technology problems and solutions in education

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Technology might be making education worse

Listen to the essay, as read by Antero Garcia, associate professor in the Graduate School of Education.

As a professor of education and a former public school teacher, I’ve seen digital tools change lives in schools.

I’ve documented the ways mobile technology like phones can transform student engagement in my own classroom.

I’ve explored how digital tools might network powerful civic learning and dialogue for classrooms across the country – elements of education that are crucial for sustaining our democracy today.

And, like everyone, I’ve witnessed digital technologies make schooling safer in the midst of a global pandemic. Zoom and Google Classroom, for instance, allowed many students to attend classrooms virtually during a period when it was not feasible to meet in person.

So I want to tell you that I think technologies are changing education for the better and that we need to invest more in them – but I just can’t.

Given the substantial amount of scholarly time I’ve invested in documenting the life-changing possibilities of digital technologies, it gives me no pleasure to suggest that these tools might be slowly poisoning us. Despite their purported and transformational value, I’ve been wondering if our investment in educational technology might in fact be making our schools worse.

Let me explain.

When I was a classroom teacher, I loved relying on the latest tools to create impressive and immersive experiences for my students. We would utilize technology to create class films, produce social media profiles for the Janie Crawfords, the Holden Caulfields, and other literary characters we studied, and find playful ways to digitally share our understanding of the ideas we studied in our classrooms.

As a teacher, technology was a way to build on students’ interests in pop culture and the world around them. This was exciting to me.

But I’ve continued to understand that the aspects of technology I loved weren’t actually about technology at all – they were about creating authentic learning experiences with young people. At the heart of these digital explorations were my relationships with students and the trust we built together.

“Part of why I’ve grown so skeptical about this current digital revolution is because of how these tools reshape students’ bodies and their relation to the world around them.”

I do see promise in the suite of digital tools that are available in classrooms today. But my research focus on platforms – digital spaces like Amazon, Netflix, and Google that reshape how users interact in online environments – suggests that when we focus on the trees of individual tools, we ignore the larger forest of social and cognitive challenges.

Most people encounter platforms every day in their online social lives. From the few online retail stores where we buy groceries to the small handful of sites that stream our favorite shows and media content, platforms have narrowed how we use the internet today to a small collection of Silicon Valley behemoths. Our social media activities, too, are limited to one or two sites where we check on the updates, photos, and looped videos of friends and loved ones.

These platforms restrict our online and offline lives to a relatively small number of companies and spaces – we communicate with a finite set of tools and consume a set of media that is often algorithmically suggested. This centralization of internet – a trend decades in the making – makes me very uneasy.

From willfully hiding the negative effects of social media use for vulnerable populations to creating tools that reinforce racial bias, today’s platforms are causing harm and sowing disinformation for young people and adults alike. The deluge of difficult ethical and pedagogical questions around these tools are not being broached in any meaningful way in schools – even adults aren’t sure how to manage their online lives.

You might ask, “What does this have to do with education?” Platforms are also a large part of how modern schools operate. From classroom management software to attendance tracking to the online tools that allowed students to meet safely during the pandemic, platforms guide nearly every student interaction in schools today. But districts are utilizing these tools without considering the wider spectrum of changes that they have incurred alongside them.

Antero Garcia, associate professor of education (Image credit: Courtesy Antero Garcia)

For example, it might seem helpful for a school to use a management tool like Classroom Dojo (a digital platform that can offer parents ways to interact with and receive updates from their family’s teacher) or software that tracks student reading and development like Accelerated Reader for day-to-day needs. However, these tools limit what assessment looks like and penalize students based on flawed interpretations of learning.

Another problem with platforms is that they, by necessity, amass large swaths of data. Myriad forms of educational technology exist – from virtual reality headsets to e-readers to the small sensors on student ID cards that can track when students enter schools. And all of this student data is being funneled out of schools and into the virtual black boxes of company databases.

Part of why I’ve grown so skeptical about this current digital revolution is because of how these tools reshape students’ bodies and their relation to the world around them. Young people are not viewed as complete human beings but as boxes checked for attendance, for meeting academic progress metrics, or for confirming their location within a school building. Nearly every action that students perform in schools – whether it’s logging onto devices, accessing buildings, or sharing content through their private online lives – is noticed and recorded. Children in schools have become disembodied from their minds and their hearts. Thus, one of the greatest and implicit lessons that kids learn in schools today is that they must sacrifice their privacy in order to participate in conventional, civic society.

The pandemic has only made the situation worse. At its beginnings, some schools relied on software to track students’ eye movements, ostensibly ensuring that kids were paying attention to the tasks at hand. Similarly, many schools required students to keep their cameras on during class time for similar purposes. These might be seen as in the best interests of students and their academic growth, but such practices are part of a larger (and usually more invisible) process of normalizing surveillance in the lives of youth today.

I am not suggesting that we completely reject all of the tools at our disposal – but I am urging for more caution. Even the seemingly benign resources we might use in our classrooms today come with tradeoffs. Every Wi-Fi-connected, “smart” device utilized in schools is an investment in time, money, and expertise in technology over teachers and the teaching profession.

Our focus on fixing or saving schools via digital tools assumes that the benefits and convenience that these invisible platforms offer are worth it.

But my ongoing exploration of how platforms reduce students to quantifiable data suggests that we are removing the innovation and imagination of students and teachers in the process.

Antero Garcia is associate professor of education in the Graduate School of Education .

In Their Own Words is a collaboration between the Stanford Public Humanities Initiative  and Stanford University Communications.

If you’re a Stanford faculty member (in any discipline or school) who is interested in writing an essay for this series, please reach out to Natalie Jabbar at [email protected] .

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How technology is reinventing education.

New advances in technology are upending education, from the recent debut of new artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots like ChatGPT to the growing accessibility of virtual-reality tools that expand the boundaries of the classroom. For educators, at the heart of it all is the hope that every learner gets an equal chance to develop the skills they need to succeed. But that promise is not without its pitfalls.

“Technology is a game-changer for education – it offers the prospect of universal access to high-quality learning experiences, and it creates fundamentally new ways of teaching,” said Dan Schwartz, dean of  Stanford Graduate School of Education  (GSE), who is also a professor of educational technology at the GSE and faculty director of the  Stanford Accelerator for Learning . “But there are a lot of ways we teach that aren’t great, and a big fear with AI in particular is that we just get more efficient at teaching badly. This is a moment to pay attention, to do things differently.”

For K-12 schools, this year also marks the end of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding program, which has provided pandemic recovery funds that many districts used to invest in educational software and systems. With these funds running out in September 2024, schools are trying to determine their best use of technology as they face the prospect of diminishing resources.

Here, Schwartz and other Stanford education scholars weigh in on some of the technology trends taking center stage in the classroom this year.

AI in the classroom

In 2023, the big story in technology and education was generative AI, following the introduction of ChatGPT and other chatbots that produce text seemingly written by a human in response to a question or prompt. Educators immediately  worried  that students would use the chatbot to cheat by trying to pass its writing off as their own. As schools move to adopt policies around students’ use of the tool, many are also beginning to explore potential opportunities – for example, to generate reading assignments or  coach  students during the writing process.

AI can also help automate tasks like grading and lesson planning, freeing teachers to do the human work that drew them into the profession in the first place, said Victor Lee, an associate professor at the GSE and faculty lead for the  AI + Education initiative  at the Stanford Accelerator for Learning. “I’m heartened to see some movement toward creating AI tools that make teachers’ lives better – not to replace them, but to give them the time to do the work that only teachers are able to do,” he said. “I hope to see more on that front.”

He also emphasized the need to teach students now to begin questioning and critiquing the development and use of AI. “AI is not going away,” said Lee, who is also director of  CRAFT  (Classroom-Ready Resources about AI for Teaching), which provides free resources to help teach AI literacy to high school students across subject areas. “We need to teach students how to understand and think critically about this technology.”

Immersive environments

The use of immersive technologies like augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality is also expected to surge in the classroom, especially as new high-profile devices integrating these realities hit the marketplace in 2024.

The educational possibilities now go beyond putting on a headset and experiencing life in a distant location. With new technologies, students can create their own local interactive 360-degree scenarios, using just a cell phone or inexpensive camera and simple online tools.

“This is an area that’s really going to explode over the next couple of years,” said Kristen Pilner Blair, director of research for the  Digital Learning initiative  at the Stanford Accelerator for Learning, which runs a program exploring the use of  virtual field trips  to promote learning. “Students can learn about the effects of climate change, say, by virtually experiencing the impact on a particular environment. But they can also become creators, documenting and sharing immersive media that shows the effects where they live.”

Integrating AI into virtual simulations could also soon take the experience to another level, Schwartz said. “If your VR experience brings me to a redwood tree, you could have a window pop up that allows me to ask questions about the tree, and AI can deliver the answers.”

Gamification

Another trend expected to intensify this year is the gamification of learning activities, often featuring dynamic videos with interactive elements to engage and hold students’ attention.

“Gamification is a good motivator, because one key aspect is reward, which is very powerful,” said Schwartz. The downside? Rewards are specific to the activity at hand, which may not extend to learning more generally. “If I get rewarded for doing math in a space-age video game, it doesn’t mean I’m going to be motivated to do math anywhere else.”

Gamification sometimes tries to make “chocolate-covered broccoli,” Schwartz said, by adding art and rewards to make speeded response tasks involving single-answer, factual questions more fun. He hopes to see more creative play patterns that give students points for rethinking an approach or adapting their strategy, rather than only rewarding them for quickly producing a correct response.

Data-gathering and analysis

The growing use of technology in schools is producing massive amounts of data on students’ activities in the classroom and online. “We’re now able to capture moment-to-moment data, every keystroke a kid makes,” said Schwartz – data that can reveal areas of struggle and different learning opportunities, from solving a math problem to approaching a writing assignment.

But outside of research settings, he said, that type of granular data – now owned by tech companies – is more likely used to refine the design of the software than to provide teachers with actionable information.

The promise of personalized learning is being able to generate content aligned with students’ interests and skill levels, and making lessons more accessible for multilingual learners and students with disabilities. Realizing that promise requires that educators can make sense of the data that’s being collected, said Schwartz – and while advances in AI are making it easier to identify patterns and findings, the data also needs to be in a system and form educators can access and analyze for decision-making. Developing a usable infrastructure for that data, Schwartz said, is an important next step.

With the accumulation of student data comes privacy concerns: How is the data being collected? Are there regulations or guidelines around its use in decision-making? What steps are being taken to prevent unauthorized access? In 2023 K-12 schools experienced a rise in cyberattacks, underscoring the need to implement strong systems to safeguard student data.

Technology is “requiring people to check their assumptions about education,” said Schwartz, noting that AI in particular is very efficient at replicating biases and automating the way things have been done in the past, including poor models of instruction. “But it’s also opening up new possibilities for students producing material, and for being able to identify children who are not average so we can customize toward them. It’s an opportunity to think of entirely new ways of teaching – this is the path I hope to see.”

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Four of the biggest problems facing education—and four trends that could make a difference

Eduardo velez bustillo, harry a. patrinos.

In 2022, we published, Lessons for the education sector from the COVID-19 pandemic , which was a follow up to,  Four Education Trends that Countries Everywhere Should Know About , which summarized views of education experts around the world on how to handle the most pressing issues facing the education sector then. We focused on neuroscience, the role of the private sector, education technology, inequality, and pedagogy.

