The rise of artificial intelligence and its continued evolution has changed several commercial landscapes over the past year. However, AI and machine learning continue to shape how education leaders support schools, colleges, and universities too.
Ultimately, AI and machine learning exist to help make many of our daily routines more efficient and convenient. AI-powered strategies are all the more appealing in a complex yet rewarding role such as educational leadership.
Despite the relatively fast rise to prominence in publicly available AI in the past few years, there is still a long road ahead for the technology’s evolution – the way we can hypothetically use machine learning in education today isn’t necessarily going to be the big picture in the future.
That said, there are already plenty of exciting ways educational leaders are harnessing AI to help support schools, teachers, students, and existing strategies. Let’s look broadly at how AI-powered education leadership is already making waves.
AI and administration in education
The core challenges education leaders face are mounting administration and increasing efficiency demands. Although a leader’s work might not completely revolve around scheduling and resource allocation, menial administration tasks can take their time and efforts away from other tasks, such as those directly that directly support students.
AI provides immense support with administrative demands. Any tasks that don’t necessarily need human input or insight – such as arranging records and building schedules – can now be delegated to an intelligent machine that learns about specific demands and parameters.
For example, an education leader might choose to use timetabling software to help schools in a specific district stick to a new curriculum. Using faculty and staff data and availability, AI can create a year’s worth of timetables in a matter of hours, removing the need for manual calendar management.
AI can also take time away from handling emails and internal communications. For example, an educator might choose to set up automated emails to provide reminders to parents and PTA members regarding meetings and to ensure teachers are up to speed on policy and timetable changes.
Educators might also use AI chatbots to engage with prospective new teacher hires via the recruitment process, saving time and money where personnel would need to walk applicants through the process manually. Beyond this, meeting management with AI is already proving highly efficient and increasingly actionable.
Of course, these aspects apply to any industry and company experiencing increasing administrative tasks; therefore, we need to consider more specific benefits for educators.
AI and education data analysis
AI isn’t purely useful for taking on tasks that would otherwise need human interaction. It’s proving increasingly adept at sourcing and breaking down data for action plans – and in education, where a school’s effectiveness revolves around student learning outcomes, this data analysis is all the more important.
For example, education leaders can use AI systems to pull data from specific examinations and ask systems to compile forecasts based on current tools and practices in place. The AI can then advise of any correlations between poor performance and student demographics – or even the modules they’re studying – thereby giving teachers and educators insight into what they could change for the better.
In this case, AI is purely acting as an advisor. It won’t take action on an educator’s behalf – nor should it, as changing school policies should always have human insight. AI, for all its impressive capabilities, lacks the empathy and contextual understanding required to make such important decisions.
AI can also help educators analyze where “the system” might fail specific students. Instead of relying on traditional report cards, AI can pull information from test results, homework grading, and other engagement figures to help leaders ascertain where more support might be necessary.
For example, data pulled by AI might suggest that certain teacher-student partnerships aren’t producing the results educators expect. Alternatively, it might confirm that further changes to curricula are required or that there are staffing skill gaps.
AI and personalized learning
At the students’ level, AI can even help ensure that curricula are delivered in personalized plans that appeal to specific learning styles and demands. For example, some students might learn at different paces to others or might learn by “doing” rather than through reading material and watching videos.
Such a program could analyze how a specific student performs based on specific tasks in the past, use answers provided by students, and build learning packages that fit their profiles more closely. This means, essentially, students all benefit from personalized learning experiences so that everyone gets up to speed on the same material at their own pace.
Personalized learning is still emerging at the time of writing – and it is still important for an education leader to learn how to build curricula from scratch without machine support. In fact, the skills that people learn through programs such as the Ed.D available at Rockhurst University can prepare a future education leader with or without AI. This program is 100% online and can be completed in as little as two years, making it ideal for busy schedules. If you are interested in this program, you can learn more here.
When such personalized plans become more mainstream and available, it’s likely they will provide a variety of engaging teaching tools for students – meaning they can choose from reading material, visual aids, or even educational games.
One such application in a history class, for example, might be to provide students with a chatbot trained to respond to questions like Abraham Lincoln – a great way for young people to interact directly with material.
The future of education and AI
AI’s potential in education is boundless, and there are already discussions unfolding regarding AI mentorships, conflict resolution, and curriculum planning. Given the speed at which generative AI has evolved in just the past year, it’s not impossible to assume AI will have a necessary place in schools before long.
Therefore, it’s important for prospective educators to start familiarizing themselves with AI and machine learning, whether in or outside of the classroom. In time, traditional textbooks and lesson plans will evolve beyond all recognition – and that’s going to happen sooner rather than later.
At the very least, counter-measures against students using ChatGPT to write their homework for them are likely to grow in popularity – there needs to be a clear system of checks and balances!
