Summary: AI has entered the world of education; for better or for worse? That’s up to you. Understanding both the benefits and potential risks of AI in education can best help you keep your children safe from the dangers while reaping the benefits.
II. Benefits of AI in Education
B. Exposure to Inappropriate Content
IV. 3 Ways Parents Can Ensure Safe AI Use for Their Kids
Introduction
Artificial Intelligence, or AI, has taken the role of making our lives so much easier. It has made repetitive menial tasks simpler with the click of a button. Along with all the convenience AI provides, it also has the power to reshape the landscape of education. Although, while its presence has made everyday workloads feel lighter and more efficient, it is also being met with some caution and skepticism.
Issues such as overreliance, biased answers, and safety and data privacy are coming to light with the increased dominance of AI in everyday life. People are calling for AI developers and policymakers around the world to create safety precautions. While the AI water is still kind of murky, it’s hard to deny that its benefits to education aren’t present and relevant. It might just be possible to find the perfect balance of making the most out of this new tool for education without losing the human essence of education.
While waiting for policies and regulations to come about AI, it is important that education on AI literacy starts at home. Understanding the benefits and risks of AI can help you and your family find the best way to utilize it as an empowering tool for education rather than its replacement.
Benefits of AI in Education
According to a 2024 study, 32% of adults in the United States see AI as having a positive impact on education in both traditional brick and mortar schools and homeschool settings. Here are some of the biggest benefits that AI has in terms of its application for education.
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Personalized Learning
Every child has their own learning pace and style. Thanks to AI, content can be adjusted so that your child can get the most out of every lesson. Lessons can be simplified or advanced depending on your child’s needs. This may prevent them from feeling frustrated when faced with a more complex lesson and/or giving them more advanced lessons when they easily pick up a concept. AI software and the development of “assistive technology” have also helped make education more accessible and inclusive for all types of student needs.
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Building Life Skills
The proper use of AI for education may encourage students to explore their curiosity further than the lesson plans. Questions may arise with each topic, and AI can help gather resources for your child to explore and learn more about their interests. AI can also support your child’s creative development. AI has the power to prepare gamified lessons/simulations to engage your child and stimulate their critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills. Introducing your child to AI and helping them navigate this new tool in education may also gear them with AI literacy skills that will prove very useful for a future where AI may be even more integrated into their possible careers.
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Administrative Assistant
AI has become the behind-the-scenes helper of a lot of parents and educators. It can help you organize lessons, track progress, adjust, and even find learning materials for your child, and so much more. AI has become a parent’s little helper with all the tedious admin work so that you can be more present in supporting your child’s education journey, creating real life learning experiences to support what they learn online. This especially makes things easier if you have different children in various grade levels as well.
Potential Risks
Even with these appealing benefits, people are still approaching AI with caution – and they should. It is important to note that with the pros of AI, there are potential risks as well. It is crucial to understand both sides of the AI coin to know how to use it in the most efficient way for you and your family.
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Privacy and Safety
AI software builds on information that it collects and stores; this may include the information that you and your children input as well. The data that you provide may be used for various tests and upgrades to the program without your immediate awareness/consent.
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Exposure to Inappropriate Content
While there are limited AI programs that have child specific policies for privacy and safety, there are just as few programs that ensure they only see age-appropriate content. Without the right supervision, children may be exposed to harmful or problematic material before they are able to fully process it by themselves. This is especially relevant when you consider that AI gets its answers from across the internet where all kinds of opinions are scattered, leading to sometimes biased answers from AI.
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Overuse/Overreliance
Overusing/relying on AI can lead to significant physical and mental effects on your child. Overusing technology can lead them to reduce time spent on healthy extracurricular activities while being overly reliant on it can cause them to have AI give them the answers to their assignments instead of doing the work themselves. Overreliance can also lead to a “parasocial relationship” which may cause your child to avoid creating real world relationships and value the “friendship” of AI instead.
3 Ways Parents Can Ensure Safe AI Use for Their Kids
Want to have the best of both worlds by making the most out of the benefits of AI and avoiding the potential risks? Here are 3 ways to get you and your family started using AI safely to have the best homeschooling experience.
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Educate Yourself and Your Child to be AI Literate
Educate yourself about AI software before introducing it to your child. Knowing about the world of AI will help you know which programs your child needs and which they need to avoid. It may also be useful for you to go through the data privacy policies that a software may have with your child to explain to them why it’s important to protect private information when using AI. A part of being AI literate is to also teach your child to be critical of the responses that AI gives. If AI gives an answer that might seem biased or confuses them, encourage your child to challenge AI and question it even further about their sources or to do the research themselves and compare their findings to what AI offers.
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Set Clear Boundaries
Setting boundaries may help your child find a balance between using AI as a tool instead of a replacement for their education, but it can also encourage them to have a life beyond their screens by getting involved in extracurricular activities like sports or interest/hobby clubs and create meaningful and genuine human connection with those around them.
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Monitor Usage
Make sure that your child is using appropriate AI software for their age and schoolwork. Remember that younger children need direct adult supervision when using AI.
Ending Notes
At the end of the day, we must always remember what the “A” in “AI” stands for – “artificial”. AI is meant to be our assistant in clearing up our schedule to have more time to have real life experiences which can help our children foster true learning, understanding, and retention. Teaching your child how to be AI literate will definitely help prepare them for the future by building their life skills like problem solving, creative thinking, and critical AI literacy. AI should empower your child to become a more independent thinker who isn’t afraid to ask questions but more importantly to find the answers they are searching for.
FAQs
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Is using AI for school considered cheating?
- AI is a very capable tool that can help make every child’s unique learning experience even better. Remembering its role as a tool for education (and not its replacement) is crucial to ensuring that your child absorbs everything they learn.
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Is my child too young to use AI?
- Younger children may need direct adult supervision when using AI while older kids may be given more independence. Although, all children should be aware of the responsibility, boundaries, and balance that they must practice when using AI.
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How can I protect my child’s privacy while using AI?
- ensure that your child does not share the following on any AI platform:
- their name, address
- school name
- sensitive details of their personal lives (ex. family member names, jobs of relatives, daily schedule, etc.)
- You may also review the privacy policies of the AI software that they use and keep a lookout for any updates they might make on these.
- ensure that your child does not share the following on any AI platform:
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Is AI replacing teachers?
- Never! Teachers continue to be your child’s primary educator. AI serves as a teaching assistant, helping your child get a better grasp of concepts and open up more conversations that they may have with you as their parent/guardian and their teacher.
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What can I do to prevent my child from using AI as a personal support system?
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- remind your child that they are speaking to a machine
- help them understand that it was programmed to keep engagement up, which may lead to consistently supportive replies no matter what is being talked about
- explain to them that AI cannot provide reciprocity or push back even when it might be needed – and that these are crucial to creating genuine human connections
- remind them that you are ready to give them the support that they need