Unfortunately, we think the four biggest problems facing education today in developing countries are the same ones we have identified in the last decades .

1. The learning crisis was made worse by COVID-19 school closures

Low quality instruction is a major constraint and prior to COVID-19, the learning poverty rate in low- and middle-income countries was 57% (6 out of 10 children could not read and understand basic texts by age 10). More dramatic is the case of Sub-Saharan Africa with a rate even higher at 86%. Several analyses show that the impact of the pandemic on student learning was significant, leaving students in low- and middle-income countries way behind in mathematics, reading and other subjects.  Some argue that learning poverty may be close to 70% after the pandemic , with a substantial long-term negative effect in future earnings. This generation could lose around $21 trillion in future salaries, with the vulnerable students affected the most.

2. Countries are not paying enough attention to early childhood care and education (ECCE)

At the pre-school level about two-thirds of countries do not have a proper legal framework to provide free and compulsory pre-primary education. According to UNESCO, only a minority of countries, mostly high-income, were making timely progress towards SDG4 benchmarks on early childhood indicators prior to the onset of COVID-19. And remember that ECCE is not only preparation for primary school. It can be the foundation for emotional wellbeing and learning throughout life; one of the best investments a country can make.

3. There is an inadequate supply of high-quality teachers

Low quality teaching is a huge problem and getting worse in many low- and middle-income countries.  In Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, the percentage of trained teachers fell from 84% in 2000 to 69% in 2019 . In addition, in many countries teachers are formally trained and as such qualified, but do not have the minimum pedagogical training. Globally, teachers for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects are the biggest shortfalls.

4. Decision-makers are not implementing evidence-based or pro-equity policies that guarantee solid foundations

It is difficult to understand the continued focus on non-evidence-based policies when there is so much that we know now about what works. Two factors contribute to this problem. One is the short tenure that top officials have when leading education systems. Examples of countries where ministers last less than one year on average are plentiful. The second and more worrisome deals with the fact that there is little attention given to empirical evidence when designing education policies.

To help improve on these four fronts, we see four supporting trends:

1. Neuroscience should be integrated into education policies

Policies considering neuroscience can help ensure that students get proper attention early to support brain development in the first 2-3 years of life. It can also help ensure that children learn to read at the proper age so that they will be able to acquire foundational skills to learn during the primary education cycle and from there on. Inputs like micronutrients, early child stimulation for gross and fine motor skills, speech and language and playing with other children before the age of three are cost-effective ways to get proper development. Early grade reading, using the pedagogical suggestion by the Early Grade Reading Assessment model, has improved learning outcomes in many low- and middle-income countries. We now have the tools to incorporate these advances into the teaching and learning system with AI , ChatGPT , MOOCs and online tutoring.

2. Reversing learning losses at home and at school

There is a real need to address the remaining and lingering losses due to school closures because of COVID-19.  Most students living in households with incomes under the poverty line in the developing world, roughly the bottom 80% in low-income countries and the bottom 50% in middle-income countries, do not have the minimum conditions to learn at home . These students do not have access to the internet, and, often, their parents or guardians do not have the necessary schooling level or the time to help them in their learning process. Connectivity for poor households is a priority. But learning continuity also requires the presence of an adult as a facilitator—a parent, guardian, instructor, or community worker assisting the student during the learning process while schools are closed or e-learning is used.

To recover from the negative impact of the pandemic, the school system will need to develop at the student level: (i) active and reflective learning; (ii) analytical and applied skills; (iii) strong self-esteem; (iv) attitudes supportive of cooperation and solidarity; and (v) a good knowledge of the curriculum areas. At the teacher (instructor, facilitator, parent) level, the system should aim to develop a new disposition toward the role of teacher as a guide and facilitator. And finally, the system also needs to increase parental involvement in the education of their children and be active part in the solution of the children’s problems. The Escuela Nueva Learning Circles or the Pratham Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) are models that can be used.

3. Use of evidence to improve teaching and learning

We now know more about what works at scale to address the learning crisis. To help countries improve teaching and learning and make teaching an attractive profession, based on available empirical world-wide evidence , we need to improve its status, compensation policies and career progression structures; ensure pre-service education includes a strong practicum component so teachers are well equipped to transition and perform effectively in the classroom; and provide high-quality in-service professional development to ensure they keep teaching in an effective way. We also have the tools to address learning issues cost-effectively. The returns to schooling are high and increasing post-pandemic. But we also have the cost-benefit tools to make good decisions, and these suggest that structured pedagogy, teaching according to learning levels (with and without technology use) are proven effective and cost-effective .

4. The role of the private sector

When properly regulated the private sector can be an effective education provider, and it can help address the specific needs of countries. Most of the pedagogical models that have received international recognition come from the private sector. For example, the recipients of the Yidan Prize on education development are from the non-state sector experiences (Escuela Nueva, BRAC, edX, Pratham, CAMFED and New Education Initiative). In the context of the Artificial Intelligence movement, most of the tools that will revolutionize teaching and learning come from the private sector (i.e., big data, machine learning, electronic pedagogies like OER-Open Educational Resources, MOOCs, etc.). Around the world education technology start-ups are developing AI tools that may have a good potential to help improve quality of education .

After decades asking the same questions on how to improve the education systems of countries, we, finally, are finding answers that are very promising.  Governments need to be aware of this fact.

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Consultant, Education Sector, World Bank

Senior Adviser, Education

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Digital technology is everywhere. How can it help plan better education systems?

C_ismael_martinez_sanchez-8308_1.jpg.

At its best, digital technologies can help build a more equitable and sustainable future. The 2023 GEM Report on technology and education , launched on 26 July 2023, similarly makes the case that, when used responsibly, digital technologies can help unlock the transformative power of education.

However, the journey has had many twists and turns. Over the years, technology has been seen as a threat, a pedagogical distraction, but also a panacea capable to solve a myriad of educational challenges. Today, the global education community embraces an overall more nuanced and balanced view – digital technology ushers in countless opportunities for new learning models, but also serious challenges that must be addressed to promote greater inclusion and equity.

The presence of technology in education today is unavoidable. In a post-pandemic context, we have learned that students are more likely to learn with technology than without it - especially in vulnerable and emergency contexts. It is also permeating the world of planning and management - the so-called behind-the-scenes of education. It is influencing how education systems are designed and redrawing the parameters for how educational administrations function.

When implemented at a macro level, technology has the capacity to produce significant impacts in education systems, offering tools and solutions that streamline processes and improve the efficiency of institutions.” -Martín Benavides, IIEP-UNESCO Director

3 ways technology can enhance planning

At IIEP, we have been working with countries to include technology in educational planning and management. From improved data collection to better transparency, here’s where we are seeing an impact in and through our work with ministries of education and their partners. 

1. Technology can improve efficiency in the planning and management of education systems, including more equitable use of resources.

In countries worldwide, IIEP’s technical teams are seeing how technology can boost an Education Management Information System – or EMIS  - the most important source of educational data. Technology can support everything from the collection, integration, processing, and maintenance, to the dissemination of data and information to improve decision-making, analysis, and policy formulation. EMIS is also key to monitoring progress toward educational goals and targets, both at the national and international levels.

Technology can also help create projections and modelling to manage the allocation of human and material resources. It can help planners find gaps in access to resources (e.g. teacher gaps in rural contexts) and fill them effectively and can help with time management. Tools such as context-specific school calendars , taking into account environmental and social variables (e.g. rainy seasons and harvest times) help to promote equity.

2. Technology can enhance transparency in the functioning of education.

Technology can provide open access to relevant information about how an education system functions, such as student performance reports. It can help construction open overnment where stakeholders can participate in formulating public policies and monitoring.

3. Technology can boost professional development.

Just like for teachers, technology is also used for the professional development of planners. Online learning platforms and communities of practice can provide resources that support peer-to-peer learning, the acquisition of new skills, and the dissemination of best practices .

These examples illustrate how digital tools in education reach far beyond classrooms. It can help planners do their jobs better and more efficiently, offering new pathways to improving educational quality and equity, now and in the future. 

However, as the GEM report on technology and education explores, clear objectives and principles are needed to ensure that the use of technology avoids harm. To do this, it is crucial to understand some of the key challenges facing the integration of technology and its appropriate use in education today.

The challenge of access

Access is often the first challenge many think of when it comes to technology in education. Despite progress, the lack of equitable access to education in many regions of the world exacerbates educational inequalities, both at the individual and systemic levels.

The GEM report notes that, globally, only 40% of primary schools, 50% of lower secondary, and 65% of upper secondary schools have access to the Internet.

Additionally, learning gaps run the risk of widening as long as education systems exist without access to the necessary infrastructure, e.g., devices or connectivity.

During COVID-19, for example, a paradoxical situation arose: on the one hand, digital technologies helped to mitigate the effects of social isolation and made educational continuity possible. However, in their absence, socio-educational inequalities deepened.

To ensure that technologies do not lead to new inequalities, it is essential to promote and revitalize Internet access policies to ensure inclusion and equality in education, i.e. by placing vulnerable populations at the centre of policies.

The challenge of managing and maintaining technology

Technology is generally a private offering and this can complicate management processes in education. The diversity of suppliers is a factor, as choosing the right technology can be complex, especially when considering cost, quality, interoperability, and adaptability to specific educational needs.

Another frequent blind spot is placing an excessive focus on the procurement of devices and software without adequate consideration of how they align with the goals and needs of the education system, as well as the overarching digital transformation policies of states.

In terms of maintenance, the right infrastructure and technical support need to be in place to ensure that solutions function well, as seemingly prosaic factors, such as insufficient connectivity or lack of maintenance, can hinder their effective use.

To overcome these challenges related to technology management, spaces for dialogue with stakeholders must be fostered so that consensus can be built on the benefits and goals of integrating technology, robust mechanisms for evaluation, monitoring and learning, and committed institutional leadership.

In addition, the creation of specific public-private partnerships can achieve greater transparency in educational technology management processes.

The challenge of developing digital skills

The availability of technology does not necessarily guarantee its use. Just as the integration of digital technologies goes beyond the classroom, the challenge of developing digital competencies goes beyond students and teachers and must extend to all actors involved in the educational environment. Families, managers, and policy-makers must be included in this scheme to ensure that all actors can effectively contribute to the use of technology in the educational context and promote a digital culture in society at large.

What’s next?

Let’s focus on Latin America and the Caribbean, where despite more than two decades of integrating various types of digital policies, a deep learning crisis remains. Drawing on its Regional Forum on Education Policies, IIEP has put forward a number of recommendations to further exploit the use of technology in planning and management - with an equity lens.

First, sufficient resources are critical to finance educational change. To have a robust public education system that can close gaps and give everyone at least a minimum of opportunities to learn, constant investment is needed. But some countries fail to do this, either entirely or partially, often because of a lack of coordination or political will.

Second, it is critical to foster cross-sectoral coordination of education ministries with other government sectors. Many learning problems, especially those linked to conditions of extreme poverty, violence, or marginalization, cannot be solved by education policies alone.

Third, there must be a dialogue between the government and society as a whole. The more distant education policy decisions are from the multiple actors in the system, the less sustainable they will be.

Finally, to avoid having policies become distorted or diluted when they reach schools, there should be better articulation between central-level policy-making and district levels. This will help connect the dots in the transmission chain, making digital technologies a smoother journey for all.

