While Touting Benefits of AI in Education, Report Downplays Known Risks

Key Review Takeaway: Bellwether’s report is a useful starting point for understanding the landscape of artificial intelligence in schools, but its advocacy for AI implementation is not supported by adequate evidence.

Find Documents:

Publication Announcement: https://nepc.colorado.edu/publication-announcement/2024/11/learning-systems
NEPC Review: https://nepc.colorado.edu/review/learning-systems
Report Reviewed: https://bellwether.org/publications/learning-systems/

Contact:

Michelle Renée Valladares: (720) 505-1958, michelle.valladares@colorado.edu
T. Philip Nichols: (254) 710-3027, Phil_Nichols@baylor.edu

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NEPC Resources on Digital Technologies and Artificial Intelligence in Education

BOULDER, CO (November 26, 2024)—A recent three-part report from Bellwether explores the growing role of artificial intelligence (AI) in K-12 education and offers recommendations for policymakers and practitioners to navigate this emerging landscape.

In his review of the reports that make up Learning Systems: Shaping the Role of Artificial Intelligence in Education, T. Philip Nichols of Baylor University finds these recommendations to be unjustifiably skewed toward imagined future advantages of AI, instead of wrestling with its actual present risks.

The report’s stated aim is to provide a holistic picture of the opportunities and risks that AI presents for education stakeholders. Part of this aim involves highlighting current and potential uses of AI for streamlining administrative tasks and personalizing instruction; another part identifies challenges for capitalizing on these potentials. The report argues that educators have a responsibility to develop capacity and infrastructure to support the effective integration of AI in schools while trying to mitigate the risks involved in doing so.

However, these risks are downplayed as temporary obstacles, which undermines the report’s value. By allowing the projected benefits of AI to drive decisions related to its development and implementation, the report overlooks substantial research literature documenting its known limitations and harms. As a result, instead of the comprehensive view it purports to present, the report leans into the questionable potential future promised by AI’s developers and investors.

Professor Nichols praises the report’s goal of ensuring that technology adoption and implementation prioritizes equitable learning for all students. But, he concludes, the report falls short of meeting this goal because of its failure to grapple with the evidence about the thorniest issues.

Find the review, by T. Philip Nichols, at:
https://nepc.colorado.edu/review/learning-systems

Find Learning Systems: Shaping the Role of Artificial Intelligence in Education, written by Amy Chen Kulesa, Michelle Croft, Brian Robinson, Mary K. Wells, Andrew J. Rotherham, and John Bailey and published by Bellwether, at: https://bellwether.org/publications/learning-systems/

NEPC Reviews (https://nepc.colorado.edu/reviews) provide the public, policymakers, and the press with timely, academically sound reviews of selected publications. NEPC Reviews are made possible in part by support provided by the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice: http://www.greatlakescenter.org

The National Education Policy Center (NEPC), a university research center housed at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education, sponsors research, produces policy briefs, and publishes expert third-party reviews of think tank reports. NEPC publications are written in accessible language and are intended for a broad audience that includes academic experts, policymakers, the media, and the general public. Our mission is to provide high-quality information in support of democratic deliberation about education policy. We are guided by the belief that the democratic governance of public education is strengthened when policies are based on sound evidence and support a multiracial society that is inclusive, kind, and just. Visit us at: http://nepc.colorado.edu