There is much debate going on today about whether the benefits of AI in education really outweigh various concerns related to security, transparency, and ethics. However, all of these concerns aside, there is one obvious advantage that could revolutionize learning and education in the future. It is the role of artificial intelligence in providing personalized learning experiences and instant, meaningful feedback to a student.
Take as an example an educational chatbot called Khanmigo that has been developed by Khan Academy. As Sal Khan, the founder and CEO of Khan Academy, explained in his TED Talk, educational chatbots like Khanmigo can fulfil a role of a personal AI tutor for every student, helping children learn in an innovative way. Khanmigo can understand the context and guide every learner with personalized tips and suggestions so that they could work out the solutions or come up with new ideas on their own. For example, it can ask students to explain their thought process and nudge them in the right direction when they are working on a math problem, or help them create a fictional story by writing it with them.
And although this promising future of chatbots as tutors in education hasn't actually arrived yet, any learner can already greatly benefit from this AI boom by using existing AI chatbots like ChatGPT. Here's how:
Ask an AI chatbot to create a focused learning plan
Prioritisation lies at the heart of effective learning. When studying a new subject or honing a new skill, it's extremely important to know how to make the most of your time and where to focus your efforts. Creating a personal learning plan can be a daunting, confusing and sometimes insurmountable task. That's where AI chatbots come in.
For more effective results, a learner can ask a chatbot to design a learning plan using the Pareto principle. The Pareto principle states that for many outcomes roughly 80% of consequences come from only 20% of causes, which can be applied to learning to identify the topics that will benefit you as a learner most.
Ask an AI chatbot to create a study schedule
Various time management challenges are another great issue for many learners. An AI chatbot can also be helpful in developing a productive and realistic study schedule outlining study times and learning goals, based on your focused learning plan. You can tell a chatbot the amount of time you are willing to dedicate to your studies every day and ask it to include important dates, deadlines, and a time for revision and testing/practice.
Learning resources
No need to scour the internet anymore to find good recommendations! An AI chatbot can do much of the legwork for you, recommending books, podcasts, YouTube tutorials, articles, courses (both free and paid) and other useful educational content based on your learning plan. And if you prefer a particular learning style, you can also ask a chatbot to narrow down the results to what suits you best as a learner.
Practice
Another important step in self-education is actively practising what you learnt. The best way to do that is to carry out exercises or create beginner-friendly projects. However, it can also be difficult and time-consuming to come up with ideas for such exercises and projects or research them online. An AI chatbot can suggest them literally in seconds, and tailor these suggestions to fit the topic you are currently studying.
Clarify
Another thing that makes an AI chatbot a great assistant in learning is the possibility to get explanations of more complex topics, helpful analogies and tips. For example, you can ask it to explain a particular concept in several levels of difficulty, or give useful advice on how to better memorize and absorb new knowledge.
The Socratic method
The essence of the Socratic method is a thought-provoking dialogue between teachers and their students, consisting of exchanging open-ended questions about a particular topic. It encourages learners to actively engage with the new material, developing critical thinking and reasoning skills. You can easily suggest to AI to act as your personal tutor, asking open-ended questions about things you studied and providing constructive feedback based on your responses.
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