• Where to build new schools: A methodology for ministries 25 March 2024
• UNESCO’s Innovative Approaches to Women Empowerment at CSW68 22 March 2024
• 10 key steps for integrating technology into educational planning 19 March 2024
• Enhancing digital technology to transform education

Download the 2023 GEM Report: Technology in education

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Find data or policy by:, 10 critical issues in educational technology to improve education, address critical technology issues now.

• Published Date: March 28, 2021
• Categories: IT Technology
• By Hitesh Patel
• Modified Date: December 26, 2023

Table of Contents

Education technology is a major part of the 21st-century learning experience. When incorporated properly in the classroom, tools such as computers, video conferencing, and even artificial intelligence can be used to supplement children’s education, provide support to students with disabilities , and have a wide variety of additional applications and benefits.

However, implementing education technology in the classroom is not always done smoothly or successfully. Many teachers and administrators face obstacles that prevent them from sourcing, installing, and using technology that they can use to enrich their students’ educations. Read on to learn about the top seven challenges facing the adoption and use of education technology today .

1. Budget Limitations

By far the greatest factor limiting the efforts of teachers and administrators to provide education technology to students, budget cuts and limitations are a major hurdle that proponents of education technology must overcome in order to successfully introduce tech into their classrooms. A recent study even demonstrated that 75.9% of respondents saw budget restrictions as the biggest challenge preventing them from embracing education technology.

Budget limitations are especially challenging to overcome because great education tech tools don’t come cheap: while tools like Google Cloud can be a powerful tool for education, simply adopting that one tool also requires schools to provide Chromebooks to students and fund training sessions for teachers, which strained budgets simply can’t handle. Finding the funds to implement and sustain technology in the classroom can be a major barrier to its adoption in cash-strapped schools.

2. Lack Of Professional Training

Increasingly new and advanced education technology appears every day. Teachers need to be able to know not only how to get the most out of each new tool themselves, but also how to train their students in its use. Providing classrooms with a shiny new tool that neither teacher nor student can use is unlikely to make an impact in any child’s educational experience, and requiring busy teachers to teach themselves how to use a new tool can be frustrating and time-consuming. Although professionally training teachers, faculty, and staff may require time and money, it’s necessary if students are expected to get the desired effects out of their technological experience.

3. Poor Network Infrastructure

Simply handing a room full of students a box of laptops or notebooks won’t have any beneficial effects if the school doesn’t have the network infrastructure it needs to support them. A strong network infrastructure requires fast, high-quality WiFi at school and at home, as well as data privacy and security, access to digital resources, and much more. Designing, building, and supporting a strong network infrastructure must be done with a great amount of care and forethought, as it is necessary for the effective and responsible continued use of technology in education .

4. Resistance To Change

Many teachers have demonstrated a resistance to change and unwillingness to adopt education technology. However, studies have shown that this resistance is not because teachers dislike technology. Rather, it’s partly because teachers view learning a new teaching tool as a risky approach for which they’re not adequately trained. It’s also partly because their school administrators don’t present a united front by highlighting which specific tools can have positive outcomes for their students. Although this resistance to change can be difficult to overcome, working with teachers to support them in adopting new education technology can help make them more likely to embrace it.

5. No Systems In Place To Utilize Technology In Curriculum

Although granting teachers access to tablets and smartboards may help boost their comfort with education technology, many teachers simply have not thought about how they can best utilize technology in their curriculum. Indeed, the way a history teacher utilizes laptops in the classroom may be very different than the way a math teacher utilizes a smartboard. Both likely require plenty of time for trial, error, and experimentation to bring their lesson plans up to date. A major challenge in the adoption of new tools is not providing teachers with the guidance they need to make education technology work for them in their specific classroom.

6. Unreliable Devices And Software

The lack of a strong infrastructure can also be compounded by a lack of reliable devices and software, all of which can present major barriers to the adoption of education technology. An unreliable device can simply be a notebook that doesn’t function properly, or it could be a bug causing students to have trouble accessing tests or staying logged in at school. In more extreme cases, Common Core test disruptions in 2015 and other test-based technical glitches represented an unforeseen challenge associated with using education technology to administer testing. Although education technology can be a powerful tool, devices and software need to be consistent and reliable for it to remain a viable option in the future.

7. Administrators Don’t See The Need For More Technology

Finally, another challenge facing technology in education is the fact that many administrators are simply unwilling to immediately adopt it. The reasons for this vary but are likely due to budget considerations as well as the fact that the benefits of education technology are not yet well-defined. This makes it challenging to pinpoint specific areas in which this technology could help raise test scores or boost other metrics. However, with distance learning on the rise and education technology becoming increasingly widespread, it seems likely that administrators’ resistance to adopting technology will soon become a thing of the past .

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Problem-Solving in Science and Technology Education

• First Online: 25 February 2023

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• Bulent Çavaş 13 ,
• Pınar Çavaş 14 &
• Yasemin Özdem Yılmaz 15  

Part of the book series: Contemporary Trends and Issues in Science Education ((CTISE,volume 56))

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This chapter focuses on problem-solving, which involves describing a problem, figuring out its root cause, locating, ranking and choosing potential solutions, as well as putting those solutions into action in science and technology education. This chapter covers (1) what problem-solving means for science and technology education; (2) what the problem-solving processes are and how these processes can be used step-by-step for effective problem-solving and (3) the use of problem-solving in citizen science projects supported by the European Union. The chapter also includes discussion of and recommendations for future scientific research in the field of science and technology education.

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Çavaş, B., Çavaş, P., Yılmaz, Y.Ö. (2023). Problem-Solving in Science and Technology Education. In: Akpan, B., Cavas, B., Kennedy, T. (eds) Contemporary Issues in Science and Technology Education. Contemporary Trends and Issues in Science Education, vol 56. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24259-5_18

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Jessica Grose

Screens are everywhere in schools. do they actually help kids learn.

By Jessica Grose

Opinion Writer

A few weeks ago, a parent who lives in Texas asked me how much my kids were using screens to do schoolwork in their classrooms. She wasn’t talking about personal devices. (Smartwatches and smartphones are banned in my children’s schools during the school day, which I’m very happy about; I find any argument for allowing these devices in the classroom to be risible.) No, this parent was talking about screens that are school sanctioned, like iPads and Chromebooks issued to children individually for educational activities.

I’m embarrassed to say that I couldn’t answer her question because I had never asked or even thought about asking. Partly because the Covid-19 era made screens imperative in an instant — as one ed-tech executive told my colleague Natasha Singer in 2021, the pandemic “sped the adoption of technology in education by easily five to 10 years.” In the early Covid years, when my older daughter started using a Chromebook to do assignments for second and third grade, I was mostly just relieved that she had great teachers and seemed to be learning what she needed to know. By the time she was in fifth grade and the world was mostly back to normal, I knew she took her laptop to school for in-class assignments, but I never asked for specifics about how devices were being used. I trusted her teachers and her school implicitly.

In New York State, ed tech is often discussed as an equity problem — with good reason: At home, less privileged children might not have access to personal devices and high-speed internet that would allow them to complete digital assignments. But in our learn-to-code society, in which computer skills are seen as a meal ticket and the humanities as a ticket to the unemployment line, there seems to be less chatter about whether there are too many screens in our kids’ day-to-day educational environment beyond the classes that are specifically tech focused. I rarely heard details about what these screens are adding to our children’s literacy, math, science or history skills.

And screens truly are everywhere. For example, according to 2022 data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, only about 8 percent of eighth graders in public schools said their math teachers “never or hardly ever” used computers or digital devices to teach math, 37 percent said their math teachers used this technology half or more than half the time, and 44 percent said their math teachers used this technology all or most of the time.

As is often the case with rapid change, “the speed at which new technologies and intervention models are reaching the market has far outpaced the ability of policy researchers to keep up with evaluating them,” according to a dazzlingly thorough review of the research on education technology by Maya Escueta, Andre Joshua Nickow, Philip Oreopoulos and Vincent Quan published in The Journal of Economic Literature in 2020.

Despite the relative paucity of research, particularly on in-class use of tech, Escueta and her co-authors put together “a comprehensive list of all publicly available studies on technology-based education interventions that report findings from studies following either of two research designs, randomized controlled trials or regression discontinuity designs.”

They found that increasing access to devices didn’t always lead to positive academic outcomes. In a couple of cases, it just increased the amount of time kids were spending on devices playing games. They wrote, “We found that simply providing students with access to technology yields largely mixed results. At the K-12 level, much of the experimental evidence suggests that giving a child a computer may have limited impacts on learning outcomes but generally improves computer proficiency and other cognitive outcomes.”

Some of the most promising research is around computer-assisted learning, which the researchers defined as “computer programs and other software applications designed to improve academic skills.” They cited a 2016 randomized study of 2,850 seventh-grade math students in Maine who used an online homework tool. The authors of that study “found that the program improved math scores for treatment students by 0.18 standard deviations. This impact is particularly noteworthy, given that treatment students used the program, on average, for less than 10 minutes per night, three to four nights per week,” according to Escueta and her co-authors.

They also explained that in the classroom, computer programs may help teachers meet the needs of students who are at different levels, since “when confronted with a wide range of student ability, teachers often end up teaching the core curriculum and tailoring instruction to the middle of the class.” A good program, they found, could help provide individual attention and skill building for kids at the bottom and the top, as well. There are computer programs for reading comprehension that have shown similar positive results in the research. Anecdotally: My older daughter practices her Spanish language skills using an app, and she hand-writes Spanish vocabulary words on index cards. The combination seems to be working well for her.

Though their review was published in 2020, before the data was out on our grand remote-learning experiment, Escueta and her co-authors found that fully online remote learning did not work as well as hybrid or in-person school. I called Thomas Dee, a professor at Stanford’s Graduate School of Education, who said that in light of earlier studies “and what we’re coming to understand about the long-lived effects of the pandemic on learning, it underscores for me that there’s a social dimension to learning that we ignore at our peril. And I think technology can often strip that away.”

Still, Dee summarized the entire topic of ed tech to me this way: “I don’t want to be black and white about this. I think there are really positive things coming from technology.” But he said that they are “meaningful supports on the margins, not fundamental changes in the modality of how people learn.”

I’d add that the implementation of any technology also matters a great deal; any educational tool can be great or awful, depending on how it’s used.

I’m neither a tech evangelist nor a Luddite. (Though I haven’t even touched on the potential implications of classroom teaching with artificial intelligence, a technology that, in other contexts, has so much destructive potential .) What I do want is the most effective educational experience for all kids.

Because there’s such a lag in the data and a lack of granularity to the information we do have, I want to hear from my readers: If you’re a teacher or a parent of a current K-12 student, I want to know how you and they are using technology — the good and the bad. Please complete the questionnaire below and let me know. I may reach out to you for further conversation.

Do your children or your students use technology in the classroom?

If you’re a parent, an educator or both, I want to hear from you.

Jessica Grose is an Opinion writer for The Times, covering family, religion, education, culture and the way we live now.

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Artificial intelligence in education: Addressing ethical challenges in K-12 settings

Selin akgun.

Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI USA

Christine Greenhow

Associated data.

