By Sandi Schwartz
With the release of ChatGPT and similar programs, artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the world, including education. Teachers are using it to develop study guides, streamline classwork, assist with note taking and more – all while saving time.
While many parents and educators fear that students will use AI to cheat, there are some thoughtful, innovative tools to help students study, write, problem solve and brainstorm ideas. Cutting-edge intelligent tutoring systems (ITS), also called smart tutors or AI-powered tutors, are now available to schools and families, so it’s important to explore the pros and cons of integrating these technologies into our kids’ learning routine.
What is a Smart Tutor?
Designed to simulate the experience of working one-on-one with a human tutor, smart tutors are computer programs that use the power of AI to provide personalized instruction and feedback to students. They give instant comments, create customized exercises and assist students based on their individual needs. “Princeton Review” believes that these systems “have the potential to revolutionize the way students learn, offering tailored instruction and guidance without the need for a human teacher.”
Ello, Kyron Learning, Squirrel AI, Babbel and Duolingo are some of the AI tutors currently available. Khan Academy, the well-known nonprofit educational organization based in Mountain View with more than 170 million registered users in 190 countries, recently released their AI tutor called Khanmigo, found at khanmigo.ai.
What Smart Tutors Can Do
Smart tutors are known for real-time monitoring and feedback capabilities, which means they closely evaluate a student’s actions and choices, providing instantaneous reactions. This allows students to correct their work right away so they can learn from their mistakes.
They also guide students through a step-by-step process to solve complex problems, such as math or science lessons, adjusting content and feedback based on student progress. Next, they provide interactive learning through gamification, simulations and visual aids to keep students engaged. Finally, personalized, self-paced learning helps students build confidence and stay motivated while working through the material.
The Next Step From Khan Academy
Khanmigo is a great example. Powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT models and further trained on Khan Academy’s library of learning content, Khanmigo is an always-available tutor covering math, humanities, coding, social studies and other subjects.
“Students can talk to AI simulations of historical figures and literary characters, which is really fun,” says Sal Khan, founder and CEO of Khan Academy, Schoolhouse.World, Khan Lab School and Khan World School. “They can get into debates with the AI and the AI gives them feedback.” There are also opportunities to work on word games, co-write and create flashcards or quizzes based on coursework.
Students can also get support from Khanmigo while working on their Khan Academy lessons. “[They can ask it] why do I need to learn this? Help me think through what the next step is. It’s really a pretty broad set of things that it’s already doing and we’re constantly adding more,” explains Khan. Khanmigo does not give students answers, he emphasizes. “It tries to get the students to figure it out for themselves.”
Benefits
Here are some of the main benefits of smart tutors:
- Customized Learning: While traditional education typically follows a set curriculum, AI allows for more flexibility tailored to each student’s needs and skill level. Based on each student’s interactions with the material, the program recommends specific exercises, videos and tutorials.
- Adaptive Pacing: It can shift the lesson so it can be completed at the student’s own pace. This helps a student better grasp the concepts before moving on to more complex material.
- Increased Access to Quality Education: “One clear benefit of AI tutoring is that it is more accessible and can thus help far greater numbers of students,” says Heidi Waterfield, Ed.M., a tutor in San Francisco. Indeed, AI-powered tutoring programs are seen as a way to achieve educational equity, since hiring human tutors is expensive and often requires a big time commitment.
- Enhanced Student-Teacher Interaction: AI can help streamline teachers’ work, leaving more time for them to interact directly with each student to provide catered lessons and input. Khanmigo’s writing coach feature, for example, allows teachers to assign writing activities. “Students would then do [the writing project] with AI. The AI can give them feedback. When the student is ready to submit [their work], the teacher then doesn’t just get the final output, but the whole narrative with the AI,” explains Khan. This helps the teacher understand the process the student used and cuts back on hours of work typically required for a teacher to provide the detailed, consistent feedback that the AI can do in mere seconds or minutes.
Concerns and Limitations
However, as with any new technology, there are some important concerns and limitations to keep in mind.
Waterfield doesn’t think computers will be replacing humans any time soon. She sees AI tutoring as a tool with the potential to help students bolster certain skills, but not as a replacement for personalized academic support.
“When I work with students, I don’t just teach content, I build trust, read subtle emotional cues and craft personalized learning strategies,” she says. “I have to adapt in real time to a student’s learning style and unspoken challenges. An algorithm can’t create that connection, celebrate a student’s breakthroughs or provide nuanced encouragement to help a child through academic struggles that ultimately lead to personal growth.”
Even Khan admits that there are some limitations to smart tutors like Khanmigo.
“There are certain things that a human tutor can do that it’s going to be a while for the AI to get close to,” he says. “I think just that human to human accountability, human to human connection is very powerful. The ability for the human tutor to interface with parents, interface with the teacher, make sense of things, hold you accountable. I think we’re trying to give Khanmigo elements of that, but that will be a long time off.”
He is very clear that he and his team don’t view it as an either-or proposition when it comes to AI versus human educators. In fact, his suite of offerings includes the sister nonprofit Schoolhouse.World that provides live, human tutoring on Zoom for free.
“We think these things are very complimentary,” he explains. “It’s not about replacing human tutors; it’s more that the need has always been so great, and human tutors haven’t been able to meet that need. Hopefully, Khanmigo can start meeting part of that need.”
Finally, there are some privacy, security and ethical concerns. Will students use these tools to cheat? Will students and teachers become too reliant on technology at the expense of losing creativity, emotional intelligence and critical thinking skills? AI systems rely on collecting data from users to function effectively, which could be problematic down the road if it’s misused or mishandled. And how ethical is it for AI to be involved in assessing students, such as giving them grades?
Is It Right for Your Family?
As technology continues to evolve and more AI tutors become available, do some research to decide what’s appropriate for your children. Refer to Common Sense Media’s information and reviews about AI products at commonsensemedia.org/ai
Khan also encourages parents to be skeptical of new, unvetted products. “I’d be a little bit wary of a lot of the [tools] that target students. They’re essentially helping students cheat,” he warns. In addition, it’s always important to evaluate the safety and privacy of each product you consider using.
Also, many of these tools aren’t accurate enough.
“If you just go to ChatGPT, or any of these [tools]… especially on things like math, it’ll make a lot of errors, and the errors aren’t just math errors. It’ll say you’re right when you’re wrong or you’re wrong when you’re right,” says Khan.
On the other hand, Khan stands by Khanmigo since they have worked to reduce the error rate. “We think Khanmigo is actually now comparable, or better, to a high-quality human tutor.” It makes errors only about 2% of the time, according to their research.
Still not sure? Continue reading reviews and asking questions before jumping on board. Talk to teachers, other parents and students about their experiences with different smart tutors. Finally, be part of the experience alongside your children as they explore working with AI programs so you can see for yourself exactly how they work and impact your children, whether positively or negatively.
Sandi Schwartz is a freelance journalist, and mother of two. She writes frequently about parenting, wellness and environmental issues. Both her parenting book, “Finding Ecohappiness: Fun Nature Activities to Help Your Kids Feel Happier and Calmer,” and children’s book, “Sky’s Search for Ecohappiness,” are available now. Learn more at ecohappinessproject.com.
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