The Application of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Technologies in Education and Training
We live in the era of the Internet, the World Wide Web, and other human creations that break new barriers in communications, distance and time, within the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The benefits of these inventions, have created entire economies based on the Internet. This wide technology touches all aspects of business, human interaction, and especially education and training. How we educate and nurture the new generations, how we facilitate the development of the next big wave, the Fifth Industrial Revolution, the merging of man and machine, perhaps a new species. That’s the 21st century!
Retrospectively, the Industrial Revolution in England, gave humanity much more than just big machines, automation, steam engines and railroads, machines for better agricultural production; it actually started a new area of human imagination and taught us that our imagination and our minds are limitless. Many dreams of centuries and thousands of years of evolution and the conquering of space and time became reality. Behind all these new ideas was something we call today Artificial Intelligence, initially a branch of Mathematics and then of Computer Science, blending with other sciences. We try to create machines who not only to emulate and help our work (as it has been done or attempted since the dawn of civilization) utilizing machines who can think like us, behave like us, to do jobs we can’t do, and eventually will replace us: the robots.
In computer science, artificial intelligence (AI), sometimes called machine intelligence, is intelligence demonstrated by machines, in contrast to the natural intelligence displayed by humans and animals. Computer science defines AI research as the study of “intelligent agents”: any device that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of successfully achieving its goals. (Poole, David; Mackworth, Alan; Goebel, Randy, 1998). Colloquially, the term “artificial intelligence” is used to describe machines that mimic “cognitive” functions that humans associate with other human minds, such as “learning” and “problem-solving”. (Wikipedia)
The traditional problems (or goals) of AI research include reasoning, knowledge representation, planning, learning, natural language processing, perception and the ability to move and manipulate objects. General intelligence is among the field’s long-term goals. Approaches include statistical methods, computational intelligence, and traditional symbolic AI. Many tools are used in AI, including versions of search and mathematical optimization, artificial neural networks, and methods based on statistics, probability and economics. The AI field draws upon computer science, information engineering, mathematics, psychology, linguistics, philosophy, and many other fields. (Wikipedia)
Big Data is a phrase used to mean a massive volume of both structured and unstructured data that is so large it is difficult to process using traditional database and software techniques. In most enterprise scenarios the volume of data is too big or it moves too fast or it exceeds.
Big data has been used in the industry to provide customer insights for transparent and simpler products, by analyzing and predicting customer behavior through data derived from social media, GPS-enabled devices, and CCTV footage. The big data also allows for better customer retention from insurance companies.
Globalization and Technology impact the world as a whole, albeit to varying degrees of effect and saturation. It is not a static term, but quite dynamic – assuming different hues of character, force, and appeal over the course of centuries. Analogically similar to any complex organism, globalization has gone through periods of gestation, rapid infantile development, growth pains and stifling illnesses, gradual maturity, decay, and reinvigoration – waxing in some parts of the world, waning in others. Relatively recently, globalization has become so unignorably ubiquitous that many products of it have become thoroughly internalized in many diverse societies to the degree that one cannot think of a life lived untouched by it in some way, shape, or form.
The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Learning. Artificial Intelligence (AI) makes it possible for machines to learn from experience, adjust to new inputs, and perform human-like tasks. Taking these cues, AI can also be applied to learning. In this article, I will be sharing my views about the ways in which AI can be used in learning.
There are many ways AI and Big Data is changing the learning industry: Smart Learning Content, Intelligent Tutoring Systems; Virtual Facilitators and Learning Environments; Content Analytics; Machines and Learning, Learning from Data, Personalized Learning, Assisting the Teacher, Automated Grading, Intermediate Interval Education, Feedback Loops for Teachers. Virtual Facilitators, Chat Campus, Personalized Learning, Adaptive Learning, Proctoring, Data Accumulation, and Personalization.
To conclude, it is the apparent fear that human educators can or will be replaced by AI technologies in the coming decade. As AI advances in education and training, it seems there is more evidence to support the idea that both intelligent systems and humans are needed to manage different aspects of learners’ academic and social competencies. I feel AI will likely not replace but will serve as a support system to the human expert!