Not applicable.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a field of study that combines the applications of machine learning, algorithm productions, and natural language processing. Applications of AI transform the tools of education. AI has a variety of educational applications, such as personalized learning platforms to promote students’ learning, automated assessment systems to aid teachers, and facial recognition systems to generate insights about learners’ behaviors. Despite the potential benefits of AI to support students’ learning experiences and teachers’ practices, the ethical and societal drawbacks of these systems are rarely fully considered in K-12 educational contexts. The ethical challenges of AI in education must be identified and introduced to teachers and students. To address these issues, this paper (1) briefly defines AI through the concepts of machine learning and algorithms; (2) introduces applications of AI in educational settings and benefits of AI systems to support students’ learning processes; (3) describes ethical challenges and dilemmas of using AI in education; and (4) addresses the teaching and understanding of AI by providing recommended instructional resources from two providers—i.e., the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Media Lab and Code.org. The article aims to help practitioners reap the benefits and navigate ethical challenges of integrating AI in K-12 classrooms, while also introducing instructional resources that teachers can use to advance K-12 students’ understanding of AI and ethics.

Introduction

“Success in creating AI would be the biggest event in human history. Unfortunately, it might also be the last, unless we learn how to avoid the risks.” — Stephen Hawking.

We may not think about artificial intelligence (AI) on a daily basis, but it is all around us, and we have been using it for years. When we are doing a Google search, reading our emails, getting a doctor’s appointment, asking for driving directions, or getting movie and music recommendations, we are constantly using the applications of AI and its assistance in our lives. This need for assistance and our dependence on AI systems has become even more apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic. The growing impact and dominance of AI systems reveals itself in healthcare, education, communications, transportation, agriculture, and more. It is almost impossible to live in a modern society without encountering applications powered by AI  [ 10 , 32 ].

Artificial intelligence (AI) can be defined briefly as the branch of computer science that deals with the simulation of intelligent behavior in computers and their capacity to mimic, and ideally improve, human behavior [ 43 ]. AI dominates the fields of science, engineering, and technology, but also is present in education through machine-learning systems and algorithm productions [ 43 ]. For instance, AI has a variety of algorithmic applications in education, such as personalized learning systems to promote students’ learning, automated assessment systems to support teachers in evaluating what students know, and facial recognition systems to provide insights about learners’ behaviors [ 49 ]. Besides these platforms, algorithm systems are prominent in education through different social media outlets, such as social network sites, microblogging systems, and mobile applications. Social media are increasingly integrated into K-12 education [ 7 ] and subordinate learners’ activities to intelligent algorithm systems [ 17 ]. Here, we use the American term “K–12 education” to refer to students’ education in kindergarten (K) (ages 5–6) through 12th grade (ages 17–18) in the United States, which is similar to primary and secondary education or pre-college level schooling in other countries. These AI systems can increase the capacity of K-12 educational systems and support the social and cognitive development of students and teachers [ 55 , 8 ]. More specifically, applications of AI can support instruction in mixed-ability classrooms; while personalized learning systems provide students with detailed and timely feedback about their writing products, automated assessment systems support teachers by freeing them from excessive workloads [ 26 , 42 ].

Despite the benefits of AI applications for education, they pose societal and ethical drawbacks. As the famous scientist, Stephen Hawking, pointed out that weighing these risks is vital for the future of humanity. Therefore, it is critical to take action toward addressing them. The biggest risks of integrating these algorithms in K-12 contexts are: (a) perpetuating existing systemic bias and discrimination, (b) perpetuating unfairness for students from mostly disadvantaged and marginalized groups, and (c) amplifying racism, sexism, xenophobia, and other forms of injustice and inequity [ 40 ]. These algorithms do not occur in a vacuum; rather, they shape and are shaped by ever-evolving cultural, social, institutional and political forces and structures [ 33 , 34 ]. As academics, scientists, and citizens, we have a responsibility to educate teachers and students to recognize the ethical challenges and implications of algorithm use. To create a future generation where an inclusive and diverse citizenry can participate in the development of the future of AI, we need to develop opportunities for K-12 students and teachers to learn about AI via AI- and ethics-based curricula and professional development [ 2 , 58 ]

Toward this end, the existing literature provides little guidance and contains a limited number of studies that focus on supporting K-12 students and teachers’ understanding of social, cultural, and ethical implications of AI [ 2 ]. Most studies reflect university students’ engagement with ethical ideas about algorithmic bias, but few addresses how to promote students’ understanding of AI and ethics in K-12 settings. Therefore, this article: (a) synthesizes ethical issues surrounding AI in education as identified in the educational literature, (b) reflects on different approaches and curriculum materials available for teaching students about AI and ethics (i.e., featuring materials from the MIT Media Lab and Code.org), and (c) articulates future directions for research and recommendations for practitioners seeking to navigate AI and ethics in K-12 settings.

Next, we briefly define the notion of artificial intelligence (AI) and its applications through machine-learning and algorithm systems. As educational and educational technology scholars working in the United States, and at the risk of oversimplifying, we provide only a brief definition of AI below, and recognize that definitions of AI are complex, multidimensional, and contested in the literature [ 9 , 16 , 38 ]; an in-depth discussion of these complexities, however, is beyond the scope of this paper. Second, we describe in more detail five applications of AI in education, outlining their potential benefits for educators and students. Third, we describe the ethical challenges they raise by posing the question: “how and in what ways do algorithms manipulate us?” Fourth, we explain how to support students’ learning about AI and ethics through different curriculum materials and teaching practices in K-12 settings. Our goal here is to provide strategies for practitioners to reap the benefits while navigating the ethical challenges. We acknowledge that in centering this work within U.S. education, we highlight certain ethical issues that educators in other parts of the world may see as less prominent. For example, the European Union (EU) has highlighted ethical concerns and implications of AI, emphasized privacy protection, surveillance, and non-discrimination as primary areas of interest, and provided guidelines on how trustworthy AI should be [ 3 , 15 , 23 ]. Finally, we reflect on future directions for educational and other research that could support K-12 teachers and students in reaping the benefits while mitigating the drawbacks of AI in education.

Definition and applications of artificial intelligence

The pursuit of creating intelligent machines that replicate human behavior has accelerated with the realization of artificial intelligence. With the latest advancements in computer science, a proliferation of definitions and explanations of what counts as AI systems has emerged. For instance, AI has been defined as “the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings” [ 49 ]. This particular definition highlights the mimicry of human behavior and consciousness. Furthermore, AI has been defined as “the combination of cognitive automation, machine learning, reasoning, hypothesis generation and analysis, natural language processing, and intentional algorithm mutation producing insights and analytics at or above human capability” [ 31 ]. This definition incorporates the different sub-fields of AI together and underlines their function while reaching at or above human capability.

Combining these definitions, artificial intelligence can be described as the technology that builds systems to think and act like humans with the ability of achieving goals . AI is mainly known through different applications and advanced computer programs, such as recommender systems (e.g., YouTube, Netflix), personal assistants (e.g., Apple’s Siri), facial recognition systems (e.g., Facebook’s face detection in photographs), and learning apps (e.g., Duolingo) [ 32 ]. To build on these programs, different sub-fields of AI have been used in a diverse range of applications. Evolutionary algorithms and machine learning are most relevant to AI in K-12 education.

Algorithms are the core elements of AI. The history of AI is closely connected to the development of sophisticated and evolutionary algorithms. An algorithm is a set of rules or instructions that is to be followed by computers in problem-solving operations to achieve an intended end goal. In essence, all computer programs are algorithms. They involve thousands of lines of codes which represent mathematical instructions that the computer follows to solve the intended problems (e.g., as computing numerical calculation, processing an image, and grammar-checking in an essay). AI algorithms are applied to fields that we might think of as essentially human behavior—such as speech and face recognition, visual perception, learning, and decision-making and learning. In that way, algorithms can provide instructions for almost any AI system and application we can conceive [ 27 ].

Machine learning

Machine learning is derived from statistical learning methods and uses data and algorithms to perform tasks which are typically performed by humans [ 43 ]. Machine learning is about making computers act or perform without being given any line-by-line step [ 29 ]. The working mechanism of machine learning is the learning model’s exposure to ample amounts of quality data [ 41 ]. Machine-learning algorithms first analyze the data to determine patterns and to build a model and then predict future values through these models. In other words, machine learning can be considered a three-step process. First, it analyzes and gathers the data, and then, it builds a model to excel for different tasks, and finally, it undertakes the action and produces the desired results successfully without human intervention [ 29 , 56 ]. The widely known AI applications such as recommender or facial recognition systems have all been made possible through the working principles of machine learning.

Benefits of AI applications in education

Personalized learning systems, automated assessments, facial recognition systems, chatbots (social media sites), and predictive analytics tools are being deployed increasingly in K-12 educational settings; they are powered by machine-learning systems and algorithms [ 29 ]. These applications of AI have shown promise to support teachers and students in various ways: (a) providing instruction in mixed-ability classrooms, (b) providing students with detailed and timely feedback on their writing products, (c) freeing teachers from the burden of possessing all knowledge and giving them more room to support their students while they are observing, discussing, and gathering information in their collaborative knowledge-building processes [ 26 , 50 ]. Below, we outline benefits of each of these educational applications in the K-12 setting before turning to a synthesis of their ethical challenges and drawbacks.

Personalized learning systems

Personalized learning systems, also known as adaptive learning platforms or intelligent tutoring systems, are one of the most common and valuable applications of AI to support students and teachers. They provide students access to different learning materials based on their individual learning needs and subjects [ 55 ]. For example, rather than practicing chemistry on a worksheet or reading a textbook, students may use an adaptive and interactive multimedia version of the course content [ 39 ]. Comparing students’ scores on researcher-developed or standardized tests, research shows that the instruction based on personalized learning systems resulted in higher test scores than traditional teacher-led instruction [ 36 ]. Microsoft’s recent report (2018) of over 2000 students and teachers from Singapore, the U.S., the UK, and Canada shows that AI supports students’ learning progressions. These platforms promise to identify gaps in students’ prior knowledge by accommodating learning tools and materials to support students’ growth. These systems generate models of learners using their knowledge and cognition; however, the existing platforms do not yet provide models for learners’ social, emotional, and motivational states [ 28 ]. Considering the shift to remote K-12 education during the COVID-19 pandemic, personalized learning systems offer a promising form of distance learning that could reshape K-12 instruction for the future [ 35 ].

Automated assessment systems

Automated assessment systems are becoming one of the most prominent and promising applications of machine learning in K-12 education [ 42 ]. These scoring algorithm systems are being developed to meet the need for scoring students’ writing, exams and assignments, and tasks usually performed by the teacher. Assessment algorithms can provide course support and management tools to lessen teachers’ workload, as well as extend their capacity and productivity. Ideally, these systems can provide levels of support to students, as their essays can be graded quickly [ 55 ]. Providers of the biggest open online courses such as Coursera and EdX have integrated automated scoring engines into their learning platforms to assess the writings of hundreds of students [ 42 ]. On the other hand, a tool called “Gradescope” has been used by over 500 universities to develop and streamline scoring and assessment [ 12 ]. By flagging the wrong answers and marking the correct ones, the tool supports instructors by eliminating their manual grading time and effort. Thus, automated assessment systems deal very differently with marking and giving feedback to essays compared to numeric assessments which analyze right or wrong answers on the test. Overall, these scoring systems have the potential to deal with the complexities of the teaching context and support students’ learning process by providing them with feedback and guidance to improve and revise their writing.

Facial recognition systems and predictive analytics

Facial recognition software is used to capture and monitor students’ facial expressions. These systems provide insights about students’ behaviors during learning processes and allow teachers to take action or intervene, which, in turn, helps teachers develop learner-centered practices and increase student’s engagement [ 55 ]. Predictive analytics algorithm systems are mainly used to identify and detect patterns about learners based on statistical analysis. For example, these analytics can be used to detect university students who are at risk of failing or not completing a course. Through these identifications, instructors can intervene and get students the help they need [ 55 ].

