AI is not spending anymore time coming, it is already here. But it can’t do it all, and users have to discipline in how they use it as society learns to navigate this newfound technology.
That was the message in the recent Google Meet for Mercy University hosted by Ali Basharat and Professor Eldrid Sequiera, where they questioned the recent data and AI advancements concerning education with fellow campus professors Jamus Collier and Kelly Colby.
Most schools and careers would require you to work for yourself by researching properly, but recently there have been more and more options on how to get your job done, especially with the latest uses of AI and data. So, the main point that is being addressed in this Google Meet is not just to address the fears, but to lighten tension and nervousness. In fact, they bring up the point of how”AI’s advancements will be more helpful and continue to grow on how we may use it for education in our lives,” Collier explained.
People and students still face certain limits in their schools or jobs, as many schools have recently banned cell phone use in the classroom. However, Collier said, “It is a challenge, but certainly over the next few years, I think that schools will try to adopt and incorporate analytics by using AI devices.”
Professor Jamus Collier says ,”There was probably a panic for when they figured people were cheating or taking the easy way out. That’s not the case. You can certainly learn to use it as a tool to learn for technical information, such as computer programming, data analysis and project management.” He continues to suggest how we all need to lean to it more as a learning tool to assist with work, rather than just simply have it done for you.
How may students truly use it for work? Would teachers rather have students learn it on their own? These were all passed around as pivotal questions for modern educators.
Surprisingly, Professor Collier then states “I am happy for students learning to take the effort through YouTube videos or AI demonstrations. A lot of student resources are beneficial. Before 2020, when ChatGPT became mainstream, YouTube was on the forefront. I don’t think looking it up in the textbook is any better than learning to look it up online.”
He then summarizes his beliefs on AI concerning data by saying “AI is built on vast volumes of data. Huge amounts of data have now become an asset, and more people can understand the main volume of data.”
More specifically, this is when they spoke to Professor Kelly Colby, who focuses more on Dashboarding Retention tables, showing master tables of student data and how AI can help display more information on students, graduation rates, etc. Not only this, but “Instead of using your transcript, they can use a simple algorithm to evaluate only 15 percent of your education and degree work, while AI will evaluate 85 percent of it.” This leads her to believe how this is both fairly impressive and concerning since we cannot head towards avoiding work altogether, which goes back to the point that Professor Collier was making.
They then brought out and questioned a colleague of Professor Kellys named Damien Germino, who adds “Mindfulness is important” and “You won’t always know what will happen with AI, so you have to question if it is accurate and applicable in your field.”
It was agreed upon them that people must put themselves in another worker’s or student’s shoes by using communication, which Damien says is still one of the best and most important ways to interact with our world.
Germino would end the discussion by saying how we as a society need to “Get to know people. The people who can adapt to all types of connections are the people who will be able to leverage AI and use it with full mindfulness.”
Finally, Professor Kelly admits that AI tools are becoming the way of the future, but at the end of the day, data is always about information that can be based on communication and translating what we would do in real-world scenarios. Professor Collier says that AI will be important, but this should teach us to be still able to walk away with the skills that other people have too and apply them wisely with whatever work you may take up.
