Generative AI's Impact on Education: Access, Errors, and Strategy

 

Overview:

Professor Bharat N. Anand of Harvard Business School presents a nuanced perspective on the impact of generative AI on education and the future of work. He challenges conventional wisdom, arguing that the transformative power of AI lies less in its raw "intelligence" and more in its accessibility. He emphasizes the importance of strategic adoption, focusing on the cost of errors rather than just prediction errors, and urges a re-evaluation of the role of teachers and the skills most valuable in an AI-driven world. Anand deconstructs the hype surrounding AI tutors, suggesting that the benefits of AI will accrue disproportionately to those who already have domain expertise, furthering rather than levelling the playing field.

Key Themes and Ideas:

• Accessibility vs. Intelligence: Anand argues that the rapid adoption of generative AI isn't primarily due to a sudden leap in intelligence, but to the vastly improved interface and accessibility.
• "The fundamental reason why this is taken off, he would argue, has less to do with the discrete improvements in intelligence 2 years ago as opposed to the Improvement in Access or the interface that we have with the intelligence."
• He compares it to the shift from DOS prompts to a graphical user interface: "The big difference was the interface, meaning we moved to a graphical user interface and suddenly 7-year-old kids could be using computers, that I think is more similar to the revolution we're seeing now."
• This accessibility means more people can use computers for specialized purposes, but not necessarily the same people.
• The Cost of Errors as a Strategic Framework: Instead of focusing solely on the accuracy of AI outputs (prediction errors), Anand proposes evaluating AI adoption based on the cost of errors. 
• "We are obsessed with talking about prediction errors from large language models. I think the more relevant question is the cost of making these errors, meaning in some cases the prediction error might be 30% but if the cost of error is zero it's okay to adopt it."
• He urges organizations to break down analysis into tasks rather than whole industries. "Don't ask of what is AI going to do to me, ask which are the tasks that I can actually automate and which are the tasks I don't want to touch."
• The Ryanair Analogy: Anand uses Ryanair as a metaphor for AI adoption. Even if the "product" (AI output) isn't perfect, the cost and time savings can justify its use:
• "Even when AI capabilities fall far short and impair the human value proposition there's still a reason to adopt it... even if there's no improvement in intelligence simply because of cost and Time Savings there might be massive benefits to trying to adopt this."
• "This is an airline like most low-cost Airlines it doesn't offer any food on board no seat selection you've got to walk to the TAC you got to pay extra for bags no frequent flyers no lounges and this is the most profitable airline in Europe for the last 30 years running why it's not providing a better product it's saving cost."
• Challenging Assumptions About AI Tutors: Anand presents a Harvard experiment showing AI tutors outperformed human tutors in a physical science course. However, he later argues this doesn't necessarily mean AI will level the playing field.
• "What was interesting was the scores of the students using the AI Bots were higher than with the human tutors and these are tutors who've been refining their craft year in and year out what was even more surprising is engagement was higher."
• The Potential for Increased Inequality: Anand cautions that AI benefits may disproportionately accrue to those with existing domain expertise: Anand cautions against the assumption that AI will automatically level the playing field in education. He argues that individuals with existing domain expertise are likely to benefit disproportionately from AI. Without foundational knowledge, users may struggle to formulate effective prompts and discern the quality of AI outputs ("garbage in, garbage out").
• He cites the example of online education platform like edX, where the majority of completers already had college degrees: "the educated rich were getting richer."
• Re-evaluating the Purpose of Education and the Role of Teachers
• Professor Anand emphasizes that education is not solely about acquiring information but also about how we learn. Skills like logic, communication, and memory remain valuable in an AI-driven world. He suggests that the core purpose of traditional educational methods, such as case studies (listening and communication), proofs (logic), and memorization (refining memory), remains relevant. "They're saying that the real purpose of case method was listening and communication the real purpose of proofs was understanding logic the real purpose of memorizing state capitals was refining your memory."
• He believes a strategic conversation is needed about the role and purpose of teachers in an AI-driven world. The most important thing in today's world is curiosity and intrinsic motivation.
• Focusing on Creative Thinking and Empathy: Anand advocates for teaching creativity, judgment, human emotion, empathy, and psychology, as these skills are likely to be more resilient to automation.
• 

In this new landscape, the role of teachers needs to be re-evaluated. Instead of simply being purveyors of knowledge, educators should focus on fostering critical thinking, creativity, empathy, and communication – skills less susceptible to automation. Anand highlights that tech experts are advising their children to learn skills to dance, plumbing, and humanities, implicitly recognizing their robustness against machine intelligence. Cultivating curiosity and intrinsic motivation becomes paramount for lifelong learning.

• Happy Reading!!!

Learning with online social networks

 

Student engagement with digital learning resources and online social networking are strong forces in education today. How can these resources best be utilized by educators and course designers in higher education? 

In his talk Professor Rennie gave enough background information to appreciate the value of social networking, especially for distributed education. He highlighted the  most relevant, interesting, and challenging aspects of e-learning and  practical advice for using social networking tools in course design. See his presentation below.

Learning with online social networks from Lews Castle College, University of the Highlands and Islands

MAURITIUS – A new higher education hub

Positioning itself at the crossroads between Africa and Asia, Mauritius is also looking north – especially to France and Britain, where it has strong historical ties. Africa's most developed country is striving to become the continent's leading higher education hub.

There are at least 30 international institutions and groups involved in one way or another in tertiary education in Mauritius and the government has set attracting more international students – currently there are 1,000 – as a national objective.

The tropical Indian Ocean island's higher education ambitions were outlined at the Mauritius International Knowledge Investment Forum 2014, held at the Waldorf Hilton in London last month. It was the third such forum and the first to be held outside Mauritius.

Social Media in Higher Education Summit

Social Media in Higher Education Summit 

29^th – 30^th August  2013

                          Focus Rooms, Sunninghill, Johannesburg, RSA

Good day, 

Are you up to speed with the latest academic social media technology trends in your institution?

Amabhubesi would like to invite you to its Social Media in Higher Education Summit (SMHES 2013) which will expose you to a new digital platform and innovative ways of harnessing social media technology to create better learning and development processes within universities. Get informed about how student can utilize social media platforms such as web 3.0, Facebook, Twitter and MySpace to improve teacher learning process.

SMHES 2013 will explore how social media can be used very effectively in higher education; from sharing lectures and facilitating discussion to support students by strengthening a formidable campus community as well as improving the institution’s corporate brand. The summit is also designed to bring together expertise and provide education institutions with user friendly tools to advance their social media presence and build successful relationship with key audiences.

Key Highlights

·         Explore the challenges of social media And technology adaption
·         Convergences of informal learning into formal learning using social media platforms to bridge the existing gaps
·         Expert Google presentation by Brett St. Clair
·         Using social media as a tool to engage Stakeholders and shape the Strategy of a University
·         Virtue worlds, Social Media and Emerging Technologies.
·         Explore Strategies for effective Branding.