Key points:
- AI will have a wide-ranging impact on education, particularly on personalized learning
- Education’s unpreparedness for the future is exemplified by the emergence of entirely new fields driven by prompt engineering
- See related article: Is AI the future of education?
Some of my most distinct memories from high school involve struggling to grasp abstract concepts without visual or interactive tools. When I was a high school student, technology was significantly limited compared to today’s. I recall longing for resources such as online encyclopedias, interactive simulations, and virtual tutoring that would have made learning more interactive and accessible. Instead, my classmates and I were left to suffer through content-heavy, teacher-led lessons that lacked imagination or passion.
Sound familiar?
At no point did I blame my teachers. They, like most, had the undesirable task of delivering the same content to disengaged teens, not once, but many times a day. Fast forward to the present, and the landscape has changed dramatically.
Prompt engineering empowers learners to think critically, collaborate effectively, and devise innovative solutions. Artificial intelligence teaching assistants, like Jill Watson at the Georgia Institute of Technology, offer support to students in what was once considered unimaginable ways.
During the mid-1990s, while pursuing my A-level sociology studies, I became captivated by the enigmatic realm of hyperreality. This concept, coined by French philosopher Jean Baudrillard, posits blurred boundaries between reality and simulation in postmodern societies. Now, a quarter of a century later, I find Baudrillard’s theories informing my work as an educator.
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