Connect with us

Education

The Pros And Cons Of AI In The Workplace And In Education

Published

on


The integration of artificial intelligence into our daily lives is no longer a futuristic concept but a present-day reality, fundamentally reshaping industries and institutions. From the bustling floors of global corporations to the hallowed halls of academia, AI is proving to be a transformative, yet complex, force. For business and tech leaders, understanding the dual nature of this technological revolution—its remarkable advantages and its inherent challenges—is paramount. There are both pros and cons on AI in the workplace and in education: this article delves into the multifaceted impact of AI in the workplace and education, exploring the significant opportunities it presents alongside the critical concerns that demand our attention.

Pros and cons of AI in workplace and education

AI in the Workplace: A New Era of Productivity and Peril

The modern workplace is in the throes of an AI-driven evolution, promising unprecedented levels of efficiency and innovation. One of the most significant pros of artificial intelligence in a professional setting is its ability to automate repetitive and mundane tasks. This allows human employees to redirect their focus towards more strategic, creative, and complex problem-solving endeavors. For instance, in the realm of human resources, AI-powered tools can screen thousands of resumes in minutes, a task that would take a team of recruiters days to complete. Companies like Oracle are leveraging their AI-powered human resource solutions to streamline candidate sourcing and improve hiring decisions, freeing up HR professionals to concentrate on building relationships and fostering a positive work environment.

Beyond automation, AI is a powerful engine for enhanced decision-making. By analyzing vast datasets, machine learning algorithms can identify patterns and trends that are imperceptible to the human eye, providing data-driven insights that inform strategic business choices. In the financial sector, AI algorithms are instrumental in fraud detection, analyzing transaction patterns in real-time to flag anomalies and prevent fraudulent activities before they cause significant damage. Similarly, in manufacturing, companies like Siemens are utilizing AI-powered “Industrial Copilots” to monitor machinery, predict maintenance needs, and prevent costly downtime, thereby optimizing production lines and ensuring operational continuity.

However, the widespread adoption of AI in the workplace is not without its cons. The most pressing concern for many is the specter of job displacement. As AI systems become more sophisticated, there is a legitimate fear that roles currently performed by humans, particularly those involving routine and predictable tasks, will become obsolete. While some argue that AI will create new jobs, there is a transitional period that could see significant disruption and require a massive effort in upskilling and reskilling the workforce.

Furthermore, the ethical implications of AI cannot be overstated. The potential for bias in AI algorithms is a significant challenge. If an AI system is trained on biased data, it will perpetuate and even amplify those biases in its decision-making processes. Additionally, the increasing use of AI raises serious privacy concerns — some people have go on to create distasteful clothes remover AI tools. The vast amounts of data that AI systems collect and process, from employee performance metrics to customer behavior, create a treasure trove of sensitive information that must be protected from misuse and security breaches.

AI in Education: Personalizing Learning While Preserving the Human Touch

The educational landscape is also being profoundly reshaped by artificial intelligence, with the promise of creating more personalized, engaging, and accessible learning experiences. One of the most celebrated benefits of AI in education is its capacity to facilitate personalized learning at scale. AI-powered adaptive learning platforms can tailor educational content to the individual needs and learning pace of each student. For example, platforms like Carnegie Learning’s “Mika” software use AI to provide personalized tutoring in mathematics, offering real-time feedback and adapting the curriculum to address a student’s specific areas of difficulty. This individualized approach has the potential to revolutionize how we teach and learn, moving away from a one-size-fits-all model to a more student-centric methodology.

AI is also a valuable tool for automating the administrative burdens that often consume a significant portion of educators’ time. Grading multiple-choice tests, managing schedules, and tracking attendance are all tasks that can be efficiently handled by AI systems. This frees up teachers to focus on what they do best: inspiring, mentoring, and interacting directly with their students. Language-learning apps like Duolingo are a prime example of AI in action, using machine learning to personalize lessons and provide instant feedback, making language education more accessible and engaging for millions of users worldwide.

