THE TEACHER OF THE FUTURE: DEVELOPING THE SKILLS AND CONCERNS REGARDING APPLYING THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Abstract

The rapid development of the Information Technologies and Artificial Intelligence we are witnessing at present times has caused the polarization of opinion of general public as well as experts, from the ones who appreciate the Artificial Intelligence, to the ones who dislike it. There are people who are delighted that using the various Artificial Intelligence-based platforms and applications is saving their time with routine tasks and data gathering for example, and there are other people who rarely use Artificial Intelligence, don’t know much about it or are afraid that the Artificial Intelligence and robots will take over the human lives in the future. Regardless of those differences of opinions, we need to acknowledge that the usage of the Artificial Intelligence is not a matter of the future, it is already present. It has been applied in many industries: from robotic production facilities, to marketing and sales, engineering processes, insurance and healthcare, communications and media, arts, human resources management, and even education among many others. Specifically, the Artificial Intelligence applying in the area of education and training is the purpose and main interest of research and discussion in this paper. Besides the theoretic research conducted based on reviewing the selected books and articles on the subject matter, the empirical research in the form of survey with structured questions on the Artificial Intelligence applying in the area of education in schools and training in companies was conducted. The qualitative methodology used in this paper included: responses of educators and other professionals, as well as university students, are collected, analysed, presented and the findings are synthesised and deducted into conclusions made based on this research. The responses regarding applying the Artificial Intelligence in training at their workplace or university education processes, included the participants’ opinions on significance and usefulness of applying the Artificial Intelligence, necessary skills they as educators or their teachers at the university need to develop in order to successfully apply the Artificial Intelligence in those processes, as well as biases and potential risks they believe such usage of the Artificial Intelligence may have on their work or study. The results and conclusions showed that, as previously stated, applying the Artificial Intelligence in education and at workplace, has its advantages and disadvantages. Namely, as advantages, among others, the participants pointed out the speed of the Artificial Intelligence in collecting high-volume data, increased productivity and performing the routine tasks that otherwise take-up much of their time etc. As disadvantages, there are always present concerns regarding the safety of the collected and stored data, especially the personal data linked to children in schools and employees at workplace, reduced critical thinking due to this usage of the Artificial Intelligence and the correctness of the replies provided by the Artificial Intelligence etc. Finally, as recommendations, there are several elements that could be included in a future research: pre-school teachers’ concerns about the impact of overreliance of the future generations on Artificial Intelligence in educational processes, which may affect the creativity, natural development processes and children’s desire to learn and explore the world around them on their own, as well as concerns of employees about the usage of Artificial Intelligence impact on their work positions, having in mind many recent examples of sudden lay-offs, especially in large Information Technology companies.