Social networking sites and chatbots

Social networking sites (SNSs) connect students and teachers through social media outlets. Researchers have emphasized the importance of using SNSs (such as Facebook) to expand learning opportunities beyond the classroom, monitor students’ well-being, and deepen student–teacher relations [ 5 ]. Different scholars have examined the role of social media in education, describing its impact on student and teacher learning and scholarly communication [ 6 ]. They point out that the integration of social media can foster students’ active learning, collaboration skills, and connections with communities beyond the classroom [ 6 ]. Chatbots also take place in social media outlets through different AI systems [ 21 ]. They are also known as dialogue systems or conversational agents [ 26 , 52 ]. Chatbots are helpful in terms of their ability to respond naturally with a conversational tone. For instance, a text-based chatbot system called “Pounce” was used at Georgia State University to help students through the registration and admission process, as well as financial aid and other administrative tasks [ 7 ].

In summary, applications of AI can positively impact students’ and teachers’ educational experiences and help them address instructional challenges and concerns. On the other hand, AI cannot be a substitute for human interaction [ 22 , 47 ]. Students have a wide range of learning styles and needs. Although AI can be a time-saving and cognitive aide for teachers, it is but one tool in the teachers’ toolkit. Therefore, it is critical for teachers and students to understand the limits, potential risks, and ethical drawbacks of AI applications in education if they are to reap the benefits of AI and minimize the costs [ 11 ].

Ethical concerns and potential risks of AI applications in education

The ethical challenges and risks posed by AI systems seemingly run counter to marketing efforts that present algorithms to the public as if they are objective and value-neutral tools. In essence, algorithms reflect the values of their builders who hold positions of power [ 26 ]. Whenever people create algorithms, they also create a set of data that represent society’s historical and systemic biases, which ultimately transform into algorithmic bias. Even though the bias is embedded into the algorithmic model with no explicit intention, we can see various gender and racial biases in different AI-based platforms [ 54 ].

Considering the different forms of bias and ethical challenges of AI applications in K-12 settings, we will focus on problems of privacy, surveillance, autonomy, bias, and discrimination (see Fig.  1 ). However, it is important to acknowledge that educators will have different ethical concerns and challenges depending on their students’ grade and age of development. Where strategies and resources are recommended, we indicate the age and/or grade level of student(s) they are targeting (Fig. ​ (Fig.2 2 ).

Potential ethical and societal risks of AI applications in education

Student work from the activity of “Youtube Redesign” (MIT Media Lab, AI and Ethics Curriculum, p.1, [ 45 ])

One of the biggest ethical issues surrounding the use of AI in K-12 education relates to the privacy concerns of students and teachers [ 47 , 49 , 54 ]. Privacy violations mainly occur as people expose an excessive amount of personal information in online platforms. Although existing legislation and standards exist to protect sensitive personal data, AI-based tech companies’ violations with respect to data access and security increase people’s privacy concerns [ 42 , 54 ]. To address these concerns, AI systems ask for users’ consent to access their personal data. Although consent requests are designed to be protective measures and to help alleviate privacy concerns, many individuals give their consent without knowing or considering the extent of the information (metadata) they are sharing, such as the language spoken, racial identity, biographical data, and location [ 49 ]. Such uninformed sharing in effect undermines human agency and privacy. In other words, people’s agency diminishes as AI systems reduce introspective and independent thought [ 55 ]. Relatedly, scholars have raised the ethical issue of forcing students and parents to use these algorithms as part of their education even if they explicitly agree to give up privacy [ 14 , 48 ]. They really have no choice if these systems are required by public schools.

Another ethical concern surrounding the use of AI in K-12 education is surveillance or tracking systems which gather detailed information about the actions and preferences of students and teachers. Through algorithms and machine-learning models, AI tracking systems not only necessitate monitoring of activities but also determine the future preferences and actions of their users [ 47 ]. Surveillance mechanisms can be embedded into AI’s predictive systems to foresee students’ learning performances, strengths, weaknesses, and learning patterns . For instance, research suggests that teachers who use social networking sites (SNSs) for pedagogical purposes encounter a number of problems, such as concerns in relation to boundaries of privacy, friendship authority, as well as responsibility and availability [ 5 ]. While monitoring and patrolling students’ actions might be considered part of a teacher’s responsibility and a pedagogical tool to intervene in dangerous online cases (such as cyber-bullying or exposure to sexual content), such actions can also be seen as surveillance systems which are problematic in terms of threatening students’ privacy. Monitoring and tracking students’ online conversations and actions also may limit their participation in the learning event and make them feel unsafe to take ownership for their ideas. How can students feel secure and safe, if they know that AI systems are used for surveilling and policing their thoughts and actions? [ 49 ].

Problems also emerge when surveillance systems trigger issues related to autonomy, more specifically, the person’s ability to act on her or his own interest and values. Predictive systems which are powered by algorithms jeopardize students and teachers’ autonomy and their ability to govern their own life [ 46 , 47 ]. Use of algorithms to make predictions about individuals’ actions based on their information raise questions about fairness and self-freedom [ 19 ]. Therefore, the risks of predictive analysis also include the perpetuation of existing bias and prejudices of social discrimination and stratification [ 42 ].

Finally, bias and discrimination are critical concerns in debates of AI ethics in K-12 education [ 6 ]. In AI platforms, the existing power structures and biases are embedded into machine-learning models [ 6 ]. Gender bias is one of the most apparent forms of this problem, as the bias is revealed when students in language learning courses use AI to translate between a gender-specific language and one that is less-so. For example, while Google Translate translated the Turkish equivalent of “S he/he is a nurse ” into the feminine form, it also translated the Turkish equivalent of “ She/he is a doctor ” into the masculine form [ 33 ]. This shows how AI models in language translation carry the societal biases and gender-specific stereotypes in the data [ 40 ]. Similarly, a number of problematic cases of racial bias are also associated with AI’s facial recognition systems. Research shows that facial recognition software has improperly misidentified a number of African American and Latino American people as convicted felons [ 42 ].

Additionally, biased decision-making algorithms reveal themselves throughout AI applications in K-12 education: personalized learning, automated assessment, SNSs, and predictive systems in education. Although the main promise of machine-learning models is increased accuracy and objectivity, current incidents have revealed the contrary. For instance, England’s A-level and GCSE secondary level examinations were cancelled due to the pandemic in the summer of 2020 [ 1 , 57 ]. An alternative assessment method was implemented to determine the qualification grades of students. The grade standardization algorithm was produced by the regulator Ofqual. With the assessment of Ofqual’s algorithm based on schools' previous examination results, thousands of students were shocked to receive unexpectedly low grades. Although a full discussion of the incident is beyond the scope of this article [ 51 ] it revealed how the score distribution favored students who attended private or independent schools, while students from underrepresented groups were hit hardest. Unfortunately, automated assessment algorithms have the potential to reconstruct unfair and inconsistent results by disrupting student’s final scores and future careers [ 53 ].

Teaching and understanding AI and ethics in educational settings

These ethical concerns suggest an urgent need to introduce students and teachers to the ethical challenges surrounding AI applications in K-12 education and how to navigate them. To meet this need, different research groups and nonprofit organizations offer a number of open-access resources based on AI and ethics. They provide instructional materials for students and teachers, such as lesson plans and hands-on activities, and professional learning materials for educators, such as open virtual learning sessions. Below, we describe and evaluate three resources: “AI and Ethics” curriculum and “AI and Data Privacy” workshop from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab as well as Code.org’s “AI and Oceans” activity. For readers who seek to investigate additional approaches and resources for K-12 level AI and ethics interaction, see: (a) The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)’s AI for the Future Project (AI4Future) [ 18 ]; (b) IBM’s Educator’s AI Classroom Kit [ 30 ], Google’s Teachable Machine [ 25 ], UK-based nonprofit organization Apps for Good [ 4 ], and Machine Learning for Kids [ 37 ].

"AI and Ethics Curriulum" for middle school students by MIT Media Lab

The MIT Media Lab team offers an open-access curriculum on AI and ethics for middle school students and teachers. Through a series of lesson plans and hand-on activities, teachers are guided to support students’ learning of the technical terminology of AI systems as well as the ethical and societal implications of AI [ 2 ]. The curriculum includes various lessons tied to learning objectives. One of the main learning goals is to introduce students to basic components of AI through algorithms, datasets, and supervised machine-learning systems all while underlining the problem of algorithmic bias [ 45 ]. For instance, in the activity “ AI Bingo” , students are given bingo cards with various AI systems, such as online search engine, customer service bot, and weather app. Students work with their partners collaboratively on these AI systems. In their AI Bingo chart, students try to identify what prediction the selected AI system makes and what dataset it uses. In that way, they become more familiar with the notions of dataset and prediction in the context of AI systems [ 45 ].

In the second investigation, “Algorithms as Opinions” , students think about algorithms as recipes, which are created by set of instructions that modify an input to produce an output [ 45 ]. Initially, students are asked to write an algorithm to make the “ best” jelly sandwich and peanut butter. They explore what it means to be “ best” and see how their opinions of best in their recipes are reflected in their algorithms. In this way, students are able to figure out that algorithms can have various motives and goals. Following this activity, students work on the “Ethical Matrix” , building on the idea of the algorithms as opinions [ 45 ]. During this investigation, students first refer back to their developed algorithms through their “best” jelly sandwich and peanut butter. They discuss what counts as the “best” sandwich for themselves (most healthy, practical, delicious, etc.). Then, through their ethical matrix (chart), students identify different stakeholders (such as their parents, teacher, or doctor) who care about their peanut butter and jelly sandwich algorithm. In this way, the values and opinions of those stakeholders also are embedded in the algorithm. Students fill out an ethical matrix and look for where those values conflict or overlap with each other. This matrix is a great tool for students to recognize different stakeholders in a system or society and how they are able to build and utilize the values of the algorithms in an ethical matrix.

The final investigation which teaches about the biased nature of algorithms is “Learning and Algorithmic Bias” [ 45 ]. During the investigation, students think further about the concept of classification. Using Google’s Teachable Machine tool [ 2 ], students explore the supervised machine-learning systems. Students train a cat–dog classifier using two different datasets. While the first dataset reflects the cats as the over-represented group, the second dataset indicates the equal and diverse representation between dogs and cats [ 2 ]. Using these datasets, students compare the accuracy between the classifiers and then discuss which dataset and outcome are fairer. This activity leads students into a discussion about the occurrence of bias in facial recognition algorithms and systems [ 2 ].

In the rest of the curriculum, similar to the AI Bingo investigation, students work with their partners to determine the various forms of AI systems in the YouTube platform (such as its recommender algorithm and advertisement matching algorithm). Through the investigation of “ YouTube Redesign”, students redesign YouTube’s recommender system. They first identify stakeholders and their values in the system, and then use an ethical matrix to reflect on the goals of their YouTube’s recommendation algorithm [ 45 ]. Finally, through the activity of “YouTube Socratic Seminar” , students read an abridged version of Wall Street Journal article by participating in a Socratic seminar. The article was edited to shorten the text and to provide more accessible language for middle school students. They discuss which stakeholders were most influential or significant in proposing changes in the YouTube Kids app and whether or not technologies like auto play should ever exist. During their discussion, students engage with the questions of: “Which stakeholder is making the most change or has the most power?”, “Have you ever seen an inappropriate piece of content on YouTube? What did you do?” [ 45 ].

