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On this day, wherever we take our eyes, AI (artificial intelligence) is taking over almost every sector -- be it IT sector, content development or even in the education sector. Though there are some incidental bugs, most of the time AI seems like a digital fairy godmother of Cinderella with the right info at the right time. To save time and also fill in many operational gaps that we humans miss, AI can come out handy in educating our children.
It is not an unknown fact or even experience to us that teaching a child is a really tough job. Well, we all have been tough kids for some of our teachers or guardians and the next generation can also sometimes get on the nerves. As they do not mind so much for reasoning most of the time and we elders have to mould in their wishes to keep the teaching process going. AI can help bring different perspectives to do so.
The learning process: Due to the generational gaps, today's kids have a lot more scope than the elders to engage with digital technologies all the time and AI is no exception. Under parental supervision, children can use AI tools to prepare their homework and learn new things all the time. Using simulation and gamification tools, we can have a virtual custom-made environment through which kids can always learn something new. This is how even urban kids of Dhaka can have a village experience with the help of this virtual AI assistant and can draw a perfect village picture without even experiencing it. Of course, experience matters the most but if we are somewhat unable to provide for our kids to have that, it is always a way to compensate so that at least the learning process does not lack insight.
Making the learning process as enjoyable as possible is the key to teaching a child. So, AI is not only helpful in a home-learning process but also can assist teachers while taking classes, grading assignments, giving an audio-visual presentation for kids to feel more engaged. But for that to be implemented in Bangladesh, there should be a formal inclusion of AI in our child education system. It needs proper training for teachers to improve themselves to the new standards and make a combination of the old and the new.
Help in specific subjects: What was the scariest book in our childhood? Though we really loved the finest stories of literature and so on, there was one giant that used to take our sleep away and it is nothing but the ghost of mathematics. Here an AI tutor can jump in and turn it into a cakewalk for the kids who take a slow pace at maths. An AI tutor is usually an AI system designed to serve as a personal tutor for individuals. It can clarify doubts, offer more explanations and provide easier formulas to solve a study problem. Not every student is good in every subject and there are always some loose strings that need some more attention and with the help of a personalised AI tutor, this would no longer be a challenge.
Honing language skills: Language learning has become so easy in this digital era that just with the help of online resources and techniques, one can start their journey to learn foreign languages from time to time. There are some steps of being an expert in a language which includes elementary, limited working, professional working and the ultimate stage is being a native or bilingual, in some cases multilingual speaker. It would be the best choice to start a child's language learning journey by the age of ten to achieve fluency as a native speaker. In this case, AI can be helpful.
As for Bangladesh, mostly we try to learn English from our primary education level. Utilising AI language learning applications such as Duolingo or LingoDeer are something that can be nurtured from childhood.
The feasibility in Bangladesh: According to a joint survey by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and UNICEF in 2021, children from rural areas were comparatively low in online participation of education to the urban students. Due to the lack of internet connection and digital devices, most of the students from villages have no facility to engage in the digital revolution at all which keeps them in a backward time zone and later impacts on their professional chances. This is also applicable in the AI assistance and another severe discrimination would arise. Even for the teachers, it is not yet very comfortable for many of them to learn new technologies and start utilising them in the teaching arena. So the feasibility at present is not very high, especially for the rural areas but with an infrastructural development of available internet connectivity and providing computers in every government primary school can be a smart step of the higher authorities of education ministry to keep everyone in loop as much as possible. In this way, the participation can be more equal-- both for rural and urban areas of Bangladesh and today's children can have a fair chance of international exposure in future.
The other side of the coin: AI, like any other digital invention, undoubtedly eased many of our time consuming tasks, yet we cannot overlook the potential dangers it holds- especially for the children in today's time. As most of the home tasks and assignments given to a student are there to test their critical thinking ability and creativity, AI can make it blurry with its own engagement if we let it do so. Every child is special in their own way and has something to offer to the world. While using AI tools, we have to keep the uniqueness of individuality intact and then proceed.
Thus, before delving into any excessive use of a digital tool or medium, parents as well as teachers must keep in mind that AI is only there to associate us but not actually create. Keeping it in a form of assisting us must not turn into doing everything for us, which can help everybody keep the harmony alive -- parents, teachers and certainly the kids.