32 Ways AI is Improving Education
In the last few years, machine learning applications have quietly entered every aspect of life: social media to speech recognition, radiology to retail, warfare to writing articles, coding to customer service, robotics to route optimization.
During the 40 year information age, we told computers what to do. With advances in artificial intelligence, particularly machine learning, and faster processing chips we can feed computers giant data sets and they can (in narrow slivers) draw some inferences on their own. As we reported in Ask About AI, the rise of code that learns marks the beginning of a new era of augmented intelligence. It’s a great opportunity for us to expand access to a great education and for young people to make a big contribution.
Given the importance of relationships in human development, AI will augment rather than replace the work of educators in many ways. We’ll all have to get better at collaborating with teams that include smart machines. In other professions, augmentation will lead to automation with the potential for significant dislocation. Amazon’s workforce, for example, is about 20% robots.
Machine learning is beginning to improve student learning and provide better support for teachers and learners. Following is a quick list of a couple dozen applications that are (or soon will be) making good use of machine learning to support better education.
1. Early learning.Kidaptive is an adaptive learning platform with games and toys for small children. Osmo is an interactive game that combines online and hands-on learning.
2. Adaptive learning.Curriculum Associates i-Ready is widely used adaptive reading and math software. Last week The Rise Fund made a huge investment in DreamBox and Imagine Learning acquired nonprofit adaptive math software Reasoning Mind.
3. Course materials.Premium content and curated open content providers are increasingly using machine learning to serve up the next best lesson. Startups like Content Technologies Inc.are using machine learning to automate the process.
4. Online learning.Scaled postsecondary providers like Coursera, Udacity, and edX are using machine learning to improve targeting, courses, and support services.
5. Language learning.Language learning apps for formal and informal use (Duolingo, Babbel, Rosetta Stone) take advantage of better matching and translation services. VIPKID recently raised another $500 million to more fully incorporate the benefits of machine learning.
6. Writing.Feedback and scoring systems powered by machine learning like Grammarly, Turnitin, WriteLab(acquired by Chegg), PEG Writing, and Write to Learn are becoming more widely used.
7. Coding and maker.LittleBits and Modular Robotics teach the basics of robotics. Tynker and CodeHS teach coding. All are increasingly AI-informed.
9. Scheduling.Abl Schools is an example of a next-gen school scheduling. With schools like Purdue Polytech moving to individual student schedules, expect smarter scheduling tools soon.
10. Exploration. More kids are getting a chance to learn and create in augmented and virtual reality. Machine learning will continue to improve the VR experience in many ways including gesture and voice recognition, image rendering and better collaborative experiences.
11. Assistive tech. Dozens of features benefiting special needs learners have improved in the last two years including voice recognition, text to voice, and text modification.
12. Assessment.Machine learning is improving assessment in many ways including adaptive testing (NWEA), faster grading (GradeScope), tracking steps in problem-solving (Thinkster) and monitoring student progress including hard to measure skills (Panorama Education). It will also be key to interoperability and combining multiple sources of formative assessment (see #15).
13. Diagnosis.AI is rapidly improving in the diagnosis of medical conditions, vision problems, and learning differences.
14. Analytics.
