THINKING OUT LOUD Helping children to navigate an AI world
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n the first of an occasional series in which we speak to education commentators addressing some of the more pressing issues of our times, we’re delighted this month to hear from regular Education Today contributor FELICIA JACKSON, Chair of the Learn2Think Foundation, who looks at the interaction between children and AI and offers her thoughts on the ways we can guide and protect them through education. Artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere today. Children are already interacting with it and being affected by it. Its impact is not something most of us can help them navigate, as we grew up in a world where it didn’t exist. As humanity’s capacity to build such artifacts increases, we need to find ways to guide and protect children in ways that we’ve only just begun to understand they need. As ever, a large part of what we can do boils down to education – so what can we do? At its heart AI means the creation of machines that can learn from experience, even perform human-like tasks. No one is really clear what that’s going to mean in the future aside from things like autonomous cars and ‘big data’ in healthcare and education. Futurist Bernard Marr suggests we prepare for several inevitable changes: the workforce is going to evolve, not simply in terms of the changing nature of work but how to identify and make the most of uniquely human skills; we’re going to need new economic, legal and ethical frameworks; and, of course, the importance of access to data is going to war with the right to privacy.
AI is already involved in three areas of education: learning with AI (e.g., the use of AI- powered tools across platforms as well as in classrooms), learning about AI (its technologies and techniques) and preparing for AI, which means enabling all citizens to better understand the potential impact of AI on human lives and society.
It’s this last part that is critical in terms of building understanding, because its only by understanding its impact that we can enable development in the right way. Challenges around privacy and access lie at the heart of the digital divide but we’re already seeing implementation in education before we really understand the implications. Predictive analytics are already in use for assessing learner performance and marking exams and if the pandemic has taught us anything is that’s online learning is going to become a vital element of learning delivery in the future. Should children’s futures be dependent on an algorithm?
UNICEF recently completed a two-year project AI for Children to better understand how Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems can protect, provide for, and empower children. Children today are being affected by AI far beyond learning systems, with AI embedded in everything from toys to video games, with algorithms recommending what to do next, whether that’s what news to read, what video or music to enjoy or even which friends are recommended to them. But children don’t always understand the long-term consequences
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www.education-today.co.uk January 2022
of their actions – and even if they did, where or how can children be heard? And countries are lagging in their policies, with little consideration of the impact of AI on children.
November 2021 saw the end result of the project, setting out nine requirements for child- centred AI. It must support children’s development and well-being, ensure inclusion of and for children, prioritize fairness and non- discrimination for children. protect children’s data and privacy, ensure safety for children, provide transparency, explainability, and accountability for children, empower governments and businesses with knowledge of AI and children’s rights, prepare children for present and future developments in AI and create an enabling environment. UNICEF also published guidelines for policymakers*, a guide for parents and much more.
For such approaches to be effective however, children themselves must be educated about what’s happening, how and why. They need to learn to ask questions about the recommendations and suggestions they get, rather than simply accepting them. They need to be part of the wider conversation about the sort of society and sort of world they want to live in. while these may seem like existential questions, they are fundamental requirements for an education that will equip children for the future they’re moving towards. Critical thinking and emotional intelligence are going to be key to success in the future, and we owe it to our children to centre this in the way we teach.
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