AI – Oh My!
Everywhere we turn, there is some reference to Artificial Intelligence – how it’s going to improve or ruin our world as we know it. For those who don’t know a lot about AI (most of us!), it can be a scary prospect, especially if we have children. And many of us with special needs kids are downright terrified!
We’ve all read about how AI can help us to write, create, evaluate and grow. And we’ve also learned the downside: it can limit our creativity and even increase our laziness! So in order to help our children, we need to take on the formidable task of examining it and finding out how to use it best to improve our lives.
When we do, we’ll find that there’s lots of good news. Here are some of the ways AI can help our children:
- Did you know that you can turn text to speech and vice versa to help your kids to read? And, there are a lot of free (yes, free!) tools to help you. You might want to start with “Google Accessibility Help” and work from there.
- Personalized Learning – AI can analyze your child’s strengths and weaknesses and tailor their resources to suit their needs. Most of these tools are available to teachers, but there are a ton that you can access as a parent. Check out Common Sense Media which is a good start for suggestions.
- AI Chatbots (our biggest worry) can actually provide help for our kids’ simple questions and answer those that are frustrating them. So, not only can they ask “What is the Declaration of Independence?” but they can also add, “Explain it to me at a third grade level.” Same with Math. In fact, the Chatbot may be able to help solve problems that even we can’t figure out! Take your kids on a “ChatGTP Tour” and have fun experimenting with all the things you can do.
- How about making learning materials more accessible? AI can do that too! For instance, AI can turn a textbook into an audiobook or a digital book where you can change the font sizes.
These just begin to scratch the surface, and the future looks even more robust in terms of services for special needs learners – think “intelligent tutoring” and “predictive analytics.” Big terms with huge implications. Products are being developed every day that perform those functions and more.
Of course, we’ll always worry about losing control of how our children are using AI. We’re concerned about ethics and the personal data we have to share when using these tools. What about the “digital divide” and how some kids have more access to technology than others. Does this increase inequity in our schools?
And, as with all tech, we are concerned about keeping the human touch in our lives. Even now, we complain that our children are “always on their phones.” What’s next on the horizon?
Perhaps the best thing we can do is accept that improvements in technology are inevitable and they’re going to keep changing our world. So how do we handle it? By learning as much as we can and harnessing it for the good of our families.
