Table of Contents
- Preparing Citizens for an AI-Driven World: The Role of Education
- Rethinking Learning and Evaluation with AI
- AI in Education: Institutional Support for Creativity and Teacher Training
Claudia de Crescenzo is a literature teacher at “Calamandrei” High School in Naples, also serving as an instructor at the School of Us and a trainer for the Foundation for Digital World. Her extensive experience in education makes her an authoritative voice in the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the educational landscape. This is the paper she wrote to address the challenges and opportunities that AI presents in the educational context.
Preparing Citizens for an AI-Driven World: The Role of Education
Is it possible to imagine a future not significantly influenced by artificial intelligence? I believe it’s challenging. Perhaps we are not always aware that every tool we use in our daily lives is already integrating artificial intelligence, and there’s no way to avoid it.
This also explains why, in the latest update of DigComp, the European framework defining digital skills for every European citizen (dating back to 2022), there are significant integrations compared to previous versions.
For instance, sections on smart working and artificial intelligence are introduced, recognizing them as two aspects of daily life citizens are already, and even more so in the future, required to engage with. As educators, we feel a duty to prepare the citizens of tomorrow so that they can fully integrate into the world as individuals and workers. From the insights of the “Work Trend Index 2023” study by Microsoft, 74% of Italian managers believe their employees will need new skills to manage further developments in AI. On the other hand, 42% of workers fear losing their jobs due to artificial intelligence, a percentage lower than the global figure of 49%.
The World Economic Forum acknowledges that the future of the labor market will undergo significant changes due to artificial intelligence, predicting which sectors will be more disadvantaged than others in terms of job opportunities. Beyond statistics, useful only to provide an idea of the transformation of the labor market and productivity, it’s now well-established that today’s students need to train and acquire skills in artificial intelligence to enhance their job prospects after their school or university journey.
Rethinking Learning and Evaluation with AI
Yet, it surprises us to observe how many teachers seem more focused on monitoring how students use artificial intelligence to complete assigned tasks, rather than showing curiosity about potential applications to improve learning. It would be appropriate to align on the same wavelength, overcoming mutual hesitations and the fear that working with artificial intelligence could compromise the authenticity of task results.
In my experience, the more I can conceive my teaching and learning as a collaborative activity with students, walking alongside them, the better the overall experience. Instead of dedicating my time to consult tools that warn me about possible, but never certain, plagiarism attempts by students (it’s worth noting that even OpenAI withdrew its control tool in July of this year), I commit to giving space to my students. I also reconsider evaluation approaches, valuing learning processes more than products or final results. In practice, it’s about abandoning the traditional assignment, execution, and evaluation model of a task (considering the risk of plagiarism) and instead adopting new models that encourage students to connect acquired knowledge, document processes (including interaction with ChatGPT or other AI), actively collaborate with artificial intelligence, and reflect on their role in learning with AI.
AI in Education: Institutional Support for Creativity and Teacher Training
We are in an extraordinary moment of transition from standardized teaching methods to a new era of discovery and application of the human factor. Universal access to learning and collaboration between artificial intelligence and teachers can enhance the creativity that Sir Ken Robinson said was “killed” in school, with new mentoring and coaching roles from passionate educators.
Passion, fundamental as it is, is not enough on its own. And it’s right that being passionate educators is not sufficient. Occasional initiatives by isolated teachers, often trained outside the official programs of the school institution, cannot adequately meet the formative needs of entire generations of students. It becomes urgent, therefore, to integrate another dimension into the dialogue, namely that between teachers and the school institution.
According to the report by Oxford University Press (OUP), governments should support schools so that they can fully exploit the potential of artificial intelligence and train teachers (49% consider themselves unprepared). This support is crucial to prevent students from being deprived of the necessary skills in a world where artificial intelligence is now omnipresent.
A year has now passed since the turning point of generative AI, and from the experimentation phase, it’s time to move towards the phase of strategic imagination. We should no longer question “whether” but rather “how.”
For further inquiries about artificial intelligence and to engage with Neodata Group, the organization overseeing this column, feel free to reach out to them at info@neodatagroup.ai
Claudia De Criscenzo
Claudia de Crescenzo is a literature teacher at "Calamandrei" High School in Naples, also serving as an instructor at the School of Us and a trainer for the Foundation for Digital World. Her extensive experience in education makes her an authoritative voice in the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the educational landscape.
