My Initial Thoughts on AI in Personalized Learning

In this course, we have been tasked with deciding on a topic to look at more critically. My group has decided to research artificial intelligence (AI) in personalized learning. In a previous post, I discussed the idea of more people using AI to learn English or another language, and that continues to interest me. A topic that has interested me throughout my research has been the credibility and accuracy of the use of AI in personal learning with a lens of language learning. To begin, I took part in a course on Udemy that originally appeared helpful in the team topic. Still, it became apparent that it could have been more informative regarding personalized education and using AI. Instead, we found a Coursera class called Innovative Teaching with ChatGPT.

 In this class, Professor Jules White discussed using ChatGPT to personalize lessons and topics to fit the students’ interests (J. White, personal communication, April 12, 2024). While he mentioned that this personalization could be done and that using ChatGPT could help teachers' lesson plans, he also stressed the importance of reviewing what information you are given to correct errors before using it with students. He gave hints on how to write prompts into ChatGPT to get closer to the information I was seeking. It was great to begin researching the use of AI in the classroom. I also read the book Should Robots Replace Teachers? By Neil Selwyn (2019) to better understand the use of AI in education. 

Upon reading the book, Selwyn (2019), much like White, stressed the importance of recognizing that AI is not a perfect tool and that we must also be aware of who the programmers are behind the software. As Selwyn (2019) and Akgun & Greenhow (2021) stressed, we should examine educational technology through a political, cultural, social, and ethical lens. I will keep this in mind as I continue to research AI, personalized education, and its credibility and accuracy in being used with students. 

References 

Akgun, S., & Greenhow, C. (2021). Artificial intelligence in education: Addressing ethical challenges in K-12 settings. AI and Ethics, 2(3). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8455229/

Selwyn, N. (2019). Should robots replace teachers? AI and the future of education. Polity Press.