AI key to improving educational outcomes –Prof Fletcher

By Daniel NONOR,

Professor Jonathan Fletcher a professional development expert and the Founding Dean of the School of Education and Leadership at the University of Ghana has called for the “appropriate” use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in schools in the country.

He says although AI offers comes as a great resource for students in their academic pursuits it must be used responsibly to generate positive outcomes.

Speaking on Zed in the morning show, Professor Fletcher said to get the best outcomes from the use of AI in our schools, a conscious effort must be made to separate the use of the resource from learning and as an assessment tool.

He explained that education is often education in our part of the world is looked at in terms of the examinations and their outcomes. “People think education is all about examinations. It is not the case at all” he stressed.

Used effectively, AI can help students with their learning outcomes without necessarily being examined. “It is only when we look at the examination that is when we begin to see the challenges”.

He added that AI can make teaching and learning more personalized helping students to learn a wide range of subjects at their own pace to suit their learning needs.

“It means that with AI, students can learn more and don’t need to wait for a teacher to instruct them before learning takes place. Just like library books, they can use AI to undertake a lot of research”, he stressed

He argued when used appropriately, AI has a lot of advantages that make the teacher’s work more interesting.

“I will support AI any day when it is used to learn, when people can use it produce things and learn for fun and teaching becomes interesting and learning becomes interesting and easier”

He however stressed that when it comes to summative assessment, particularly examinations, then all efforts must be made to discourage the use of AI to cheat.

“We should eschew all attempts to use AI to cheat in examinations. That is bad. In other words, AI must be used appropriately. Just like a kitchen knife, it can be used for good or bad things “

He emphasized that learning outcomes become more productive when students learn and do things on their own, and put them into practice.

“As learners, we have to learn harder and practice a lot of things. AI could give us information but just information is not enough” he added.

He stressed the importance of getting the balance right to get the most out of Artificial Intelligence in academia.