#238: Transforming Education with AI Advancements, with Alex Jenkins

In this episode, Alex Jenkins, Director at WA Data Science Innovation Hub, discusses the potential of AI advancements in revolutionising the education system. Jenkins envisions a future where education moves away from the one-size-fits-all approach and embraces a mastery model, allowing students to progress at their own pace and ensuring complete understanding before moving on to the next topic. The use of AI as virtual educational assistants can provide personalised tutoring, benefiting students by improving their educational outcomes. Studies have shown that one-on-one tutoring can significantly elevate students' performance.

Large language models, such as AI assistants, can be tailored to individual students' learning styles and strengths. This personalisation can enhance critical thinking skills, broaden students' worldview, and help them make informed decisions about their academic journey. By leveraging AI, teachers can manage classrooms with the assistance of virtual teaching aides, enabling each student to master the material before progressing to the next level.

Looking ahead to the next twelve months, Jenkins anticipates the transition to a mastery model of education, especially in STEM subjects like mathematics. This approach will ensure students achieve true mastery of concepts before moving forward. Furthermore, AI technology can enhance teacher productivity by providing resources, such as lesson plans and tailored exercises, that cater to individual students' skill levels. Khan Academy's Carmego AI serves as a leading example in this field, offering personalised tutoring and empowering teachers with effective teaching tools.

Jenkins acknowledges the importance of considering the practical implementation of AI in education. While the technology holds immense potential, it should not replace socialisation, interaction, and hands-on learning in the classroom. 

While concerns about hallucinations and AI-generated errors exist, Jenkins believes these risks are manageable and can be minimised through guided use cases and ongoing improvements in technology. He compares the trajectory of large language models to the development of space travel, where initial imperfections and limitations pave the way for future advancements and increased reliability.

Reflecting on his personal journey in technology and data science, Jenkins emphasises the importance of promoting AI and data science education. He focuses on stimulating demand for AI services, fostering collaboration between academia, public services, and private industry, and encouraging students to pursue data science as a career path. Through initiatives like hackathons, the potential of AI in areas like emergency services becomes evident, showcasing how technology can save lives.

Lastly, Jenkins discusses the upcoming Data & AI for Business Conference & Exhibition, scheduled to take place in August in Western Australia. The conference aims to explore the potential of data analytics and artificial intelligence in transforming businesses. It welcomes participants regardless of their AI or data backgrounds, as the focus is on understanding how these technologies can drive business growth and change.

Enjoy the show!

Thank you to our sponsor, Talent Insights Group!

Visit the WA Data Science Innovation Hub https://wadsih.org.au/

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"AI technology can enhance teacher productivity by providing resources, such as lesson plans and tailored exercises, that cater to individual students' skill levels."

—  Alex Jenkins, Director of the Innovation Hub at Curtin University

WHAT WE DISCUSSED

00:00 Welcome to the Data Futurology Podcast.

03:14 Introduction to the speaker, Alex, and his background in data analytics and artificial intelligence.

04:17 Transforming the traditional classroom model of education to incorporate personalised learning.

09:57 Transitioning to a mastery model of education to personalise learning and improve student outcomes.

21:30 The work of the WA Data Science Innovation Hub and the Data & AI for Business Conference & Exhibition

31:21 AI & Healthcare - Using generative AI to create clinical notes

39:48  Minimising human bias with language models

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

• “Moving away from that world is something that we've been wanting to do as an industry for a long time, and there's obviously been a number of organisations and initiatives around that. But now the developments in large language models open up a new world of possibilities."

• “So with large language models, all of a sudden we're looking at a scenario where we can treat these AIS as virtual educational assistants... Let them master the material. No one moves on to the next topic until they have mastered the previous one. That is a really exciting opportunity.”

• "I think the first one, the biggest opportunity I see is this transition to what we would call a mastery model of education... Each student has to progress at their own pace. So that whole concept is called the mastery model. And I think that in particular has the ability to significantly improve student outcomes in mathematics and the STEM areas in particular."

• “So much of education is socialisation. It's about interaction, it's about communication, it's about hands-on work”

• "One of the things that these AIS can't solve is they can't solve any kind of behavioural or attentional issues. So it's not this magic band-aid. It's a way to improve learning outcomes."

• "There are some risks that people worry about in terms of hallucinations... But I see them as manageable... Let's focus on improving it and getting that reliability up.”

• "That's going to be really exciting because this is technology that can save lives. So we're going to have almost 100 students and young professionals, I think, working on these problems for a few days and it will really open people's eyes within the public sector about what's possible with technology.”

• “I think over time, people have got this expectation that they almost have multiple careers during their working life and that they want to be able to move into different areas. So providing that through the university and the Innovation Hub, that's phenomenal. And having people being able to learn the skills and then take them back to their jobs, I think that's a great initiative.”

• "In this case, we go from unstructured data to structured data, basically, to then be able to use the now structured data as inputs to models that personalise the level of care that different people need and the level of support to provide to them.”

• “Leveraging generative AI to create the text was something that just gave us a huge bump in productivity to be able to create the models. And that was something we were kind of scratching our heads for a while because creating synthetic data has always been a challenge."

• "For me, the two big areas are education and medicine. These are the areas where we can make significant improvements to the quality of people's lives.”

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