Bridging Minds and Machines : The Evolution of Teacher-AI Partnership in Shaping Future Classrooms
Žigraiová, Veronika (2024)
2024
Master's Programme in Human-Technology Interaction
Informaatioteknologian ja viestinnän tiedekunta - Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2024-06-05
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202405296441
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202405296441
Tiivistelmä
Technology has been slowly but surely dominating all aspects of our lives. The recent worldwide pandemic revealed both benefits and limitations of the use of these technologies within all areas of our lives, work and education being in the spotlight. Due to the unfortunate event, education had to shift into the virtual world, and the use of phones, tablets, laptops and even robots and Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms grew exponentially. Over the past few years, robots have been used in language education catering to a more motivational environment and helping in improving language skills. Currently, this trend has been shifted towards AI-augmentation, as its abilities provide almost human-like interactions, which can lead to novel possibilities within language education and assist the forever-growing demand for teachers. Therefore, finding ways that would augment the teachers within their classroom could significantly improve the quality of language education.
This research aims to design a concept of an AI-augmented language classroom, which would harness the benefits of AI and address the needs of teachers and students. The main goal is to answer the three research questions: What is the potential of AI changing the teacher-student dynamics and learning in language learning classrooms? To what extent will educators and students accept the integration of AI into the learning process? What potential benefits and challenges are associated with AI-augmented language learning environments for teachers and students? Initially, a co-design workshop was conducted, where two Finnish language teachers, three Finnish language students and one specialist participated in a series of designed tasks, to explore the needs and expectations of language education. The data was collected by surveys, pre- and post-interviews, and task completion on the collaborative canvas. Based on the data, the concept of an AI-language assistant was designed and then simulated by using ChatGPT, which was were there prompted to behave as a Finnish language assistant. Then, the concept idea of the AI- language assistant was evaluated during an online Finnish language class. In total, 12 Finnish language students attended these sessions. During two sessions, the acceptance, benefits, and challenges were compared and assessed, between the two situations. First, when using the AI-language assistant, and second, when relying only on traditional study methods i.e., memorising flashcards.
This thesis project answers the research questions and highlights the benefits and challenges, as well as the acceptance of AI-language assistants. Additionally, it offers ideas about how the relationships between teachers and students might change in the future. The main findings revealed the benefits of having a conversational AI-powered language assistant constantly available to students while studying. Additionally, the students expressed satisfaction with the availability of immediate feedback provided by the AI-language assistant, which led to better performance in their language test scores. On the contrary, the main challenges that the participants reported were the current technology limitations of AI, as its working memory is limited, and conversations still might not feel as natural as they would like. Moreover, the language teachers expressed worries that students could be losing the abilities of interpersonal communication together with the overall connection.
The results of this thesis project provide valuable connections to the previous literature related to AI in language education. This project aims to evaluate and provide additional findings towards the development of AI-augmented language classrooms. Furthermore, it offers 11 implications for designing AI-augmented classrooms. These implications include, e.g., proper AI education of the users, personalization of the language experience, encouraging teachers' creativity while saving their time and providing immediate feedback and progress status to the students.
This research aims to design a concept of an AI-augmented language classroom, which would harness the benefits of AI and address the needs of teachers and students. The main goal is to answer the three research questions: What is the potential of AI changing the teacher-student dynamics and learning in language learning classrooms? To what extent will educators and students accept the integration of AI into the learning process? What potential benefits and challenges are associated with AI-augmented language learning environments for teachers and students? Initially, a co-design workshop was conducted, where two Finnish language teachers, three Finnish language students and one specialist participated in a series of designed tasks, to explore the needs and expectations of language education. The data was collected by surveys, pre- and post-interviews, and task completion on the collaborative canvas. Based on the data, the concept of an AI-language assistant was designed and then simulated by using ChatGPT, which was were there prompted to behave as a Finnish language assistant. Then, the concept idea of the AI- language assistant was evaluated during an online Finnish language class. In total, 12 Finnish language students attended these sessions. During two sessions, the acceptance, benefits, and challenges were compared and assessed, between the two situations. First, when using the AI-language assistant, and second, when relying only on traditional study methods i.e., memorising flashcards.
This thesis project answers the research questions and highlights the benefits and challenges, as well as the acceptance of AI-language assistants. Additionally, it offers ideas about how the relationships between teachers and students might change in the future. The main findings revealed the benefits of having a conversational AI-powered language assistant constantly available to students while studying. Additionally, the students expressed satisfaction with the availability of immediate feedback provided by the AI-language assistant, which led to better performance in their language test scores. On the contrary, the main challenges that the participants reported were the current technology limitations of AI, as its working memory is limited, and conversations still might not feel as natural as they would like. Moreover, the language teachers expressed worries that students could be losing the abilities of interpersonal communication together with the overall connection.
The results of this thesis project provide valuable connections to the previous literature related to AI in language education. This project aims to evaluate and provide additional findings towards the development of AI-augmented language classrooms. Furthermore, it offers 11 implications for designing AI-augmented classrooms. These implications include, e.g., proper AI education of the users, personalization of the language experience, encouraging teachers' creativity while saving their time and providing immediate feedback and progress status to the students.