AI has arrived in the classroom

Peter Warner is a lecturer at Breda University of Applied Sciences, and as with many colleagues, is attempting to carefully manoeuvre past the issues generated by AI in and outside the classroom, while accepting and welcoming its potential use.

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) recently crossed over into classroom and sent educators around the world into a frenzy. Its emergence has brought with it several ethical dilemmas, as students are now confronted with the immense power and opportunity it yields, but are also faced with a rather sizeable question of how – or indeed if - they should use it.  Once the dust has settled, can educational institutions learn to work with AI and reap the rewards it can bring, just as workplaces of other industries have been doing for years?

 

While many students starting out at BUas are not always acquainted with the application of AI in Facility Management (FM), they will almost certainly be aware of its potential use in their studies these days. This is thanks to the current surge of AI’s adoption in education, and its capacity to generate ready-made assignments for students – clearly a temptation too great for some.

This development has caused an immediate rethink of not only how students are assessed, but also how to incorporate this revolutionary technology and harness its benefits. Providers of education need to consider how it can be used and learn from how other industries who have successfully incorporated it into their own working models to increase efficiency productivity. However, students will also have to learn to plot a safe path through this ethical minefield and find a safe zone on the other side which satisfies all involved. Barriers are clearly crossed when students employ AI to generate work that is not their own but presenting it as such.

Deception aside, the main issue with this practice is that they are skipping many of the stages of the learning process which help them develop skills of critical thinking and self-sufficiency, necessary in all facets of life - career and beyond. John McCarthy first coined the term ‘artificial intelligence’, with reference to the concept of machines thinking autonomously, following on from Alan Turing’s predictions that computers would be able to carry out tasks and reason at a level thought only possible for humans.

This concept of autonomous thinking and learning is central to BUas’ philosophy of enabling students to find their own path through the programme by learning skills and acquiring knowledge necessary to succeed. The idea being that students should be able to - with expert guidance - direct their own learning, and will graduate with the ability to reflect on, analyse and critique whatever is thrown in their path.  By design, they will then have acquired a level of autonomy, curiosity and lifelong learning that will serve them well throughout their personal and professional lives.

The use of AI in business functions will not be a new concept for facility managers, as they will be aware of how its integration has helped increase productivity in their roles, and allowed more time to focus on other core areas of business, which require a more human touch. Examples such as Google, who have used an algorithm to manage the adjustment of its cooling systems at several data centres – a role previously carried out by managers. Managers now ‘collaborate’ with this AI and the result is an energy reduction of 40 percent (Knight, 2020). Likewise, when generative models such as ChatGPT are used responsibly and safely, they will also be able to save time and energy which can be allocated to other areas of students’ studies. However, as with the managers who oversee AI's decision-making, students must also remain critical, and understand that AI’s output is not perfect and even filled with dangerously incorrect but equally confident assertions.

The inception of AI in the workplace tends to raise the concern of job losses, which is not dissimilar to the recent panic experienced by educators around the world in response to the proliferation in the use of AI by students to produce last-minute assignments. These concerns are often quickly allayed, however, as experiences of the past have taught us that AI and new technology’s introduction to the workplace has led to an evolving of roles and adjusted skillsets required, rather than an elimination of jobs altogether. The population of mathematics teachers is still thriving despite the introduction of the pocket-size calculator decades ago. As maths teachers will often tell us, the working you show is often more important and valuable than the answer itself. In the same way, when submitting assignments, students must be able to reflect on and justify the choices they have made.

Like many new technologies, after the initial excitement at their inception, the challenge companies and educational institutions alike face is how to use them effectively and responsibly. It is also in their interest to use them to their full potential, thereby ensuring that employees and students reach theirs. If it helps lighten their workload to allow them to allocate their time and energy more efficiently, then all the better.

 

Knight, W. (2020, 2 April). Google just gave control over data center cooling to an AI. MIT Technology Review. https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/08/17/140987/google-just-gave-control-over-data-center-cooling-to-an-ai/

Rotman, D. (2023, 9 mei). ChatGPT is about to revolutionize the economy.  We need to decide what that looks like. MIT Technology Review. https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/03/25/1070275/chatgpt-revolutionize-economy-decide-what-looks-like/

Edge, Amsterdam awarded BREEAM Award for Offices New Construction 2016 - BRE Group. BRE Group  - Building a better world together. https://bregroup.com/case-studies/breeam-new-construction/the-edge-amsterdam-awarded-breeam-award-for-offices-new-construction-2016/

7 Ways Artificial Intelligence Is the Future of FM. (z.d.). Facilitiesnet. https://www.facilitiesnet.com/facilitiesmanagement/article/7-Ways-Artificial-Intelligence-Is-the-Future-of-FM--18497