of narrow-functioning AI (weak AI). As such digital art, active floor, and metaverse are also used to equip learning under my control and supervision as a teacher.

It is getting challenging at higher levels, however, where students are mature enough to explore and browse in the search engine on their own. They are more familiar with diverse General AI tools that function strongly in analytical works, such as ChatGPT or other GAI tools. There is a higher chance that these tools are used or misused, which leads to a need to anticipate this matter. Students at all levels must be aware of regulations of AI use in their learning process. Teachers and lecturers are those authorized in giving such clues. Each educational stakeholders in distinctive levels must initiate a public conference and set what principles and values to hold that students need to know prior using any AI platforms. This is important as our main task, as educators, is to teach students self-awareness and integrity. It is misleading for some people to say that teachers can be replaced by robots in the future. It is not true. Because robots have no sense of affection and cannot teach values for real. Therefore, educators – teachers and lecturers, will always remain the avant-garde of education. This argument reminds all educators not to leave the job of teaching merely to technology and undertaking it as routine. They should nurture creative and socio-emotional aspects of teaching (Bali, 2017). It is, then, essential to teach students about the right paradigm on how to confront the fast-changing world with technology.

 

References

Akgun, S., & Greenhow, C. (2022). Artificial intelligence in education: Addressing ethical challenges in K‑12 settings. AI and Ethics, 2, 431-440. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43681-021-00096-7

Bali, M.  (2017). Against the 3A’s of EdTech: AI, analytics, and adaptive technologies in education. The Chronicle of Higher Education. 

Crawford, J., Cowling, M., & Allen, K. A. (2023). Leadership is needed for ethical ChatGPT: Character, assessment, and learning using artificial intelligence (AI). Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 20(3), 02. https://doi.org/10.53761/1.20.3.02