From the schools of ancient Greece, founded by various philosophers, through pre-industrial Education 1.0 to Education 2.0—designed to foster industrial growth—it took centuries, transformations, and significant evolution in the practice, form, and processes of teaching and learning. Perhaps today, educational technologies—whether digital or analog—represent the springboard for a long journey in education that still lies ahead in the 21st century.

The introduction of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) and large language models (LLMs), into society—and, undoubtedly, into schools—might be well represented in time and space as a kind of monolith: an imposing, black, rectangular, matte-finish structure that serves as a link between the past and the future, much as the idea is vividly portrayed in Arthur Clarke’s science fiction short story.

Artificial Intelligence (AI), in and of itself, offers countless possibilities and applications. AI began to be formally developed in the 20th century and gained prominence as a field of research thanks to John McCarthy in 1956, during a conference in the United States.

Today, the tools most readily available to students and educators are LLMs, which fall under a subcategory of Artificial Intelligence known as high-risk AI or generative AI (IAgen)—including ChatGPT, but not limited to it.

Although AI and the rapid popularity of ChatGPT are already being explored in schools, the question now is what we can expect from the evolution of AI by 2024, and its role within schools, educational institutions, and classrooms. Are these tools already helping educators and students in Brazil in practice?

According to Maysa Brum, a professor at Unigran Capital University Center (Campo Grande, MS) who holds a master’s degree in Education with research in distance education and a Ph.D. in Education with research in digital culture, social media, and teacher training, for the first time we are preparing students for a future we cannot predict. “What lies ahead is increasingly uncertain, obscure, and fast-paced. Despite this, it is an irreversible phenomenon. It is urgent that we understand what AI is, its impact, its possibilities, and the threats it poses to education. And it is even more urgent that we enhance our human intelligence to learn how to deal with uncertainty.”

Maysa, who will discuss the topic “Post, Like, Comment, Follow—Why Digital Culture Is Everywhere Except in Schools” at Bett Brasil 2024, further explains that there are countless AI tools used in education—both for developing platforms and for implementing educational solutions, such as intelligent tutoring to personalize the student’s learning experience.

In practice, she says, what we’ve been seeing for quite some time now are intelligent tutoring systems that offer personalized feedback to students, tailored instruction for specific students or classes, virtual assistants to answer simple questions and provide instant solutions, automated assessment, and virtual and augmented reality.

“I’m a big fan of using digital technologies in education, especially when it comes to the personalized support that AI can offer each student, tailored to their individual pace and level of difficulty. This is, if not the main one, one of the main advantages of AI, in addition to so many other possibilities.”

According to the professor at Unigran Capital University Center, AI is reaching a level of superintelligence at an alarmingly rapid pace, and the higher the level of intelligence, the greater the potential for both “creation” and “destruction.” “Privacy concerns and ethical challenges related to the use of student data are the main barriers we face in education.”

Luciano Meira, a visiting professor at CESAR (Center for Advanced Studies and Systems in Recife) and a professor at Joy Street—a company specializing in playful educational technologies, of which he is a co-founder at Porto Digital in Recife—says that AI, AIgen, LLMs, and other technologies are emerging as tools for data-driven decision-making. “My expectation is that scientific data will be used to inform decision-making—on the one hand, by students, and on the other, by school administrators.”

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Meira explains that AI is important for building knowledge that can assist administrators in identifying data on school dropouts, student recruitment, student performance, and analyzing student enrollment records, for example. But for students, there is a system that uses chatbots for learning, and ChatGPT to provide summaries, comparisons between authors, and other functions. “In the classroom, the most common use is of large language models, such as GPT, for summarizing, generating images, and a multitude of other features.”

Meira points out that there are likely very few studies with precise data on AI, AI agents, and LLMs in the field of education. However, she acknowledges that large educational networks are leading the way, in part because they have dedicated teams focused on AI to develop technologies for a wide variety of applications.

Although the use of technologies—digital or otherwise—offers a number of advantages, Meira’s greatest concern is with the disadvantages. “These are particularly related to the lack of alignment with a pedagogical framework that reflects a transformative educational purpose. We need to evaluate this based on the pedagogical proposal, because there is no transformation in the classroom if we simply put a computer there without offering anything else—without rethinking how to create a learning environment.”

Big Tech in the Classroom

The monolith of time and space can hold surprises. In the 1950s, Alan Turing, considered the father of artificial intelligence, suggested that machines could do the same things as humans—that is, use available information to solve problems and make decisions.

It’s no coincidence that the so-called Big Tech companies have already entered the fray. Microsoft, for example, already offers an AI-powered classroom toolkit with creative features that combine engaging narrative stories with instructional information to create an immersive and effective learning experience for educators and students ages 13 to 15. It also features a “Reading Coach,” designed to engage students and improve reading fluency through stories from the AI platform and personalized practice. Students create unique AI-generated stories that are moderated for content quality, safety, and age appropriateness.

The latest design evolution in Microsoft PCs with AI is the addition of the Copilot button to the computer keyboard. It is the first significant change to the keyboard in 30 years—the last major change was the addition of the Windows button to access programs and software controls.

Intel and its partners are also introducing the first AI features in PCs by incorporating on-device generative AI for creating images, videos, and presentations. AI-powered PCs can also offer real-time translation of sign language and speech to break down communication barriers.

Apple, for its part, has been working on its own large language models—the technology that powers generative AI products, such as OpenAI’s (Microsoft) ChatGPT.

Google, meanwhile, recently announced a series of launches focused on education during Bett UK—the world’s largest educational technology trade show, held in January in London. The goal is to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into the classroom, with the launch of 15 new Chromebooks and more than 30 Google for Education features.

In Brazil, there are a variety of initiatives. One of them is taking place at Bett Brasil 2024, through LETRUS—Center for Authorship and Culture. The company began by using AI to recognize textual patterns and expanded its use to calculate and assign grades to essay-style texts using AI algorithms and to provide feedback based on the quality of the texts. Today, AI assists teachers by providing feedback, suggestions, and critiques on the texts, and it also serves to provide feedback to students.

“We use the tools available in the classroom, such as Google Translate, a powerful AI that supports an ever-growing number of languages. This allows us to expand our students’ repertoire to include languages such as Yoruba (èdè Yorùbá), Guarani, and Quechua (Quíchua), which are available on any cell phone,” explains Luís Junqueira, founder of Letrus.

For Junqueira, incorporating these innovations can broaden students’ perspectives, because there is both the space and the time to do so. Specifically with ChatGPT, this applies to the ability to interpret and analyze texts and images, as well as to generate images and videos.

In the context of AI in education, Junqueira points out that the educational system is neither evidence-based nor responsive to evidence, because it remains very conservative when it comes to the use of technology in education. “In education, change is slow. For years—even centuries—we’ve had a system that has remained virtually unchanged and resists new developments.”

The founder of Letrus believes that, especially with AI, there is room for progress by utilizing millions of scientific articles that can be searched and analyzed with the help of AI, along with the evaluation of students’ responses, to teach sign language. “In short, these technologies—Generative Artificial Intelligence—offer us a multitude of possibilities.”

Article originally published in *Revista Escola Particular*.

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