Where does machine learning fit in the education sector?

In the present exam-driven world of education, whenever a new technology emerges people want to know how it can be used to make kids get better marks, how it can speed up teaching and cut the cost of learning, and could it be used to replace teachers altogether? These are all the wrong questions. Young people are not widgets and learning is not an industrial process. Applying business productivity and efficiency models misses the real opportunity. Technology tends to come around in cycles and machine learning is not a new technology to education.