Despite these advancements, the integration of AI in education raises a number of critical concerns and cons. A primary worry is the potential for a diminished human connection in the learning process. While AI can provide personalized content, it cannot replicate the empathy, encouragement, and nuanced understanding that a human teacher provides. Over-reliance on technology could lead to a sense of isolation for students and hinder the development of crucial social and emotional skills.

Data privacy is another significant hurdle. Educational AI platforms collect vast amounts of student data, from academic performance to learning behaviors. Ensuring the security and ethical use of this sensitive information is paramount. There is a tangible risk of this data being misused or falling victim to cyberattacks, which could have serious consequences for students and educational institutions.

In conclusion, artificial intelligence has both pros and cons, both the workplace and the field of education. The potential for increased productivity, data-driven insights, and personalized experiences is immense. However, we must proceed with a clear-eyed understanding of the challenges. Addressing concerns around job displacement, data privacy, and the importance of human interaction will be crucial in harnessing the full potential of AI for the betterment of our professional and educational futures. The path forward lies not in a blind embrace of technology, but in a thoughtful and ethical integration that prioritizes both progress and humanity.



Source link

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Education

England updates Keeping Children Safe in Education to include AI, cybersecurity, and digital misinformation — EdTech Innovation Hub

Published

on


The Department for Education (DfE) has published the 2025 edition of Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE), its statutory safeguarding guidance for all schools and colleges in England. The revised guidance, currently issued as a draft for information, is due to come into effect on September 1, 2025.

The update introduces several new references and expectations related to digital safeguarding, reflecting evolving risks around artificial intelligence, cyber-security, and online misinformation. These changes appear in Part Two of the document and are directed primarily at governing bodies, proprietors, and designated safeguarding leads.

Misinformation and conspiracy theories formally classified as online harms

Paragraph 135 of the 2025 guidance expands the DfE’s definition of harmful online content to include misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories. These are now listed alongside existing risks such as pornography, racism, radicalization, self-harm, extremism, and online grooming.

The section emphasizes that technology is a significant component in many safeguarding and wellbeing issues and that children may be exposed to multiple risks simultaneously, both online and offline. The explicit addition of misleading and conspiratorial content signals a growing concern about its impact on children’s development, decision-making, and exposure to extremist ideas.

New guidance on AI use in education

Paragraph 143 introduces a direct link to the DfE’s product safety expectations for generative artificial intelligence in schools. While the KCSIE document itself does not prescribe how AI should be used, it highlights the need for appropriate filtering and monitoring systems when AI tools are accessible to students.

This addition aligns with broader departmental efforts to balance innovation in digital learning with safeguarding and data protection obligations.

Self-assessment tools for filtering and monitoring

In paragraph 142, the DfE recommends that schools and colleges use the ‘Plan Technology for Your School’ tool, an online resource that allows institutions to self-assess their filtering and monitoring infrastructure. The tool supports compliance with the DfE’s filtering and monitoring standards, which require schools to:

  • Identify and assign roles for managing digital safety systems

  • Review provisions annually

  • Block harmful content without disrupting teaching and learning

  • Implement effective monitoring strategies appropriate to their safeguarding needs

Cybersecurity standards added to support digital resilience

Paragraph 144 refers to the DfE’s cybersecurity standards for schools and colleges, which were developed in collaboration with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). These standards outline the technical and procedural steps education providers should take to protect systems, data, and users from cyberattacks.

Recommended actions include regular backups, access control policies, secure configuration of devices and software, and procedures for responding to data breaches. The DfE urges institutions to periodically review their systems to ensure they remain resilient to emerging cyber threats.

Annual online safety review recommended

While not new, paragraph 145 reiterates the expectation that schools and colleges conduct an annual review of their online safety provision. This includes carrying out a risk assessment that reflects the specific threats facing their student population, especially those who are considered more vulnerable.

The guidance also points to free self-review tools such as 360safe and the LGfL online safety audit.

