Artificial Intelligence: A New Phase to Teaching and Learning
Advancement in Computer Technologies had led to the development of what is referred to as Artificial Intelligence (AI), which is now changing the way things is being done in virtually all human endeavours, and very slowly - the content and practice of education are beginning to follow suit. AI is contributing new approaches to education and learning. The hallmark of AI applications in education is that they attempt to explicitly represent some of the reasoning skills and knowledge of expert practitioners, and to exploit that expertise for teaching and learning. In business we see growing evidence that information technologies are leading to substantial improvements in productivity by automating routine activities (Zuboff, 1988). Similarly, it seems that if we can impart basic cognitive skills of teachers to computers we might delegate some teaching to machines and thus improve educational outcomes.
But, what is this AI? We need to know about it – AI is the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot (any automatically operated machine that replaces human effort) to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings. The term is frequently applied to the project of developing systems (robot) endowed with the intellectual processes or characteristics of humans (though it may not resemble human beings in appearance or perform functions in a humanlike manner), such as the ability to reason, discover meaning, generalize, or learn from past experience.
Since the development of the digital computer in the 1940s, it has been demonstrated that computers can be programmed to carry out very complex tasks – such as discovering proofs for mathematical theorems or playing chess among others – with great proficiency. Still, despite continuing advances in computer processing speed and memory capacity, there are no programs that can match human flexibility over wider domains or in tasks requiring much everyday knowledge. On the other hand, some programs
But, what is this AI? We need to know about it – AI is the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot (any automatically operated machine that replaces human effort) to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings. The term is frequently applied to the project of developing systems (robot) endowed with the intellectual processes or characteristics of humans (though it may not resemble human beings in appearance or perform functions in a humanlike manner), such as the ability to reason, discover meaning, generalize, or learn from past experience.
Since the development of the digital computer in the 1940s, it has been demonstrated that computers can be programmed to carry out very complex tasks – such as discovering proofs for mathematical theorems or playing chess among others – with great proficiency. Still, despite continuing advances in computer processing speed and memory capacity, there are no programs that can match human flexibility over wider domains or in tasks requiring much everyday knowledge. On the other hand, some programs
References: 1. Artificial Intelligence (AI) (2011). Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite, Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica. 2. Sleeman, D. and Brown, J. S. (1982). Intelligent Tutoring Systems New York: Academic Press. 3. Wenger, E. (1987). Artificial Intelligence and Tutoring Systems. Los Altos CA: Morgan and Kaufmann. 4. Zuboff, S. (1988). In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power, Basic Books.