This post presents a perspective by our consultant Marc Bond, who was born with congenital hydrocephalus and cerebral palsy, and who developed anterograde amnesia at 8 years old, after routine ventricular shunt replacement surgery went wrong.
Education in an online environment is about making information readily available and easy to digest for all types of learners. Accessible education empowers students with disabilities to develop the same skills and achieve the same level of knowledge as their peers. Education has historically challenged some students more than others. When classrooms require students to learn through a singular method of teaching — for instance, through textbooks or in-person lectures — it tends to leave students with complex disabilities at a disadvantage. Often the responsibility is placed on the disabled learner to accommodate the learning provider with their access requirements. But the toll of continuously disclosing can be traumatic for students who have been professionally identified as disabled and intimidating to those considering asking for help.
A key component in creating an inclusive and engaging classroom environment is ensuring that all students can access their learning materials. Part of this involves reframing the narrative that providing or creating accessible content is too overwhelming or complicated. Some of the most common obstacles to accessibility are cognitive disabilities, language barriers, visual impairments, and literacy problems, which indicates a lack of understanding when it comes to broader implications of neurological ailments such as anterograde amnesia, hydrocephalus and other memory-related conditions affecting a learner, which are not covered by society’s current acceptance of a ‘disabled’ student. The question of whether amnesiacs can acquire new general knowledge about the world has actually been a concern of memory theorists for a while (Cohen and Squire, 1980; Cohen, 1984; Squire, 1987). Other researchers (Kinsbourne and Wood, 1975; Cermak, 1984; Warrington and Weiskrantz, 1982) have suggested that the amnesiacs’ deficit is limited just to the learning and recall of episodic memories, while semantic memory (Tulving, 1983), which can be thought of as a form of generic memory (Hintzman, 1978), remains intact.
Having existed as a potential solution for over four decades, AI has now become a buzzword across academic disciplines. In a study focusing on the role of the hippocampus, a brain region important for memory, researchers built an artificial intelligence model to better understand these processes, discovering that sequences of experiences are prioritized during replay based on familiarity and rewards. The AI agent learnt spatial information more effectively when replaying these prioritised sequences, offering valuable insight into the way brains learn and process information, by repeating neuronal sequences. and prioritised according to certain rules (Driessen, 2023).
AI in education is not about replacing teachers, but rather about empowering them to deliver personalised instruction, providing teachers with better resources and allowing them more time with each student individually. AI is poised to facilitate a sea change in education, with tools like ChatGPT, enabling access to information should no longer be the primary focus of classroom learning. Limited memory AI is characterised by its ability to absorb learning data and improve over time based on its experience similar to the way the human brain’s neurons connect. This is the AI that is widely used and being perfected today (Marr, 2021).
Continual learning becomes possible, where techniques emulating the human ability to adapt their behaviour in a dynamic environment. The models are re-trained with recent events to continuously adapt them to changing environments (i.e., the recommendation system of Netflix requires constant fine-tuning in response to the introduction of new shows and evolving viewer preferences).
Brainly is a web-based learning platform where kids and parents seek homework and study assistance from peers and professionals and is available in 35 countries (Seedtable.com, 2023). The platform and its group of websites and apps, gives students the opportunity to ask questions freely to the online community comprised of students, parents, and teachers. The software is developed with a mission to help students gain the confidence that comes from helping others and inspire them to learn in a collaborative community. Its AI-enabled features are built to give every student access to personalized learning, enabling them to receive verified and tailored answers to their homework questions and help with test prep.
Through interactive learning methods, AI can dynamically alter course content, provide instant feedback, and gauge student involvement, allowing students to access knowledge from various sources effortlessly, tracking the progress of students and identifying areas of strength and weakness. AI-driven learning could encourage lifelong learning by enhancing accessibility and personalising the method of instruction. In a safe and regulated atmosphere, students can participate in simulations and real-world situations, which can help them better learn and remember subjects (Moonpreneur, 2023). The best AI tool that students can employ is Brainly, it has significant features to make learning quick, easy, and amusing for students. With the help of machine learning algorithms, AI-powered mobile apps can analyse students’ performance, and provide personalised learning experiences, allowing students to improve their learning experience. Chatbots integrated into mobile apps can provide users with conversational interfaces to enhance the user experience of providing instant customer support, answering common questions, and interacting with students effectively. Employing artificial intelligence tools, VR and AR technologies to create engaging lessons for learners of any age creates a better understanding of complex data and conceptual subjects, enhancing student engagement across all educational levels.
To accommodate disabled students in an online environment, support should be implemented as a default, and not as an optional extra. All online lectures should be recorded to allow for playback for students with memory difficulties, or who struggle to participate in group activities. Speech-to-text should be standard practice so that subtitles can be inserted into online tutorials to accommodate the diversity of accents, speech patterns and poor articulation, so that students can participate. While accessible technologies have come a long way, there is still a lot of ground to cover. The education sector, in particular, can improve in this area so that all students have an equal footing on their academic journeys. Listening to disabled students should be the number one priority of institutions, as faculty and administration work together to gradually dismantle accessibility issues and barriers prevalent in higher education while continuously elevating the voices of the disabled community.
References
Driessen, M. (2023) AI emulates Brain’s memory replay, uncovering how we learn, Neuroscience News. Available at: https://neurosciencenews.com/place-cell-ai-learning-23202/ (Accessed: 17 August 2023).
Marr, B. (2021). What are the Four Types of AI? | Bernard Marr. [online] Bernard Marr. Available at: https://bernardmarr.com/what-are-the-four-types-of-ai/ [Accessed 17 Aug. 2023].
Moonpreneur (2023). AI Negative and Positive Impact on Education Industry. [online] Moonpreneur. Available at: https://moonpreneur.com/blog/ai-negative-and-positive-impact-on-education-industry/ [Accessed 17 Aug. 2023].
Seedtable.com. (2023). 121 Best Edtech Startups to Watch in 2023. [online] Available at: https://www.seedtable.com/startups-edtech [Accessed 17 Aug. 2023].
Image source:
Tbsnews.net. (2023). Available at: https://www.tbsnews.net/sites/default/files/styles/very_big_3/public/images/2023/05/27/artificial_intelligence_ai_machine_learning_-_30212411048.jpg [Accessed 17 Aug. 2023]
