Last month, we looked at why it’s so critical that young people learn about AI from a young age. In short, AI is here to stay. Understanding how AI works helps children and young people become more discerning and make better use of the tools available to them.
But your young people could already be interacting with AI without you even realising it. Many educators are now successfully utilizing AI-powered tools for lesson planning, time management, and communication. Could AI be the key to improving education for all?
AI in the Classroom
You might expect that teachers would hold a dim view of generative AI. The ability to quickly generate a block of text could, in theory, be the ultimate homework cheat. There’s the potential for these shortcuts to stunt creativity and prevent students from learning skills like research and critical thinking. Those concerns are founded, considering that:
- At least 77.1% of children ages 13-18 had used generative AI in 2024
- Half of these children state that they’re using AI to learn, and 39.6% state they use it to help them write
- Only 39.9% of young people are fact-checking the results from generative AI-based tools
Source: National Literacy Trust
So, most children are using AI for writing and learning, and not enough are checking the accuracy of its output. That’s yet another reason why AI education is so important. When kids understand that AI is a tool, not an oracle, they do fact-check and, in turn, learn those all-important research and analysis skills.
Despite these concerns, the use of AI in the classroom is on the rise — among teachers. Creating revision materials, lesson plans, and itineraries for outings could all be left to generative AI, saving educators time and energy. But not all teachers are comfortable utilising this relatively new technology.
The Need for Standardised AI Guidance
One major aspect of AI in education that causes concern is the lack of regulation and guidance. Without a good understanding of the potential of AI, attitudes toward it tend to be more negative. Research shows teaching professionals who don’t use AI are more concerned about the lack of guidance surrounding it than those who do.
The UK government has published a policy paper that aims to support the use of generative AI in education. One of the earliest caveats is that in order to be effective, AI must be used “…safely, effectively and with the right infrastructure in place.” With generative AI being relatively new, that infrastructure doesn’t yet exist. Most educators have to find their own ways to use AI, either as individuals or as institutions (like schools) that create their own internal AI policies. The upshot is that how one education setting uses AI may be very different from another, creating disparate experiences for students.
AI in Academic Studies
Beyond high school, young people soon learn that generating text, code, and images isn’t all AI can do. AI algorithms can quickly process vast volumes of “Big Data,” making it a useful tool for scientific research.
AI could significantly accelerate progress in fields like climate science, particle physics, and healthcare. Milestones already include the use of machine learning to highlight data of interest from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), and the development of highly accurate AI breast cancer screening tools.
Academics are also considering the possibilities of AI for academic writing and collating results from multiple studies into individual papers. However, the same challenges exist at these higher levels of study as they do at school: non-standardised guidance on the best and safest ways to use AI for these purposes.
The Future of AI in Education
As the UK government notes, there is currently “…limited evidence on the impact of AI use in education on learners’ development, the relationship of AI use and educational outcomes, and the safety implications of children and young people using this technology in the classroom.” The potential problems they note include inaccuracy, bias, and copyright infringement — standard topics in any discussion on ethics in AI.
With that in mind, is there a future where AI can truly be a supportive power in educational settings? While official regulations for AI in schools might not exist, there have recently been some support materials released specifically to help educators. These new resources focus on balancing the usefulness of AI with the potential for misuse. Overworked teachers could cut their workloads through automated lesson planning and scheduling. But they need to be mindful that the resources they create are accurate, useful, and learner-focused.
Parents and carers shouldn’t expect their kids’ classrooms to become AI-powered overnight. After all, recent research suggests that a significant portion of teachers rate their “AI confidence” as just three out of ten. However, in time, AI could become an everyday part of learning life. Just like any technology, from cars to smartphones, there will always be positive and negative sides to using it. Young people who understand AI better will inevitably get the most out of their experiences using these tools.
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