AI and education: Empowering teachers in the digital age

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Reading Time: 6 min read

By Dr Betty Ogange
Education Specialist: Teacher Education

As the world celebrates the International Day of Education on 24 January 2025, we are drawn to UNESCO’s theme for this year, “AI and Education: Preserving Human Agency in a World of Automation.” This occasion provides an opportunity to reflect on the transformative role of artificial intelligence (AI) and how we can harness it to preserve human control in order to improve learning outcomes and advance educational goals. This highlights the evolving role of teachers and teacher-educators in the digital age.

The digital age has brought about unprecedented changes in how we live, work and learn. For educators, this has meant adapting to new technologies and pedagogical approaches to meet the changing needs of their students. While GenAI tools offer exciting possibilities for personalised learning, automated assessments, and enhanced feedback mechanisms, their integration into education must be carefully considered.

Without a human-centred approach, there is a risk that GenAI could marginalise the teacher’s role, potentially leading to de-personalised learning experiences and an over-reliance on technology. This calls for teacher empowerment and a commitment to teacher professional development for valuable student interactions.

Teacher-in-the-Loop AI: A Path Forward 

Under a project called “Teacher-in-the-Loop AI”, the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) is currently engaged in empowering teachers to use GenAI to adapt open educational resources (OER) to align with national and local curricula in different regions of the Commonwealth. To understand Teacher-in-the-Loop AI as a model, it is helpful to first understand the concept of Human-in-the-loop AI.

This refers to AI systems designed to collaborate with humans, where human input and oversight are essential for the system’s operation and effectiveness. COL’s Teacher-in-the-Loop AI model builds on this principle, empowering teachers and TVET trainers to be champions for effective AI integration. This approach ensures that GenAI tools are used to augment, not replace, their expertise.

In Ghana, India, Jamaica and Kenya, COL is implementing a co-creative mentoring model using GenAI to generate and adapt OER while ensuring pedagogical and contextual appropriateness. The model anchors on the GenAI-powered OER platform currently being piloted by COL.

On this platform, teacher-mentors, as well as pre-service and in-service teachers along with TVET educators, collaboratively leverage GenAI to co-create high-quality, inclusive, and pedagogically sound OER, given that generic platforms are not designed to have pedagogical knowledge or to behave pedagogically. Ideally, all source content should be OER and attributed accordingly, and all final outputs should be licensed openly.

Ghana’s first national workshop on AI in teaching and learning, which COL supported, highlighted various AI technologies, including the features of the GenAI-powered OER platform.

In a workshop with teachers and regulators in India, teachers gave their distinct preferences for how they would expect GenAI to support them in generating and adapting OER for subjects offered in the high school curriculum. Some expected the service to assist them in pursuing “a path of excellence in teaching.”

In the Pacific region, a workshop series held in Fiji, Solomon Islands and Tonga introduced over 800 STEM educators to GenAI platforms and the concept of OER. Working with teacher mentors on various tasks, the teachers demonstrated an understanding of OER and generated peer-reviewed, curriculum-aligned resources in various subject areas. A community of practice is evolving in this region for continued knowledge sharing and engagement on AI/GenAI in STEM education.

By actively involving teacher-mentors, teachers and TVET educators, the Teacher-in-the-Loop AI model promotes an iterative process of creating curriculum-aligned OER. With teachers adequately empowered, the human agency is retained and central to this co-creative process.

Happy International Day of Education!

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