Additional changes unrelated to technology

While the 2025 update is primarily technical, it also includes broader safeguarding revisions such as:

  • Support for kinship care added to the role of Virtual School Heads (para 199)

  • Statutory status for attendance guidance (para 177)

  • Revised terminology aligned with the SEND Code of Practice (para 205)

  • Signposting to new RSHE and gender-questioning children guidance (paras 128, 204)

  • New resources such as Shore Space from the Lucy Faithfull Foundation (para 545) and safeguarding materials from the CSA Centre and The Children’s Society (Annex B)



Source link

Continue Reading

Education

Threats to local school officials have nearly tripled, research finds : NPR

Published

on


When the school board in Florida’s Broward County defied Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ban on school mask mandates during the pandemic, some parents sent vitriolic emails and made veiled threats.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images


hide caption

toggle caption

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

When Sarah Leonardi filed to run for Florida’s Broward County School Board in 2019, she had no idea what she was getting into.

Leonardi won and took office in late 2020 in the middle of the pandemic. It was tumultuous. Gov. Ron DeSantis threatened to withhold school funding after the board defied his masking ban. Angry over mask mandates, some parents sent vitriolic emails and made veiled threats.

But as COVID rates began to ebb, new flashpoints emerged. In the fall of 2021, Leonardi chaperoned an elementary school field trip to a local bar and grill that happened to be gay-owned. Some conservative media ran with the story. New threats poured in.

“Some of them were like ‘You can’t outrun my Glock 9mm gun’ [and] ‘Take a dirt nap,’ ” Leonardi recalled in an interview with NPR. “One was like, ‘Sell that b**** as a sex slave to ISIS,’ which was oddly specific.”

Leonardi says she still receives threats when conservative media occasionally republishes the school field trip story.

“I’ll get an email or a phone call about it, just telling me what a horrific person I am,” she says.

Harassment and threats up 170% 

Leonardi’s experience captures how threats against local school officials across the U.S. have shifted and grown, according to researchers at Princeton University. They conducted what they say is the largest and most comprehensive study of its kind in the country. Princeton’s Bridging Divides Initiative interviewed Leonardi along with 38 other school board officials. They also surveyed more than 820 school board officials with a group called CivicPulse. Using open-source material, investigators documented threats and harassment against school officials from November 2022 through April 2023, and the same period two years later. They found such incidents rose by 170%.

Bridging Divides says some of the local cases corresponded with national attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives as well as on LGBTQ+ policies. Roudabeh Kishi, the project’s chief research officer, says the targets held a variety of political views.

“This isn’t really like a partisan issue,” she says. “We’re seeing really similar reports of experiences (on) all sides of the political spectrum.”

In addition to Leonardi, NPR interviewed six other current or former school board officials who said they had been targets of harassment or threats. They said the anger and distrust that developed during the pandemic helped fuel and shape future disputes over cultural issues.

“The pandemic started this conversation about what are individual freedoms,” says Alexandria Ayala, a former school board member in Florida’s Palm Beach County. “What can a government tell me to do or not do?”

A second “Civil War” in Gettysburg

Al Moyer, who’s now in his ninth year on the Gettysburg Area School Board in Pennsylvania, says battles over masking frayed relationships in the district. Then, in 2023, some people in the community became uncomfortable with a tennis coach who was transitioning to female and had used the girls locker room.

Moyer said one resident called a Republican board member who opposed renewing the coach’s contract a “Nazi” to her face. He says his wife lost friends over the controversy.

“Those two situations really caused a kind of second Civil War battle in Gettysburg,” Moyer says. “It was pretty ugly.”

School board members have to navigate fights over genuine issues, but increasingly they have to grapple with fake ones as well. Russell Devorsky, who recently retired after 14 years on a school board in suburban Waco, Texas, says false stories on social media sow confusion and fuel harassment. “I am consistently and constantly harangued with individuals saying, ‘Well, kids are dressing up like cats, and they have litter boxes in bathrooms,’ ” says Devorsky. “Even though there’s never been a school district that had that situation, people believe it.”

“Like pushing a wet rope up a hill”

Even ordinary issues — such as the construction of a new band hall — can be targets of misinformation, Devorksy says. He says there were false claims on social media that the hall wouldn’t be ready on time and that students wouldn’t have instruments. Trying to set people straight who consider comments on Facebook community pages authoritative is exhausting, Devorsky says. “It’s kind of like pushing a wet rope up a hill,” he says.

