This was published 3 years ago
Opinion
Empowering learners for the age of artificial intelligence
By Dragan Gasevic and George Siemens
Automation, rapidly advancing due to artificial intelligence, is changing the nature of
work resulting in the disappearance of many jobs and the creation of new
categories of work.
Most jobs are expected to undergo changes that will increasingly require work with AI.
A well-known example is the use of AI to assist doctors in diagnostics. However, no job is
safe from the impact of AI as many other common jobs, including car mechanics and
farming will involve its use. This trend of changing job types and job skills will
only accelerate in coming years.
Workers need to upskill in AI as its use in the workplace becomes increasingly widespread.Credit: iStock
The adoption of AI also affects how we find and use relevant and credible information and
make decisions about different aspects of our personal lives such as health, housing, and
finances. The age of AI requires that individuals be equipped with critical skills that enable
them to be highly adaptive in a fast-changing world.
As widespread use is inevitable, we must ask whether today’s learners
are ready? And what can we do to help people transition?
Research shows successful adopters have strong skills in independent learning. They have
strong digital skills and know how to collaborate with others. Unfortunately, not everyone has these skills and attributes.
The myth about digital natives – people who are intuitively able to use technology well due to
being born into a rich technology age – was long ago debunked. It is true that manypeople
are comfortable using mobile phones and social media but they do not
necessarily have strong digital skills in finding and confirming accuracy of relevant
information.
The belief that digital natives are better at adapting to AI than others is a myth.Credit: nensuria
Research shows that even undergraduate students lack these basic skills. Some are not
accurate at judging the reliability of information sources or managing the quantity of
material available. This is a particularly critical skill in the
time of AI where fake news is so easy to produce and spread.
Some do not have the skills to collaborate or work in teams, especially not through
digital technologies. How can we then expect them to work with different types of
AI?
We can empower people by helping them to pick up the skills to learn independently. They should gradually start developing these skills from the early days of school with a special focus on learners aged between 12 and 15 years.
Few of us can remember specific lessons received in school about how to study effectively.
The reason is that most of us haven’t been taught. Students are often expected to
figure out how to learn on their own.
Even giving a brief lesson about effective learning techniques can significantly increase their
use. Even better, we should intentionally design the curriculum that directly
promotes the use of good learning techniques.
Most people have never been properly taught how to study.Credit: Glenn Hunt
Central to this learning are digital technologies. Technology should be incorporated into teaching and learning activities. Even today we are thinking with technology in our workplaces and classrooms should reflect this.
Students should be taught how to define keywords to search information on the internet.They should be aware two different people using the same keyword search on
Google or other search engines will not get the same information. This is because search engines aim to find results similar to other information we have previously used.
They should also be able to appraise the quality of information sources – this can be
challenging as AI can blur the line between facts and falsehood, but it can also be used to
recognise the difference. AI can even be used to accelerate the spread of information
including mis- and dis-information. In this sense, AI is both a problem and a solution. In both
cases, an informed and empoweredstudent can effectively navigate the situation.
Additionally, our classrooms should incorporate an array of AI applications in different forms.
Students should experience how AI recognises human speech (as with Amazon or Siri) and the possible
limitations. Learners should also engage with AI for facial recognition, learn
what it can be used for and how, and assess potential threats to privacy. These are basic
literacies for interacting with AI.
And students should also know how to work with AI that can exhibit a great level of autonomy.
Robots are examples of autonomous AI systems. However, robots don’t have to take a
humanoid shape. Robots can be phone apps or machines for mining, bricklaying and
manufacturing.
Robots do not have to take the humanoid shape. They can be devices to help in manufacturing.Credit: ThinkStock
AI can be behind drones that can be produced in very small sizes (such as nanobots) and can
have different purposes including pollination of fields. Yet, in all these cases, a close
collaboration between humans and robots is necessary.
Preparation for this future world must start in our classrooms today.
Empowering learners for the age of AI is a complex process that will require much public
debate, research and broad community involvement. A future community will require a basic understanding of AI and how to interact with automated systems that are already in the workforce.
Internationally, several initiatives have been launched to explore ways for equipping learners
with skills of the age of AI. A notable one is the Institute for Student-AI Teaming funded by
the US National Science Foundation. Australia should look to these examples in order to
ensure we’re AI-equipped for the jobs of the future.
Professor Dragan Gasevic is director of the Centre for Learning Analytics at Monash University. Professor George Siemens is the Director of the Centre for Change and Complexity in Learning at University of South Australia. The first Empowering Learners for the Age of AI conference is currently being held online.