How do you feel about teaching minus the marking and the lesson planning? What if there was someone (or something else) that can do that work for you? Well – it might become a reality as AI technology improves. The Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan, recently stated that AI would prove to be ‘transformative’ in the same way calculators and Google were. She said that by freeing teachers of the burden of paperwork, it would leave them free to do what AI can’t: teach and inspire young students. However, this is still just an idea and there is currently not a sufficient government strategy to bring the necessary technology into the classroom for the time being.
It‘s interesting to consider the way technology assists with learning, especially as many children are quick to adapt to and learn new technology. Some of you might be old enough to remember the days of schoolwork without the assistance of search engines. And you might recall how in a few short years, researching a school project went from checking out books at the library, to firing up an Encarcta CD-rom, to scrolling through pages and pages of Google hits to find a relevant article. Education sector businesses are already feeling the pressure from AI, with a ‘significant spike in student interest’ in ChatGPT resulting in a sharp drop in shares at companies like Pearson, Udemy and Duolingo.