ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN THE CLASSROOM

It is an exercise in stating the obvious to say we are living in a rapidly changing world, where technology is both one of the most disruptive and exciting influences on our society. Yet change is constant, and something that we have experienced forever – in the 17th century King Henry IV of France wished for all his people to have "a chicken in every pot." Fast forward 300 years to 1977 and Bill Gates' vision was for a "computer on every desk and in every home" and now with the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) it seems there is a computer in every pot and chicken! Education is not immune to the increasing influences of technology and yet after a decade working in schools and the wider education sector, I've never been more convinced that teachers are the most valuable resource a school can possess and the old scare-mongering that robots will replace them could not be further from the truth. That said, technology and AI is going to empower and enable schools and teachers to do more than ever before and this is at the heart of Microsoft's vision and is evident through increasingly smart applications designed to help educators and students alike.