Experts in educational technology have canvassed the need for policymakers and teachers to adopt artificial intelligence in the Nigerian education system to enhance the learning experience for students and teachers.
This was the takeout at the just concluded May edition of Edtech Mondays, an initiative of the Co-Creation Hub (CCHUB) in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation’s Centre for Innovative Teaching & Learning in ICT themed “Artificial Intelligence in Education” moderated by Chinyelu Akpa, Practice Lead, Education, CcHUB.
One of the panelists, the Co-founder, Schoola Limited, Abdullahi Bature, noted that there was no doubt that the integration of AI in education has become pivotal to the effectiveness of learning and teaching in today’s educational system.
Bature explained that with the deployment of AI-enabled tools, the challenges associated with obsolete curricula, and a shortage of quality teachers in Nigeria’s educational system will become a thing of the past.
Describing the use of artificial intelligence as Einstein in everyone’s garage, he said “For us, we see Al as our work colleague, that is, that colleague that is hardworking, and can help you do the chores.”
Another panelist, Country Director, Global AI Council Nigeria, Freda Anyanwu, who spoke on the role of the organization in ensuring AI technologies in education stressed that there was a need to implement AI ethically and responsibly.
Anyanwu noted that the application of AI in education would go a long way to making teaching and learning more effective, adding that teachers would have the opportunity to structure teaching methods that are not only custom-made for students but also cater to different pinpoints.
She disclosed that her organization was planning to collaborate with the government by developing a national artificial intelligence strategy that would help create guidelines and frameworks necessary to make sure that AI is ethically used in Nigeria, especially in the education sector.
In his view, the Community Operations Manager, Data Science Nigeria, Omotayo Olorunfemi who spoke on the significance of AI in education explained that the introduction of AI in education would no doubt enhance personalized learning but also leverage data-driven insight.
Olorunfemi noted that the incorporation of AI in Nigeria’s education system would have a huge impact on learning with students having improved learning experience. He noted that his organisation is playing its part in upskilling young Nigerians or local talents through several initiatives and partnerships to prepare them for an AI-enabled world.
“Personalisation of learning is where learners can have access to AI-enabled systems, AI-enabled platforms, AI-enabled solutions that they can leverage to generate learning content in the form of text, in the form of videos, in the form of audios, even in the form of flashcards. This learning process enables students to be able to select their preferred learning approaches, such that they are learning with the kind of content that they will be more interested in learning with,” he said.