Overall, the MIT Media Lab’s AI and Ethics curriculum is a high quality, open-access resource with which teachers can introduce middle school students to the risks and ethical implications of AI systems. The investigations described above involve students in collaborative, critical thinking activities that force them to wrestle with issues of bias and discrimination in AI, as well as surveillance and autonomy through the predictive systems and algorithmic bias.

“AI and Data Privacy” workshop series for K-9 students by MIT Media Lab

Another quality resource from the MIT Media Lab’s Personal Robots Group is a workshop series designed to teach students (between the ages 7 and 14) about data privacy and introduce them to designing and prototyping data privacy features. The group has made the content, materials, worksheets, and activities of the workshop series into an open-access online document, freely available to teachers [ 44 ].

The first workshop in the series is “ Mystery YouTube Viewer: A lesson on Data Privacy” . During the workshop, students engage with the question of what privacy and data mean [ 44 ]. They observe YouTube’s home page from the perspective of a mystery user. Using the clues from the videos, students make predictions about what the characters in the videos might look like or where they might live. In a way, students imitate YouTube algorithms’ prediction mode about the characters. Engaging with these questions and observations, students think further about why privacy and boundaries are important and how each algorithm will interpret us differently based on who creates the algorithm itself.

The second workshop in the series is “ Designing ads with transparency: A creative workshop” . Through this workshop, students are able to think further about the meaning, aim, and impact of advertising and the role of advertisements in our lives [ 44 ]. Students collaboratively create an advertisement using an everyday object. The objective is to make the advertisement as “transparent” as possible. To do that, students learn about notions of malware and adware, as well as the components of YouTube advertisements (such as sponsored labels, logos, news sections, etc.). By the end of the workshop, students design their ads as a poster, and they share with their peers.

The final workshop in MIT’s AI and data privacy series is “ Designing Privacy in Social Media Platforms”. This workshop is designed to teach students about YouTube, design, civics, and data privacy [ 44 ]. During the workshop, students create their own designs to solve one of the biggest challenges of the digital era: problems associated with online consent. The workshop allows students to learn more about the privacy laws and how they impact youth in terms of media consumption. Students consider YouTube within the lenses of the Children’s Online Privacy Protections Rule (COPPA). In this way, students reflect on one of the components of the legislation: how might students get parental permission (or verifiable consent)?

Such workshop resources seem promising in helping educate students and teachers about the ethical challenges of AI in education. Specifically, social media such as YouTube are widely used as a teaching and learning tool within K-12 classrooms and beyond them, in students’ everyday lives. These workshop resources may facilitate teachers’ and students’ knowledge of data privacy issues and support them in thinking further about how to protect privacy online. Moreover, educators seeking to implement such resources should consider engaging students in the larger question: who should own one’s data? Teaching students the underlying reasons for laws and facilitating debate on the extent to which they are just or not could help get at this question.

Investigation of “AI for Oceans” by Code.org

A third recommended resource for K-12 educators trying to navigate the ethical challenges of AI with their students comes from Code.org, a nonprofit organization focused on expanding students’ participation in computer science. Sponsored by Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, Google, and other tech companies, Code.org aims to provide opportunities for K-12 students to learn about AI and machine-learning systems [ 20 ]. To support students (grades 3–12) in learning about AI, algorithms, machine learning, and bias, the organization offers an activity called “ AI for Oceans ”, where students are able to train their machine-learning models.

The activity is provided as an open-access tutorial for teachers to help their students explore how to train, model and classify data , as well as to understand how human bias plays a role in machine-learning systems. During the activity, students first classify the objects as either “fish” or “not fish” in an attempt to remove trash from the ocean. Then, they expand their training data set by including other sea creatures that belong underwater. Throughout the activity, students are also able to watch and interact with a number of visuals and video tutorials. With the support of their teachers, they discuss machine learning, steps and influences of training data, as well as the formation and risks of biased data [ 20 ].

Future directions for research and teaching on AI and ethics

In this paper, we provided an overview of the possibilities and potential ethical and societal risks of AI integration in education. To help address these risks, we highlighted several instructional strategies and resources for practitioners seeking to integrate AI applications in K-12 education and/or instruct students about the ethical issues they pose. These instructional materials have the potential to help students and teachers reap the powerful benefits of AI while navigating ethical challenges especially related to privacy concerns and bias. Existing research on AI in education provides insight on supporting students’ understanding and use of AI [ 2 , 13 ]; however, research on how to develop K-12 teachers’ instructional practices regarding AI and ethics is still in its infancy.

Moreover, current resources, as demonstrated above, mainly address privacy and bias-related ethical and societal concerns of AI. Conducting more exploratory and critical research on teachers’ and students’ surveillance and autonomy concerns will be important to designing future resources. In addition, curriculum developers and workshop designers might consider centering culturally relevant and responsive pedagogies (by focusing on students’ funds of knowledge, family background, and cultural experiences) while creating instructional materials that address surveillance, privacy, autonomy, and bias. In such student-centered learning environments, students voice their own cultural and contextual experiences while trying to critique and disrupt existing power structures and cultivate their social awareness [ 24 , 36 ].

Finally, as scholars in teacher education and educational technology, we believe that educating future generations of diverse citizens to participate in the ethical use and development of AI will require more professional development for K-12 teachers (both pre-service and in-service). For instance, through sustained professional learning sessions, teachers could engage with suggested curriculum resources and teaching strategies as well as build a community of practice where they can share and critically reflect on their experiences with other teachers. Further research on such reflective teaching practices and students’ sense-making processes in relation to AI and ethics lessons will be essential to developing curriculum materials and pedagogies relevant to a broad base of educators and students.

This work was supported by the Graduate School at Michigan State University, College of Education Summer Research Fellowship.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Contributor Information

Selin Akgun, Email: ude.usm@lesnugka .

Christine Greenhow, Email: ude.usm@wohneerg .

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Top Problems with Technology in Education Today

Updated on Oct 3, 2019 by Guest Authors

Nowadays, our life is almost impossible without technology. We use the modern technological devices and applications in various spheres of our activity. The technological progress helps to manage tasks faster and with a higher level of accuracy and safety. Business, economy, manufacturing, and other spheres of our life reap amazing benefits from the implementation of technology. Undoubtedly, education is no exception either.

What is educational technology? This is a quite profitable combination of technology and education. Students and teachers actively use innovations to solve academic assignments. The implementation of all kinds of applications and digital devices sufficiently improves the quality of learning. Students find the needed solutions much faster. For instance, the use of a free plagiarism checker for students helps to deal out the non-unique content and replace it. The information about any historical event is accessible in a blink of an eye.

It’s possible to receive answers and effective solutions. The collaboration amongst classmates is improved too. The teacher-student relation has obtained a new understanding and likewise produces outstanding benefits. It seems that the educational technology is the best solution to most probable issues.

Nevertheless, there are still some troubles with technology in education. We have studied multiple technology articles to identify the most troublesome aspects concerning the implementation and exploitation of technology in schools, colleges, and universities. Consider the following issues:

• The old-timer
• Social media
• The Band-Aid

These issues are critical and quite typical for any educational system throughout the globe. Most of them are related to one another, and if one emerges, the other ones appear as well. This is why it’s important to recognize them all. Afterward, it will be much easier to cope with them properly and effectively.

What Problems Does Technology Education Induce?

The first step to a solution to any problem is to identify it. Then, we should understand it and only after that, it will be reasonable to create a plan for how to solve it. Therefore, we should shed more light on the mentioned above education problems.

The advantage of receiving instant access to the information helps us to determine the most effective solution. Simultaneously, it induces a disadvantage. This is laziness or the so-called “the lazy thinker”. The open information offered via the Internet sufficiently quickens the problem-solving process. Students find the needed information, examples of how to overcome the issue and turn it to their advantage.

Unfortunately, they don’t use the power of their brain at full. They use only some percentage necessary to specify the keywords and get the desired answer. All the calculations, writing techniques, and other things are completed by smart devices and applications. At times, students even violate the copyright of other authors to write their assignments more quickly.

This leads to another trouble. Youngsters become overly dependent on the assistance of smart machines. All the grammar, spelling, or punctuation errors are eliminated with the help of such programs as Word and similar ones. Students know that such things will be corrected and they don’t give heed to the numerous mistakes they make. However, when they should write something on paper, they experience really huge difficulties.

The next issue is the low competence of teachers. Instructors don’t receive the updated explanations cornering how to exploit this or that application. Accordingly, the resourcefulness of technology is almost useless.

Other Drawbacks

There is likewise the bad influence on students. Tech in the classroom has several important disadvantages. People get addicted to technology. As a result, they are helpless without it or use some programs, online courses and textbooks ineffectively, which is a pure waste of time.

Many teenagers are strongly bound to social media. This induces other essential drawbacks. They can’t get rid of the habit of accessing their pages on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media sites. Most of them do it even during the classes. This is a great distraction, and the rebukes and warnings of teachers may have no power. The frequent use of social media and technological devices, in general, is the new and very strong form of addiction. As we know, no addiction is good.

This also makes such people socially isolated. They get used to communicating via the Internet. Nevertheless, they are simply confused when they should talk to somebody in real life.

The next problem is recognized as the Band-Aid. At times, students who use technology and those who don’t, have the same academic results. Some folks aren’t good at technological support, and this doesn’t give them an advantage. It may even worsen their academic progress.

Another important problem is the lack of finances. The technological progress never stops. It seems to be on a constant move. The needs of people change almost every day. In order to satisfy the needs of the humanity, technology should improve and develop daily. Therefore, the newer versions of computers, interactive devices, and/or applications appear very often. Many schools do not possess a budget, which is able to cover all the expenses for purchasing the new prototypes.

Consequently, students are forced to use out-of-date technology. This is a step back. In comparison with schools with richer budgets, they fall behind for many a time. This creates a huge gap amongst students. A lot depends on their background and financial status. This is rather unfair.

The Final Thoughts

The usage of technological progress has its own difficulties in education . However, every obstacle can be solved. The main point is to know how to implement such support correctly to receive the highest level of effectiveness. Students and teachers/professors should actively collaborate. Both sides are supposed to be eager to learn how to use the technical support appropriately.

Teachers ought to be well taught to know all the peculiarities about the functionality of different applications and programs. Students should use the resourcefulness of technology only when it’s needed to avoid laziness, degradation, addiction, and similar complications.

About Author: Sandra Hayward is a famous and popular writer at Edu Birdie and other trustworthy resources. She covers different aspects of the human life to discover the most troublesome points and offers some solutions.

Disclosure : We might earn commission from qualifying purchases. The commission help keep the rest of my content free, so thank you!

Reader Interactions

Olatinwo Dayo says

Oct 3, 2018 at 3:08 am

Technology is a tool, we shouldn’t be looking at the Negative effect alone It is a tool in the sense that, what Mr A use it for might be different from what Mr blB use it for

Ghassan Hazza Hazza says

May 23, 2019 at 9:51 pm

All in all, educational technology is much like the different sorts of technology that are used in medicine, engineering, economics, industry… etc. What we need is to find out how to handle and harness the power of such technology to make learning better. It is true that technology evolves daily, but we still can use computers and devices that are almost 10 years old to work with today’s applications and software. Add to this, the devices that we have in schools have not been used to their utmost capabilities, they can still function well and help in some way. Our views, and styles of teaching need to evolve to meet the new demands of life.

