Brendan Steinhauser, CEO of The Alliance for Secure AI, shared his thoughts on the trend with The Fix in a recent phone interview.
“I think it’s fine to experiment with ways to use technology to enhance teaching,” Steinhauser said of the National Science Foundation grants.
However, Steinhauser does have concerns that AI could take the place of humans in the workforce. He also anticipates a push to return to traditional education in the future.
“I think there are downsides to all of this, making us less connected as human beings,” he said. “You’re going to see more and more calls for young students in particular to go back to reading real books, writing things by hand, giving oral presentations.”
By Riley Siegenthaler
Technology expert predicts pushback to high tech classrooms with calls for ‘reading real books, writing things by hand, giving oral presentations’
Five universities are using AI “avatar students” to research how to train future science teachers, a project funded with $1.5 million worth of National Science Foundation grants.
None of the universities responded to The College Fix when asked for more details about the avatars and the research. But one technology expert expressed concerns about AI replacing human beings and human interactions when asked about the project.
The taxpayer-funded grants, awarded last fall, are part of an on-going four year project to meet the “national need for a globally competitive STEM workforce.” Researchers want to learn how to prepare “undergraduate STEM education students to more effectively teach all K-12 students,” according to the project abstract.
Participating institutions in the “Comparing Preservice STEM Teacher Preparation Using Virtual Reality Artificial Intelligence Simulations Versus Peer Teaching” grant project are the University of West Florida, Southern Methodist University, Texas A&M University, Kennesaw State University, and Drake University.
Their research will investigate “how undergraduate STEM education students can be effectively prepared to facilitate discussions of scientifically relevant real-world problems,” the abstract states.
To do so, researchers will follow about 250 undergraduate students who are studying to be K-12 teachers in STEM fields.
Avatars, which are simulated characters that mimic human behavior, will act as students in the simulations, according to a Southern Methodist University news release.
Researchers will use “avatar students controlled by artificial intelligence” as an experimental “innovative training” method, the release states.
The training experiment also will involve “scaffolded peer teaching, to provide multiple ways for future teachers to access learning experiences,” the release states. The practice of scaffolding in education involves “breaking lessons into stages with decreasing teacher support as students build mastery,” according to a University of San Diego education blog.
The Fix contacted each university multiple times, asking about the role of the avatars in the training program and the progress in the research so far. None responded.
Professor Jeanna Wieselmann, who teaches STEM education at Southern Methodist University, is involved in the project.
“This research is important because novice science teachers often lack strategies for facilitating effective classroom discussions of complex scientific issues,” Wieselmann said in the news release after the grant was first awarded.
“By encouraging students to solve real-world problems, we believe the project will increase interest in STEM fields and provide evidence supporting the use of scientifically relevant real-world problems in teacher preparation programs,” she said.
Neither the news release nor the grant description offered more details about how or why the avatars will be used or how they will appear to the college students taking part in the experiments.
China has already begun to use AI avatars in classrooms, Nature reported recently.
The avatars give lectures and answer questions at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Some are given the shape of famous academics like Albert Einstein or Nobel Prize winning mathematician John Nash, according to the report.
In the U.S., some professors also are using avatars in their classrooms.
This fall, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Professor Robert Goehlich plans to use AI avatars in his class on space tourism this fall, The Fix reported earlier this the summer.
The “four new AI-powered avatars” are programmed to interact with students on various topics and skills, according to a university article on the class. They also have names, “visual bios,” “headshots and job descriptions” to “add to the immersive experience.”
Brendan Steinhauser, CEO of The Alliance for Secure AI, shared his thoughts on the trend with The Fix in a recent phone interview.
“I think it’s fine to experiment with ways to use technology to enhance teaching,” Steinhauser said of the National Science Foundation grants.
However, Steinhauser does have concerns that AI could take the place of humans in the workforce. He also anticipates a push to return to traditional education in the future.
“I think there are downsides to all of this, making us less connected as human beings,” he said. “You’re going to see more and more calls for young students in particular to go back to reading real books, writing things by hand, giving oral presentations.”