The Princeton researchers worry that harassment could drive some school board members to leave public service — which they are monitoring — or avoid engaging on controversial topics. But Sarah Leonardi, the one who took the students to the gay-owned restaurant, says she isn’t quitting because she feels like she’s still making a difference.

“Ultimately, I decided to move forward and run again,” Leonardi says. “That is just a sacrifice — or a vulnerability — I’m willing to accept for now.”



Source link

Continue Reading

Education

Pasco County, Fla., Schools to Personalize Education With AI

Published

on


(TNS) — When Lacoochee Elementary School resumes classes in August, principal Latoya Jordan wants teachers to focus more attention on each student’s individual academic needs.

She’s looking at artificial intelligence as a tool they can use to personalize lessons.

“I’m interested to see how it can help,” Jordan said.


Lacoochee is exploring whether to become part of the Pasco County school district’s new AI initiative being offered to 30 campuses in the fall. It’s a test run that two groups — Scholar Educationand Khanmigo — have offered the district free of charge to see whether the schools find a longer-term fit for their classes.

Scholar, a state-funded startup that made its debut last year at Pepin Academy and Dayspring Academy, will go into selected elementary schools. Khanmigo, a national model recently highlighted on 60 Minutes, is set for use in some middle and high schools.

“Schools ultimately will decide how they want to use it,” said Monica Ilse, deputy superintendent for academics. “I want to get feedback from teachers and leaders for the future.”

Ilse said she expected the programs might free teachers from some of the more mundane aspects of their jobs, so they can pay closer attention to their students. A recent Gallup poll found teachers who regularly use AI said it saves them about six hours of work weekly, in areas such as writing quizzes and completing paperwork.

Marlee Strawn, cofounder of Scholar Education, introduced her system to the principals of 19 schools during a June 30 video call. The model is tied to Florida’s academic standards, Strawn said, and includes dozens of lessons that teachers can use.

It also allows teachers to craft their own assignments, tapping into the growing body of material being uploaded. The more specific the request, the more fine-tuned the exercises can be. If a student has a strong interest in baseball or ballet, for instance, the AI programming can help develop standards-based tasks on those subjects, she explained.

Perhaps most useful, Strawn told the principals, is the system’s ability to support teachers as they analyze student performance data. It identifies such things as the types of questions students asked and the items they struggled with, and can make suggestions about how to respond.

“The data analytics has been the most helpful for our teachers so far,” she said.

She stressed that Scholar Education protects student data privacy, a common concern among parents and educators, noting the system got a top rating from Common Sense.

School board member Jessica Wright brought up criticisms that AI has proven notoriously error-prone in math.

Strawn said the system has proven helpful when teachers seek to provide real-life examples for math concepts. She did not delve into details about the reliability of AI in calculations and formulas.

Lacoochee principal Jordan wanted to know how well the AI system would interface with other technologies, such as iReady, that schools already use.

“If it works with some of our current systems, that’s an easier way to ease into it, so for teachers it doesn’t become one more thing that you have to do,” Jordan said.

Strawn said the automated bot is a supplement that teachers can integrate with data from other tools to help them identify classroom needs and create the types of differentiated instruction that Jordan and others are looking for.

The middle and high school model, Khanmigo, will focus more on student tutoring, Ilse wrote in an email to principals. It’s designed to “guide students to a deeper understanding of the content and skills mastery,” she explained in the email. As with Scholar, teachers can monitor students’ interactions and step in with one-on-one support as needed, in addition to developing lesson plans and standards-aligned quizzes.

Superintendent John Legg said teachers and schools would not be required to use AI. Legg said he simply wanted to provide options that might help teachers in their jobs. After a year, the district will evaluate whether to continue, most likely with paid services.

While an administrator at Dayspring Academy before his election, Legg wrote a letter of support for Scholar Education’s bid for a $1 million state startup grant, and he also received campaign contributions from some of the group’s leaders. He said he had no personal stake in the organization and was backing a project that might improve education, just as he previously supported Algebra Nation, the University of Florida’s online math tutoring program launched in 2013.

©2025 Tampa Bay Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.





Source link

Continue Reading

Trending