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COSTA MESA, Calif. — March 26, 2024 — BenQ , an internationally renowned provider of visual display and collaboration solutions, today announced that Manor Independent School District in Manor, Texas, has selected and installed BenQ Boards and BenQ Smart Displays in Manor New Tech High School, Manor Early College High School, Manor Rise Academy, Wildhorse Elementary, and Manor Elementary Early Learning Center and new Transportation Facility. The smart boards and digital signage displays were selected for their simple, secure, and streamlined approach to the future of EdTech. With BenQ’s license-free and future-ready EZ Write 6 software, InstaShare wireless presentation system, and technology administration tools AMS, DMS, and X-Sign solutions, the BenQ displays have become the new technology standard for the growing school district.

“BenQ continuously demonstrates the way it supports today’s teachers and staff while enhancing learning in exciting ways for students," stated David Gonzalez, Director of Technology at Manor ISD. “BenQ's comprehensive suite of solutions provides us with the best of the best and aligns perfectly with our vision of simplifying and standardizing technology districtwide. Now our teachers can focus on what matters most — delivering high-quality instruction to our students.”

After rigorous evaluation and comparison against other smart board vendors, Manor ISD chose BenQ to bring its schools into the future. The Google EDLA-certified BenQ Boards empower teachers to teach their way, whether they choose to use the whiteboard, share their screen wirelessly, or load lessons from the web. Making the transition to the BenQ Board smart boards is simple with the award-winning EZ Write 6 software. Teachers can do it all with this license-free annotation and collaboration software designed to fit any teaching style. It allows teachers to use any interactive course and existing IWB files to make lesson building a snap. Users have the freedom to annotate and work directly from the interactive display or a wirelessly connected device. When teachers are creating or presenting lessons, EZ Write’s Floating Tool empowers them to add text to any app, video, website, document, or image. They can also choose the pen color, erase, open files, or take screenshots.

In addition, BenQ Boards feature InstaShare 2, the award-winning wireless casting system that allows multiple users to share to the screen simultaneously as well as create split screen lessons with a single tap and enable cloud whiteboarding for students to contribute and write on the screen from wherever they're located — whether in the class or joining remotely. From the smart board, teachers can quickly log into their cloud platforms and apps, including Google Classroom, ClassLink, and others.

BenQ also features Device Management Solution (DMS) and Account Management System (AMS), which allow the district’s small tech team to remotely configure settings, push updates, monitor device analytics, and manage user permissions. These solutions are not only free, eliminating the need of the district’s former control and management solution that was costly and complicated, but also provide simplified, centralized management, reducing the burden on Manor ISD's IT staff responsible for managing 24 schools. This streamlined approach enables educators to focus more on teaching and instruction, rather than troubleshooting technical issues.

Finally, recognizing the growing importance of digital signage and the ability to broadcast announcements and alerts throughout schools, BenQ Boards, and smart displays benefit from the company’s X-Sign digital signage software. X-Sign turns any BenQ smart board or smart display in the school’s network into broadcast signage and allows schools to keep everyone informed and up to date on events, safety protocols, and emergencies.

“As educational institutions strive to meet the evolving needs of students and educators, it’s imperative that they adopt solutions offering seamless integration, versatility, and innovation,” said Bob Wudeck, senior director of business development at BenQ Education. “Our BenQ Boards epitomize the modern classroom ecosystem, providing educators with the tools they need to teach their way while fostering collaboration and engagement that is the future of learning. Manor ISD’s decision to select BenQ reflects their commitment to preparing students for success in an increasing digital world, and we are honored to be a trusted partner in their journey toward educational excellence."

More information on BenQ is available at www.benq.com/en-us/education.html .

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About BenQ Education BenQ Education is helping teachers shape the future of learning with interactive display solutions that maximize engagement in and out of the classroom while improving student performance. For over 10 years, BenQ has been the No. 1-selling TI DLP projector brand worldwide, according to Futuresource, and is one of the leading interactive display vendors in North America. The award-winning BenQ Board is the first and only interactive display to feature TÜV- and SIAA-certified germ-resistant screens, interfaces, and pens as part of its purpose-built ClassroomCare technologies designed for healthier classrooms. The BenQ Board RP03 Series has been recognized as the first smart board to achieve Eyesafe ® Certification, the advanced blue light mitigation technology developed in concert with optometrists and ophthalmologists. Industry-recognized, BenQ’s Tap ‘N Teach technology for fast sign-on, EZWrite license-free annotation and whiteboard software, InstaShare wireless screen presentation system, and IT-friendly monitoring and management tools create exciting and intuitive active learning experiences. EZWrite 6 is also AWS Qualified, having passed Amazon Web Services (AWS) Foundational Technical Review (FTR), providing schools with assurance in security, reliability, and operational excellence. Educators can focus on giving lessons that leave an impact and give the leaders of tomorrow the tools they need to reach their maximum potential.​ The company’s products are available across North America through leading value-added distributors, resellers, and retailers. More information is available at www.BenQBoard.com .

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Young Innovators from All Over Serbia Designed Solutions for Local Problems

Winners of the First STE(A)M Challenge Announced

March 28, 2024

Belgrade, 28 March 2024 – Teams “Nije kompot nego kompost” (Not Compote but Compost) of the First Technical High School from Kragujevac, “Pančevo pametan grad”  (Pančevo Smart City) of the   High School of Mechanical Engineering "Pančevo", High School of Electrical Engineering "Nikola Tesla" and Medical High School "Stevica Jovanović” from Pančevo, and “EcoBytes” of the First Kragujevac Grammar School are the winners of the first STE(A)M Challenge in Serbia. Their solutions for applying science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics, i.e. the STE(A)M disciplines, in solving local problems were chosen as the best among the ten teams participating in the finals of this competition held in Belgrade. 

The STE(A)M Challenge was organised by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in partnership with the Ministry of Education  and Petlja foundation.

Assistant of the Minister of Education for Higher Education Aleksandar Jović  addressed the participants and said that all the finalists of the STE(A)M Challenge are winners. “Through teamwork, you achieved what our education actually strives for, that is interdisciplinarity. The STE(A)M Challenge is an opportunity to acquire new knowledge and skills, but also an opportunity to apply in practice the knowledge you have acquired by studying multiple subjects. We also hope that this challenge would encourage teachers to cooperate more in exchanging knowledge from different fields in order to make connections between different syllabi,” said Jović.

The “Not Compote but Compost” Team from Kragujevac  addressed the problem of the huge amounts of biodegradable waste from the school yard, which could be turned into a useful product – compost. They created a roto composter with web application to manage the compost made from bio-waste, where users can monitor the condition of compost and receive notifications on any kind of irregularities, which makes the entire process more efficient. The “Pančevo Smart City” Team from Pančevo created an innovative solution which includes monitoring of the quality, temperature and humidity of air, as well as velocity and direction of wind via sensors. The other component are alarms concerning hazardous concentrations of dangerous matter, sent to the users via an Android mobile app as notifications. The   “EcoBytes” Team from Kragujevac  also worked on improving the quality of urban air. The solution by this team involves an ecosystem of unicellular algae located in a glass receptacle that produces oxygen and replaces carbon-dioxide, a product of pollution. The bioreactor includes a solar panel which powers the pump and lamp necessary for its work. The winning solutions will continue to serve their communities of origin, while they could also be potentially applied in other local communities. 

“With the ever-faster development of technology, and its current focus on the development of artificial intelligence, entirely new avenues of application have been opening up in different fields. This STE(A)M Challenge is oriented towards popularisation of using technology in solving concrete daily problems,” emphasised Director of Petlja Foundation Nebojša Vasiljević . 

The call issued in October 2023 was responded by 35 school teams from all over Serbia, who with the support by their teachers, identified problems in their local communities and developed innovative solutions to address them, based on the use of data and STE(A)M disciplines and technologies, such as artificial intelligence, internet of things, blockchain and robotics.  

UNDP Portfolio Manager for Digital Innovation Jelena Ružičić  thanked teachers for the support they gave to their students in developing the innovative solutions. “My wish is that you continue to spread the team spirit that you have already demonstrated, and to develop knowledge, creativity and imagination in the STE(A)M disciplines. I am especially glad to see that all the teams are mixed, and that there are girls in each team. I wish you to continue to support each other and I hope that we will have as many girls as possible in STE(A)M disciplines,” said Ružičić.  

The finals of the Challenge was participated by ten school teams from: High Schools of Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Medical High School from Pančevo, Technical High School from Pirot, “Svetozar Marković” Grammar School from Niš, Aleksinac Grammar School, “Saint Sava” Grammar School from Požega, Vrnjačka Banja Grammar School and two teams from the First Kragujevac Grammar School and First Kragujevac Technical High School each.  They had eight weeks to develop their solutions, while for the duration of this period they received financial, mentoring and expert support of the project partners in realising their ideas. 

The jury that selected the winning solutions included:  Danijela Šćepanović, independent counsellor in the Digitalisation Sector of the Ministry of Education, Milan Simić, development counsellor in Petlja Foundation, Davor Đošan, head of the UNDP IT sector, Zoja Kukić Đorđević, entrepreneur and Sara Oredić, consultant in the High Tech Engineering Center (HTEC). 

The three winning solutions were awarded one-day visits to the relevant actors of the startup ecosystems in Belgrade. Also, members of the teams and their teachers received vouchers for computer equipment amounting to USD 300 for each team member. 

In addition to the three winning solutions, the finals included a solution for river spilling which involved sensors and IoT technology, acoustic sensors to decrease noise in schools, a solution for remote watering of public green areas, an app for estimating the adequacy of soil for growing raspberry, a solution which involved sensors that monitored air quality, as well as a solution which monitored drivers’ awareness in order to prevent car accidents. 

You can read more information about all the finalists HERE .

STE(A)M Challenge was organised within the project “Building the Critical Computer Skills for the Future Ready Workforce”  implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Petlja Foundation, and supported by the Government of the Republic of Serbia.

Texthelp and n2y Join Forces to make Education and the Workplace More Inclusive for Everyone

• n2y, a trailblazer in special education curriculum resources, and Texthelp, the global leader in literacy and assistive technology have agreed to merge
• The combined business will globally serve learners with diverse needs as well as employees in the workplace across the entire neurodiverse spectrum  
• Five Arrows, the alternative assets arm of Rothschild & Co, has backed both n2y and Texthelp, and will remain the majority shareholder of the combined business

Huron, OH; Boston, MA, Monday 25th March 2024: n2y and Texthelp have agreed to merge, creating a category leader in education technology that will change the way the needs of diverse learners are met.

This new organization is also committed to bridging the gap between education and the workplace, combining resources to provide support to individuals wherever they are - classroom, office, conference room or boardroom. Five Arrows, the alternative assets arm of Rothschild & Co remains the controlling shareholder of the combined business.  Providence Equity Partners and Verdane will continue as minority investors alongside Five Arrows. Both companies were established over 25 years ago and share a long legacy of purpose led innovation aimed at improving the lives of others. n2y’s expertise lies in creating an integrated digital ecosystem of academic curriculum, behavior, communication and IEP management solutions for education. Texthelp specializes in cloud-based assistive technology and learning analytics for the education and corporate sectors.

Texthelp and n2y are centered around a core belief that everyone deserves the right to understand and be understood.  As a consequence of the focus on helping a wide group of people reach their full potential, both businesses are poised to deliver significant societal impact.  By 2030, Texthelp and n2y aim to impact the literacy, numeracy and understanding of 1 billion people.

