Amandine Devergies Ginguené

Global Accessibility: Analyzing How AI can make education more accessible worldwide

Dec 28, 2023

Education is a fundamental human right, yet millions of people around the world face barriers to accessing quality education. Fortunately, advancements in technology, particularly in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), have the potential to revolutionize education and make it more accessible on a global scale.

How AI can enhance personalized learning

Personalized learning is an approach that tailors the learning experience to the individual needs, preferences, and goals of each learner. By leveraging AI algorithms, educational platforms can adapt to different learning styles, such as visual, auditory, or kinesthetic, and provide a suitable mode of instruction and interaction for each learner. This level of customization can empower learners who may have different ways of processing and retaining information.

  • Knewton: Knewton is an adaptive learning platform that uses AI to analyze data from millions of learners and provide personalized recommendations, feedback, and guidance. Knewton can adjust the content, format, and difficulty of the learning materials according to the learner’s learning style, preferences, and progress.
  • CENTURY: CENTURY is an AI-powered learning platform that provides personalized learning paths, assessments, and interventions for learners of all ages and abilities. CENTURY can deliver the learning content in various modes, such as text, audio, video, or interactive, depending on the learner’s learning style, interests, and goals.
  • DreamBox Learning: DreamBox Learning is an AI-driven math learning platform that adapts to the individual needs and progress of each learner. DreamBox Learning can offer different types of activities, such as games, puzzles, or simulations, to engage the learner’s learning style, motivation, and curiosity.
This is a photorealistic design of AI and personalized learning, showing a learner using an AI-powered platform that adapts to their learning style, preferences, and progress. The learner is a young woman with brown hair and glasses, wearing a blue sweater and headphones. She is sitting at a desk with a laptop, a notebook, and a pen. On the laptop screen, there is a logo of an AI-powered platform called Knewton, which provides personalized and adaptive learning experiences. The screen also shows a dashboard with the learner’s name, profile picture, course progress, and recommendations. The dashboard has a green and white color scheme, and uses icons, charts, and text to display the information. The image conveys the idea of how AI can enhance personalized learning by providing customized and relevant learning content and feedback for each learner.

How AI can facilitate language translation

Language translation is the process of converting text or speech from one language to another. By using AI-powered language translation tools, learners can access educational content in their native language, regardless of the language of instruction. This can break down language barriers and increase the availability and diversity of educational resources.

    • Microsoft Translator: Microsoft Translator is a language translation tool that uses AI to translate text, speech, images, and websites in over 70 languages. Microsoft Translator can help learners access educational content in their preferred language, as well as communicate with other learners or educators across language barriers.
    • Transcribe: Transcribe is a transcription and translation tool that uses AI to convert audio or video files into text in various languages. Transcribe can help learners create transcripts or subtitles for educational materials, such as lectures, podcasts, or documentaries, in their native language.
The image features a pair of headphones resting on a smartphone, which displays various colorful and vibrant graphics representing digital audio and voice control elements. The graphics include sound waves, musical notes, a microphone icon, and other user interface elements that suggest the technology is related to voice recognition, music applications, or audio interfaces. The image is highly stylized with a 3D effect that creates an impression of the icons floating above the phone's screen. This image could be used to visually represent topics such as modern audio technology, smart devices, voice-controlled applications, or digital multimedia interaction.

How AI can aid in the creation of accessible content

Accessible content is content that can be easily accessed and understood by all learners, regardless of their abilities or disabilities. By using AI technology, educators and content creators can automate the process of generating alt text for images, providing closed captions for videos, and optimizing document accessibility. These features can help learners with visual or hearing impairments engage with educational materials more effectively, ensuring they have equal opportunities to learn and succeed.

  • Microsoft Accessibility Checker: Microsoft Accessibility Checker is a tool that helps users identify and fix accessibility issues in their documents, presentations, or spreadsheets. The tool can check for issues such as missing alt text, unclear link text, or poor color contrast, and provide suggestions on how to improve them.
  • YouTube Automatic Captioning: YouTube Automatic Captioning is a feature that uses AI to generate captions for videos uploaded to YouTube. The feature can help learners with hearing impairments access the audio content of the videos, as well as learners who prefer to read along or learn in a different language.

How AI can provide remote and asynchronous learning opportunities

Remote and asynchronous learning are modes of learning that do not require physical presence or synchronous interaction between learners and educators. By using AI technology, online and blended learning platforms and virtual classrooms can offer flexible and convenient learning opportunities to learners in underserved communities, rural areas, and developing countries.

  • Eneza Education: Eneza Education is a mobile learning platform that provides access to quality education for learners in low-resource and low-connectivity settings. Eneza Education uses AI to deliver interactive and localized learning content, quizzes, and live tutoring via SMS, web, or app.
A digital classroom environment showcasing a diverse array of students engaging in online learning, with interactive icons representing different educational tools and technologies, emphasizing the global and interconnected nature of modern education.


How AI can reduce the barriers and costs of access to education

Barriers and costs of access to education are factors that prevent or limit learners from accessing quality education, such as financial, geographical, or infrastructural constraints. By using AI technology, educational platforms could lower the financial and logistical hurdles of accessing quality education, especially for marginalized or remote communities.

  • Onebillion: Onebillion is a non-profit organization that develops learning software for children in low-resource and low-connectivity settings. Onebillion’s software can run on low-cost devices, such as tablets or smartphones, and provide personalized and interactive learning content in various languages, such as English, Swahili, or Chichewa.
  • XPRIZE Global Learning Challenge: XPRIZE Global Learning Challenge is a competition that challenges teams to develop learning solutions that can enable children in developing countries to teach themselves basic reading, writing, and arithmetic skills. The challenge aims to empower millions of children who lack access to quality education.
Digital illustration of a transparent head silhouette filled with gears and light bulbs, symbolizing thinking and creativity, placed on a stack of books. A graduation cap hovers above the head, connected with icons representing various educational elements like a microscope, globe, palette, and gears, alluding to a blend of art, science, and technology in education. The background features digital binary code and currency symbols, suggesting the integration of digital economy into learning.

Conclusion

In this article, we have explored how AI can enhance accessibility in education by providing personalized learning, facilitating language translation, aiding in the creation of accessible content, providing remote and asynchronous learning opportunities, promoting collaboration and knowledge sharing, and reducing the barriers and costs of access to education.

I hope that this article has given you some insights and inspiration on how AI can make education more accessible worldwide. I believe that AI has the potential to be a transformative force in improving global accessibility in education, as well as in other domains and sectors.

Thank you for reading.

Note: In line with my passion to use technology to help humans’s efficiency and creativity, this article has been written with the support of BingAI & Bing Image Creator.

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