The time has come to exploit the potential of algorithms in education
Bill Gates hinted at a recent event on the relationship between technology and education that he sees a future for primary education based on using machine learning assistants to teach children basic skills such as reading and writing that can adapt to the level and progress of each child, making classes entertaining and improving the educational experience in the process.
The reality is that generative conversational assistants, hallucinations aside, could already be used to create personalized visual content to teach children to read. In fact, it could also be used for home schooling or to deliver private lessons in many other subjects for practically any child, especially for those from low-income households.
Given that generative algorithm technology is still at an early stage, many people will ask whether it’s a good idea to use it for something as sensitive as children’s education. Will we see children learning to read more or less unsupervised with an algorithmic teacher, and perhaps obtaining better results than its human counterpart? Obviously, the learning process isn’t only about content in a given format; social interaction and skill development are important, but it is worth looking more closely into whether we have reached the point where we can consider robotic teachers for our…