The two businesses are known in their markets for the relationships they build and the support that they provide to their partner districts and workplaces to ensure maximum levels of impact. n2y’s mastery for delivering engaging and interactive learning experiences perfectly complements Texthelp’s expertise in developing robust, data-driven inclusion tools. Together, they will catalyze the evolution of digital learning globally to suit diverse learning styles and communication needs while promoting accessibility and inclusivity.

“We both recognize, understand and celebrate what makes students and adults unique. For us, addressing diverse needs in schools and in the workplace is not simply a legal requirement, it’s a cultural imperative.” said Martin McKay, CEO, Texthelp .  “Uniting our teams means that our mission to advance the literacy and understanding of 1 billion people not only becomes more possible, but we can also make a deeper, richer impact on people’s lives.  We couldn’t be more excited to make that mark on society, together as one.”

“n2y and Texthelp have learned from the best educators and employers that it is futile to try to find a label for a set of complex learner needs based on which educational standards they follow, what primary disability they have or accommodation they require. Instead, we honor each learner as an individual.” added Ed Holmes, CEO, n2y . “Together, we will offer robust solutions for schools, universities and employers to be more inclusive and support their people to build the confidence, knowledge and skills to be independent and successful.” 

Evercore acted as financial advisor to n2y and William Blair acted as financial advisor to Texthelp as part of the transaction.

n2y is changing the lives of special education administrators and teachers, therapists, and paraprofessionals, and all the students they serve. Its award-winning, research-based solutions are designed specifically to address the needs of the whole child and help unique learners meet their state’s standards. Integrated curriculum, behavior and communication solutions combined with an IEP development and management tool empower educators to teach and students to achieve. For more information on these solutions, please visit n2y.com .

About Texthelp

Founded in 1996, the Texthelp Group is a global technology company helping people all over the world to understand and to be understood. It has led the way in creating innovative technology for the education and workplace sectors for the last three decades. 

Texthelp believes in a world where difference, disability or language are no longer barriers. It is focused on helping all people learn, understand, and communicate through the use of digital education and accessibility tools. 

With over 200 million users worldwide, the Texthelp suite of products includes Read&Write, Equatio® and OrbitNote®. All of which work alongside existing platforms such as Microsoft Office and Google Workspace, enabling them to be integrated quickly into any classroom or workplace with ease. To learn more about Texthelp, visit www.texthelp.com .

About Five Arrows

Five Arrows is the alternative assets arm of Rothschild & Co and has €26 billion AuM with offices in Paris, London, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Luxembourg. With over €9 billion of assets under management, the corporate private equity business of Five Arrows is focused on investing in companies with highly defensible market positions; strong management teams; business models with high visibility of organic unit volume growth and strong unit economics; and multiple operational levers that can be used to unlock latent value. Sectors are limited to data & software, technology-enabled business services and healthcare. For more information, please visit https://www.rothschildandco.com/en/five-arrows/corporate-private-equity/

Media Contacts

n2y Jane Benson Chief Marketing Officer [email protected]

Texthelp Niamh Fox  Chief Marketing Officer [email protected]  

Five Arrows Emma Rees [email protected]

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The Ongoing Challenges, and Possible Solutions, to Improving Educational Equity

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Schools across the country were already facing major equity challenges before the pandemic, but the disruptions it caused exacerbated them.

After students came back to school buildings after more than a year of hybrid schooling, districts were dealing with discipline challenges and re-segregating schools. In a national EdWeek Research Center survey from October, 65 percent of the 824 teachers, and school and district leaders surveyed said they were more concerned now than before the pandemic about closing academic opportunity gaps that impact learning for students of different races, socioeconomic levels, disability categories, and English-learner statuses.

But educators trying to prioritize equity have an uphill battle to overcome these challenges, especially in the face of legislation and school policies attempting to fight equity initiatives across the country.

The pandemic and the 2020 murder of George Floyd drove many districts to recognize longstanding racial disparities in academics, discipline, and access to resources and commit to addressing them. But in 2021, a backlash to such equity initiatives accelerated, and has now resulted in 18 states passing laws restricting lessons on race and racism, and many also passing laws restricting the rights and well-being of LGBTQ students.

This slew of Republican-driven legislation presents a new hurdle for districts looking to address racial and other inequities in public schools.

During an Education Week K-12 Essentials forum last week, journalists, educators, and researchers talked about these challenges, and possible solutions to improving equity in education.

Takeru Nagayoshi, who was the Massachusetts teacher of the year in 2020, and one of the speakers at the forum, said he never felt represented as a gay, Asian kid in public school until he read about the Stonewall Riots, the Civil Rights Movement, and the full history of marginalized groups working together to change systems of oppression.

“Those are the learning experiences that inspired me to be a teacher and to commit to a life of making our country better for everyone,” he said.

“Our students really benefit the most when they learn about themselves and the world that they’re in. They’re in a safe space with teachers who provide them with an honest education and accurate history.”

Here are some takeaways from the discussion:

Schools are still heavily segregated

Almost 70 years after the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, most students attend schools where they see a majority of other students of their racial demographics .

Black students, who accounted for 15 percent of public school enrollment in 2019, attended schools where Black students made up an average of 47 percent of enrollment, according to a UCLA report.

They attended schools with a combined Black and Latinx enrollment averaging 67 percent, while Latinx students attended schools with a combined Black and Latinx enrollment averaging 66 percent.

Overall, the proportion of schools where the majority of students are not white increased from 14.8 percent of schools in 2003 to 18.2 percent in 2016.

“Predominantly minority schools [get] fewer resources, and that’s one problem, but there’s another problem too, and it’s a sort of a problem for democracy,” said John Borkowski, education lawyer at Husch Blackwell.

“I think it’s much better for a multi-racial, multi-ethnic democracy, when people have opportunities to interact with one another, to learn together, you know, and you see all of the problems we’ve had in recent years with the rising of white supremacy, and white supremacist groups.”

School discipline issues were exacerbated because of student trauma

In the absence of national data on school discipline, anecdotal evidence and expert interviews suggest that suspensions—both in and out of school—and expulsions, declined when students went remote.

In 2021, the number of incidents increased again when most students were back in school buildings, but were still lower than pre-pandemic levels , according to research by Richard Welsh, an associate professor of education and public policy at Vanderbilt’s Peabody College of Education.

But forum attendees, who were mostly district and school leaders as well as teachers, disagreed, with 66 percent saying that the pandemic made school incidents warranting discipline worse. That’s likely because of heightened student trauma from the pandemic. Eighty-three percent of forum attendees who responded to a spot survey said they had noticed an increase in behavioral issues since resuming in-person school.

Restorative justice in education is gaining popularity

One reason Welsh thought discipline incidents did not yet surpass pre-pandemic levels despite heightened student trauma is the adoption of restorative justice practices, which focus on conflict resolution, understanding the causes of students’ disruptive behavior, and addressing the reason behind it instead of handing out punishments.

Kansas City Public Schools is one example of a district that has had improvement with restorative justice, with about two thirds of the district’s 35 schools seeing a decrease in suspensions and expulsions in 2021 compared with 2019.

Forum attendees echoed the need for or success of restorative justice, with 36 percent of those who answered a poll within the forum saying restorative justice works in their district or school, and 27 percent saying they wished their district would implement some of its tenets.

However, 12 percent of poll respondents also said that restorative justice had not worked for them. Racial disparities in school discipline also still persist, despite restorative justice being implemented, which indicates that those practices might not be ideal for addressing the over-disciplining of Black, Latinx, and other historically marginalized students.

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The 3-body problem is real, and it’s really unsolvable

Oh god don’t make me explain math

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Everybody seems to be talking about 3 Body Problem , the new Netflix series based on Cixin Liu’s Remembrance of Earth’s Past book trilogy . Fewer people are talking about the two series’ namesake: The unsolvable physics problem of the same name.

This makes sense, because it’s confusing . In physics, the three-body problem attempts to find a way to predict the movements of three objects whose gravity interacts with each of the others — like three stars that are close together in space. Sounds simple enough, right? Yet I myself recently pulled up the Wikipedia article on the three-body problem and closed the tab in the same manner that a person might stagger away from a bright light. Apparently the Earth, sun, and moon are a three-body system? Are you telling me we don’t know how the moon moves ? Scientists have published multiple solutions for the three-body problem? Are you telling me Cixin Liu’s books are out of date?

All I’d wanted to know was why the problem was considered unsolvable, and now memories of my one semester of high school physics were swimming before my eyes like so many glowing doom numbers. However, despite my pains, I have readied several ways that we non-physicists can be confident that the three-body problem is, in fact, unsolvable.

Reason 1: This is a special definition of ‘unsolvable’

The three-body problem is extra confusing, because scientists are seemingly constantly finding new solutions to the three-body problem! They just don’t mean a one-solution-for-all solution. Such a formula does exist for a two-body system, and apparently Isaac Newton figured it out in 1687 . But systems with more than two bodies are, according to physicists, too chaotic (i.e., not in the sense of a child’s messy bedroom, but in the sense of “chaos theory”) to be corralled by a single solution.

When physicists say they have a new solution to the three-body problem, they mean that they’ve found a specific solution for three-body systems that have certain theoretical parameters. Don’t ask me to explain those parameters, because they’re all things like “the three masses are collinear at each instant” or “a zero angular momentum solution with three equal masses moving around a figure-eight shape.” But basically: By narrowing the focus of the problem to certain arrangements of three-body systems, physicists have been able to derive formulas that predict the movements of some of them, like in our solar system. The mass of the Earth and the sun create a “ restricted three-body problem ,” where a less-big body (in this case, the moon) moves under the influence of two massive ones (the Earth and the sun).

What physicists mean when they say the three-body problem has no solution is simply that there isn’t a one-formula-fits-all solution to every way that the gravity of three objects might cause those objects to move — which is exactly what Three-Body Problem bases its whole premise on.

Reason 2: 3 Body Problem picked an unsolved three-body system on purpose

Henri Poincaré’s research into a general solution to the three-body problem formed the basis of what would become known as chaos theory (you might know it from its co-starring role in Jurassic Park ). And 3 Body Problem itself isn’t about any old three-body system. It’s specifically about an extremely chaotic three-body system, the exact kind of arrangement of bodies that Poincaré was focused on when he showed that the problem is “unsolvable.”

[ Ed. note: The rest of this section includes some spoilers for 3 Body Problem .]

In both Liu’s books and Netflix’s 3 Body Problem , humanity faces an invasion by aliens (called Trisolarans in the English translation of the books, and San-Ti in the TV series) whose home solar system features three suns in a chaotic three-body relationship. It is a world where, unlike ours, the heavens are fundamentally unpredictable. Periods of icy cold give way to searing heat that give way to swings in gravity that turn into temporary reprieves that can never be trusted. The unpredictable nature of the San-Ti environment is the source of every detail of their physicality, their philosophy, and their desire to claim Earth for their own.

In other words, 3 Body Problem ’s three-body problem is unsolvable because Liu wanted to write a story with an unsolvable three-body system, so he chose one of the three-body systems for which we have not discovered a solution, and might never.

Reason 3: Scientists are still working on the three-body problem

Perhaps the best reason I can give you to believe that the three-body problem is real, and is really unsolvable, is that some scientists published a whole set of new solutions for specific three-body systems very recently .

If physicists are still working on the three-body problem, we can safely assume that it has not been solved. Scientists, after all, are the real experts. And I am definitely not.

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