When it comes to the field of education, AI learning is the point of discussion for educators of different grades and subjects. Many educators are not able to decide whether they want to engage and embrace this new technology. Artificial Intelligence is an indispensable part of every students’ day-to-day life. Artificial Intelligence is one of the crucial 21st century skills that students must learn in order to excel in the engineering field or any other field in their career.
Implementing AI Learning in the classrooms and schools
- For elementary educators, it is important to know and understand the latest trends in the industry.
- Implementing AI in education in the schools and classrooms is necessary to prepare young minds for the future.
- AI can be applied in different walks of life and not just the science or engineering field.
- For schools to impart the best education and knowledge to children, the inclusion of AI in education is the need of the hour.
AI learning as a part of early elementary school education
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) is all around us. From using Google Maps to navigating different places to personal assistants, and suggestions during online shopping or recommendations when watching videos, AI is everywhere.
- Considering the fact that AI is so common in today’s world, it is the responsibility of the early educators and schools to help a child know exactly how things work in the real world.
- When a child is born, he/she first encounters AI through a smartphone when a family wants to take pictures. The object recognition feature that focuses on the baby involves artificial intelligence.
- AI focus is what every school should look at and help children learn technology that is being rapidly used in the real-world around them.
- Both students and early educators should care about the different facets of artificial intelligence since it is relevant to their everyday life.
- Overlooking or ignoring AI learning is not okay for both early educators and students.
Teaching AI content in the classroom and schools
- There are so many interesting incidents and events happening around the world about artificial intelligence.
- An elementary educator can teach children how AI content is applied in real life. For example, the autofill feature that they see while filling up a form is nothing but Artificial Intelligence.
- Kids love watching videos on the smartphone. They can be asked to think, how does YouTube know what they like or want to see.
- The use of chatbots, mobile banking, personal (virtual) assistants are great examples of artificial intelligence that children can relate to.
- In order to make things interesting, implementing the AI content in schools and classrooms in practical form is necessary.
- Children would love learning about something which they can actually see in front of their eyes.
Skill-based education
- Most schools in the country explain the fundamental concepts of a particular subject brilliantly. Where they fail is skill-based education.
- In today’s world of tough competition amongst students, parents and teachers think that it is just about marks and grades.
- Rote learning is unlikely to get a student the success that he/she is looking out for.
- The need for skill-based workers is increasing rapidly. Hence, implementing skill-based education right from lower classes is important for schools.
- Skill-based education and vocational training right from a young age will make the students’ industry ready by the time they complete their studies.
Advantages of AI focus in classrooms
- Kids are really enthusiastic when taught about the different facets of artificial intelligence such as neural networks, fuzzy logic, natural language processing, robotics and machine learning.
- When they know about the magic they can do with AI, they become excited and there is a sparkle in their eyes.
- They think and become active learners rather than passive learners.
- Children participate in activities, debates, and develop problem-solving skills during AI learning.
Embracing AI Learning can help students excel in their life – A real-world example
Praveen Sridhar, a 27-year-old engineering student, was the son of a priest and a native of Kerala. After pursuing formal education in engineering, he gave the JEE entrance for admission into a course at IIT. But he couldn’t clear the examination.
Robotics and machine learning were his interests. After completing his engineering studies, he worked for multiple start-ups as a machine learning engineer. He also completed several online courses in data science, robotics and machine learning.
Praveen Sridhar, who was not able to clear the IIT JEE examination, bagged a high-paying job at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). He cleared six rounds of interviews to get this dream job.
Robotics and machine learning, the important 21st century skills, took him to greater heights in the engineering field.
The case of Praveen Sridhar is a great example that proves to the schools and teachers why implementing AI Learning in the classrooms is so important.
For those schools and early educators who are looking to start their AI journey, it is important to keep in mind that artificial intelligence is just one of those 21st century skills that needs to be embraced and taught to children as a part of their curriculum. AI does not have any magical power and is not going to take over the world completely. It only makes the lives of people easier and enables them to make better decisions.
