HS Opinion: AI is already challenging teachers and students
Opinion piece published in Helsingin Sanomat 16.12.2024. Read the text on the Helsingin Sanomat website: https://www.hs.fi/mielipide/art-2000010050103.html
AI-based social media services and mobile games, not to mention other applications, are able to guide and even predict our behaviour. They are able to profile and classify us based on the data they constantly collect. The problem is that AI is a black box for us.
Students, teachers and parents are unaware of how AI works and how it affects our daily lives. This is worrying in a context where the latest applications such as Chat GPT are changing our understanding of what information is in general and how it is created.
Artificial intelligence is an example of digitalisation. This further increases the need for digital literacy among children and young people. Estonia, which has excelled in the PISA survey, is known as an exemplary promoter of digitalisation in education.
Finnish comprehensive schools have not been able to integrate digital technology into teaching in the same way as in Estonia. We are proud of our teachers and of our pedagogical freedom, but at the same time we have neglected the uniform requirements for teachers’ digital competence. As it stands, our in-service training system does not ensure that teachers’ skills are sufficiently updated.
In addition to digital literacy, children and young people need to learn data and AI literacy and grow as data actors during their studies. The Strategic Research Council is funding our project to develop tools and teaching materials to support pre-primary and primary education.
It is clear that there is no need for entertainment use of phones in schools. Instead, pedagogically justified use should be increased. The same devices and applications are used in all Western countries. However, there are differences in how they are used. The digital tools of the day are pen, rubber and notebook.
HS 16.12.2024(https://www.hs.fi/mielipide/art-2000010050103.html)
Jari Laru
Doctor of Education,
university lecturer
University of Oulu
Generation AI project
