The concept of educational transformation in Brazil and around the world is complex, as it has different aspects that are championed by some and criticized by others. However, one argument can be considered a consensus because it is a simple fact: the future cannot be held back indefinitely—or, rather, the innovations that are already here—or are yet to come—cannot be avoided. 

One of the topics that has been widely discussed in recent years—especially among the new generations of digital natives—is the need for changes in the way learning is structured in the classroom. According to Silvio Meira, professor and chief scientist at TDS Company, students’ current low engagement is a sign that they have lost interest in classes that are limited to merely conveying content through “repetitive and boring” methods, without any hands-on experience.

"The lecture-style class is dead for the vast majority of students. We need to redesign the learning process without the lecture," Meira said in an interview with Conexão Bett. In the professor's view, the classroom model needs to empower teachers in their role as facilitators of collective knowledge-building and incorporate a combination of physical, digital, and social elements.

“Education today is the bureaucracy of learning. It is essential that we combine physical presence with a shift toward digital learning orchestrated by social interaction. This means physical proximity, combined with, for example, the availability of online learning opportunities, integrated with the social dimension of reality, where we connect with other people (socialization),” adds the professor.

He also uses the example of philosopher and educator John Dewey, in his 1938 book *Experience and Education*, to highlight the need to adopt new learning processes. “If we apply Dewey’s concepts, presented nearly 100 years ago, and utilize a framework of intelligences—which includes individual intelligence, social intelligence (people in groups, including the teacher), and artificial intelligence, which can be used to analyze the behavior of an entire class, multiple classes, or thousands of students at the same time— AI can help determine each student’s learning levels, so we can encourage those who are doing well to explore new topics and focus on bringing those who are struggling up to the average level,” explains Meira.

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The professor also states that the goal is not just to produce average students. We want everyone to learn, preferably at the highest level and with as much diversity as possible. “AI can certainly serve this purpose and is not limited to asking ChatGPT questions. That is not the true potential of AI; rather, it is a misuse of human intelligence combined with artificial intelligence,” said Meira, who is also a distinguished professor at CESAR School, professor emeritus at the UFPE Center for Informatics, and one of the founders of Porto Digital.

The Potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The professor also comments on the untapped potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in society and in the field of education. Meira pointed out that the AI tools that are currently “scaring” people are merely probabilistic machines trained on large volumes of textual and visual data that respond to initial prompts, calculating—with a fairly high probability of accuracy—which word next makes sense, and so on; based on the first word generated, the system recalculates which word has the highest probability of making sense in that context.

He compared the state of our knowledge about AI to a soap opera. “If AI were a soap opera, we wouldn’t even know who the main characters are yet or how the story is going to unfold. We’re at the very beginning—not the middle of the beginning, nor the end of the beginning. I believe now is the time to prototype, to experiment, and to test. We have to treat AI like a new game we’re starting at level zero, where we’re still learning how the controls work, and work our way up to the more advanced levels,” he emphasized.

The professor asserts that AI may offer the greatest opportunity of our lives, once we are able to discover how to use Artificial Intelligence as yet another dimension of intelligence, creating—alongside individual and social intelligence—a new strategic space and range of choices for creating, collaborating, and acting together, empowered by AI.  “From this perspective, it’s a good thing that this is happening right here, across the entire internet, and for everyone,” Meira concluded.

For educators facing the challenge of introducing AI tools into the classroom, the professor is emphatic: “Don’t be afraid of AI tools. Rest assured that you don’t know how to use them, and neither do we (society)—that’s a fact. This will evolve radically over the course of this decade and will accelerate at an ever-increasing pace. So, bring your students in to learn together.” 

He points out that the great advantage of a teacher is that they can admit they don’t know something, but that they know how to learn. “Teachers aren’t living encyclopedias; they are human beings who have been trained to learn new things in context and to tackle what they don’t know and have never seen before. I would try to learn alongside my students, making mistakes and learning together with them,” concludes Meira.

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