Education Week - February 12, 2020 - 13

How Artificial Intelligence Might Save Time
By Alyson Klein
Teachers: Could you use an extra 13
hours in your work week, or for your
personal life?
That might be possible in the future, according to a report published
last month by McKinsey & Company:
"How Artificial Intelligence Will Impact K-12 Teachers."
The report estimates that 20 percent
to 40 percent of the tasks teachers
spend time on-grading, lesson
planning, general administration-
could be outsourced to technology.
But some teachers and AI experts
caution that the report's conclusion
might be overly optimistic, and may
apply to some groups of students and
schools more than others.
The McKinsey authors acknowledge
some limitations, but say that AI could
help teachers prioritize the tasks that
matter most. While AI-which is basically intelligent software that becomes
more sophisticated in its thinking
based on the amount and quality of
data fed into it-can't inspire students,
resolve conflicts, or mentor and coach,
technology could free teachers up to
focus on those more important, and
more rewarding, tasks, they argue.
Additional time could "help support
social-emotional learning and the development of the 21st-century skills
that will be necessary to thrive in an
increasingly automated workplace,"
the report says. "It will enable teachers to foster one-on-one relationships
with students, encourage self-regulation and perseverance, and help students collaborate with each other."
Or it could give educators extra time
to focus on their personal lives, which
in turn might make the profession
more attractive, the report says.
One area that shouldn't be outsourced, according to the report?
The actual teaching. Widespread
use of technology for direct instruction may actually do student learning more harm than good. The most
recent Program for International
Student Assessment found that students who used technology in the
classroom performed worse than
those who didn't. The National Assessment for Educational Progress, or NAEP, cast similar doubts
about the usefulness of technology.

Not 'One Size Fits All'
To be sure, automating teacher tasks
comes with a whole host of logistical
and ethical issues. For one thing, there
are the serious privacy considerations
with any technology that collects and
analyzes student data.
Plus, Anastassia Loukina, a research
scientist focusing on natural language
processing and speech at the Educational Testing Service, said there are
bound to be huge differences in just
how much technology can help different types of teachers, in different
types of schools, get their work done.
Technology, she said, may help
teachers fill out forms faster. But the
extent to which it helps with assessing student progress, lesson plan-

ning, and grading will depend a lot
on the type of students the teacher is
working with. A particular technology "may look like it works for everybody" but turn out not to work well
with students in special education,
English-language learners, or disadvantaged students.
Loukina expects that technology
could eventually serve as a helpful
partner for teachers, but it won't be
able to entirely do certain tasks, such
as grade student essays. A machine, for
instance, might be very good at checking whether a student used proper
grammar in an English composition,
but less skilled at connecting what
a student wrote in a paper that was
based on a recent class discussion.
"It's likely that it's not going to be
one size fits all," she said.
Teachers are also uncertain about
the report's conclusions.
Judith Stork, a 12th grade Spanish
teacher in Columbia County, Ga., said
she has some qualms about turning
over grading to artificial intelligence,
especially for student writing.
"I would be nervous [about letting
AI] give feedback on a writing assignment," she said. "It's personal, it's a
conversation, you want authentic audience." She expects students "would
not give the same quality of output if
they know it's a machine reading versus a human."
What's more, she worries that affluent, well-resourced districts and
schools would likely get access to the
technology first, exacerbating the
digital access gap between schools
serving high percentages of disadvantaged students and those that don't.

Teachers work about 50 hours a week, spending less than
half of the time in direct interaction with students.
Activity composition of teacher working hours, by number of hours:

Student
instruction and
engagement 16.5

Preparation 10.5

Evaluation and
feedback 6.5
Professional
development 6.5

average hours *
of working time
per week for
teachers

Administration 5 **

Student behavioral-,
social-, and
emotional-skill
development 3.5

Student coaching
and advisement 4.5

SOURCE:
McKinsey
& Company

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*Average for respondents in Canada, Singapore, United Kingdom, and United States. **Includes small "other" category.

Automate Everything?
Still, at least some teachers do see
the potential of AI to help with some
of the time-consuming, but not necessarily student-centric, tasks. For
instance, according to an Education
Week survey conducted earlier this
year, 44 percent of teachers thought
AI could help in "taking attendance,
making copies, and other administrative tasks." Another 30 percent suggested grading and another 30 percent hoped technology could make it
easier to communicate with Englishlanguage learners.
And some teachers are all in on the
idea.
John Davenport, a 7th and 8th grade
social studies teacher at Corte Madera
School in Portola Valley, Calif., said he
was surprised that the report estimated
that technology could automate only
40 percent of a teacher's job.
"I think mixing current ed tech with
AI you could probably automate just
about everything that teachers do,"
he said, with two notable exceptions:
mentoring students and managing their learning. "The face-to-face
human interaction, I don't think AI
could replace that," he said.
He would be eager, he said, to focus
on that part of the job and outsource
the rest. "It would be much more rewarding than putting grades into the
student information system," he said.

Defining and Measuring College,
Career, and Life Readiness in Schools
Many district and school leaders are
defining their vision for a holistic
graduate profile that includes life
skills. Join this webinar to learn
how educators are envisioning,
measuring, and ultimately improving
college, career, and life readiness.

Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2020
2-3 PM ET
www.edweek.org/go/
webinar/LifeSkills

guest
* CaSSanDRa GRaCia, Director
of Counseling and College,
Career and Military Services,
Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City
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Education Week - February 12, 2020

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