Schools grapple with AI: dialogue on growing up and learning in a digital world
Dialogue session
Schools are grappling with how to use AI. On 18 November, educational professionals will be discussing the issue. Professor Marga Sikkema-de Jong and lector Theo Bakker answer three questions about growing up and learning in a digital world.
AI offers new opportunities for education, but also raises questions about learning, development and equity. What should children continue to learn? Which risks require attention? And how should educational institutions make long-term choices?
These are the kinds of questions being explored at The Hague Applied AI Campus (HAAI), which has initiated the dialogue session. HAAI is a partnership between senior secondary vocational education and training, higher professional education and higher education that brings together educational expertise and organisations across the city to learn about AI and its responsible use. Marga Sikkema-de Jong (Professor of Education and Child Development in a Digital World at Leiden University) and Theo Bakker (Lector in Learning Technology and Analytics at The Hague University of Applied Sciences) work together within this campus and answer some of these questions.
Which impact of AI deserves more attention in discussions about education and child development?
According to Bakker, the misuse of AI deserves attention because it can cause pupils’ skills to deteriorate. ‘If too much is outsourced to AI, deep learning stops happening. Quick answers can create the impression that learning is easy, but ultimately students learn less as a result. In a test, the results can be disappointing.’
Bakker also believes that AI can improve equity, although it can also make things worse if it is not used carefully (see the Vision on the Impact of AI on Equity in Further Education (in Dutch)).
Anyone who wants to understand the impact of AI on education and child development should look beyond AI alone, Sikkema-de Jong argues. ‘AI is becoming enmeshed with a broader digital environment of platforms, algorithms and data, and amplifies developments that have been underway for longer, such as personalisation and automation. That’s why I talk about digitality. What deserves attention more than anything is what the use of AI means in the longer term for the way children and students learn, build knowledge and reach conclusions.’
Dialogue on 18 November: Growing up and learning in a digital world
During this dialogue session in the Wijnhaven building in The Hague (15:00-17:00), participants across the educational spectrum, from childcare to universities, will discuss the changing role of educational professionals, deep learning and personal development. Sikkema-de Jong and Bakker hope this will lay the foundation for collaboration in which different sectors explore shared questions about AI and digitality, and develop knowledge. Would you like to attend the dialogue session (in Dutch)? Sign up through our website.
What should children and young adults continue to learn and be able to do, especially now AI can take on more and more tasks?
‘That depends on the stage of development and what we want to achieve through education’, says Sikkema-de Jong. ‘Knowledge, language skills and judgement remain fundamental, and may be more important than ever. Writing is a good example. Language is not only a means of expressing thoughts, but also a tool we use to think. By formulating, ordering and reviewing ideas, you also develop your thinking. The question is whether and how AI can support learning and what cognitive effort remains necessary to enable learning.’
Bakker agrees with the ideas of Tawhid Chtioui, an expert on higher education, AI and data. ‘People should be able to ask good questions, be critical of answers and make links between different subjects. Ultimately, responsibility still rests with humans: if you receive an answer from AI, you need to decide for yourself whether you want to use it.’
What question about AI should every school leader or governor be able to ask, in view of the long-term development of children?
‘The question I would like them to ask is which development we want to foster in pupils over the longer term and how our choices about AI contribute to that’, says Sikkema-de Jong. ‘That helps us look beyond the latest hype. New applications follow one another in quick succession, but more fundamental questions about learning, development and education do not change as rapidly. Education and child development should not simply conform to what becomes technologically possible.’
According to Bakker, they should ask themselves how they can prepare teachers and the education system for a world in which AI plays a dominant role. ‘How do we adapt our education system so that pupils still learn, continue learning and keep learning throughout their lives?’