Artificial intelligence is changing the landscape of teaching in Dubai, say some of the region's leading experts.
Earlier this week, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai, announced plans to “upskill all teachers in the Emirate in artificial intelligence”.
Educators are already using platforms to plan lessons, give pupils feedback, and take on administrative tasks.
Schools across Dubai are also training teachers in AI to help them plan modules and complete administrative work, allowing teachers more time to focus on pupils.
“Our aim is to create an educational system that equips our students with future-ready tools and provides an optimal learning environment supported by AI technologies,” Sheikh Hamdan wrote on Wednesday.
Heads of schools in the city told The National that teachers were already undergoing training in the use of AI.
“We're going to continue investing in upskilling our teachers and continue investing in providing courses and content for our pupils because AI is not a one-off workshop, it's got to be continuous,” said Baz Nijjar, principal adviser of education technology at Gems Education.
“For sure, it’s going to support in improving planning or reducing the time consumption for planning.
“It's going to improve administrative tasks of data tracking and analysis and it's going to help personalise activities so teachers can work towards highest standards.
“But, rather than them manually doing that, now they're just having to review content that is being curated and make sure they put their own personal touches.”
One of their programmes is called Teachers Lead Teachers which, as the name suggests, has teachers training peers through best practice.
“When they see a fellow teacher use a certain tool and they are showed an example of how it's used, they then want to learn because they see how it can reduce their workload, or how they can improve pupil-related outcomes or can give support with their planning,” said Mr Nijjar.
“A lot of the administrative tasks and the personalisation is supported by AI, and it's ever evolving. This is just the beginning of the journey.
He said the use of AI, “gives time back to the teachers to focus more on their personal skills, because the skills that AI is not going to replace is what we as humans can offer, which is our personal skills such as collaboration or communication”.
“It's already in our plans to provide training and support for all of our teachers in AI tools and also provide opportunities for our pupils,” he said.
Helping with workload
AI can reduce the burden and workload on teachers as many private school teachers said they often worked up to 70 hours a week, especially ahead of annual inspections, The National reported in 2020.
Joseph Nettikaden, chief information officer at Esol Education, said that with the use of AI, instead of spending time on lesson planning, teachers would get lesson plans suggested for them, or could use templates.
Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai, said all teachers will be upskilled in AI. Photo: Dubai Media Office
He said that as AI platforms were fed more information, they would eventually reach a level where they would create personalised lesson plans based on a pupil’s strengths.
“All of this extends that personalisation effort, the assessment data will automate the lesson planning which will reduce the workload,” said Mr Nettikaden.
“With this initiative now that has come from the government, it's going to put a lot of pressure on the private schools to up their game.
“I see AI becoming a real equaliser because it can be enabled to everyone.”
AI platforms can help plan modules on particular subjects. These can also provide materials, ideas or an outline of what to deliver.
John Bell, head teacher at Bloom World Academy said their plan was to systematically train all their teachers in the use of AI and the school has a group of teachers who are their AI leaders.
“We talk about the ethics of AI, we talk about the practical use of AI in teaching, particularly planning of lessons, and we train the teachers in the platforms for using AI with pupils in the classroom,” said Mr Bell.
“It can cut out and does cut out some of the burden, particularly with planning, it can help speed things up.
“We put the focus then on genuine teacher knowledge and understanding, we refer our teachers to actually becoming really knowledgeable around the subjects they are teaching, and not necessarily taking on too much administration.”
Catching the cheats
He said developments in technology had made it more difficult to prevent pupils from cheating.
“It's really difficult to prove cheating in a physical sense. We spend an incredible amount of time here talking about values. We also spend a lot of time talking about honesty and intellectual honesty,” said Mr Bell.
“Ultimately, if they want to cheat, it is possible, they can do it. But we do screen for it and we do stop it.
“In all our lessons across the board, we also use pen and paper, workbooks, notebooks.
“We task pupils to write, to draw, to use manual equipment, partly because these are skills in their own right. And partly, we don't want children to completely depend or be drawn into technology, and particularly AI.”
Education provider Taaleem has an AI task force in place with lead teachers across their schools, currently working in partnership to determine how they can share best practices and also safeguard human intelligence.
Glen Radojkovich, director of education at Taaleem, said the task force had been put together this year, but the use of AI in classrooms had been continuing for a number of years within different schools.
“We're trialling different things in different areas. Some of the areas being assistance and providing feedback, and planning,” said Mr Radojkovich.
Starring: Nader Abd Alhay, Majd Eid, Ramzi Maqdisi
Directors: Tarzan and Arab Nasser
Rating: 4.5/5
Countries offering golden visas
UK Innovator Founder Visa is aimed at those who can demonstrate relevant experience in business and sufficient investment funds to set up and scale up a new business in the UK. It offers permanent residence after three years.
Germany Investing or establishing a business in Germany offers you a residence permit, which eventually leads to citizenship. The investment must meet an economic need and you have to have lived in Germany for five years to become a citizen.
Italy The scheme is designed for foreign investors committed to making a significant contribution to the economy. Requires a minimum investment of €250,000 which can rise to €2 million.
Switzerland Residence Programme offers residence to applicants and their families through economic contributions. The applicant must agree to pay an annual lump sum in tax.
Canada Start-Up Visa Programme allows foreign entrepreneurs the opportunity to create a business in Canada and apply for permanent residence.
Listen to Extra Time
The Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index
The Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index
Mazen Abukhater, principal and actuary at global consultancy Mercer, Middle East, says the company’s Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index - which benchmarks 34 pension schemes across the globe to assess their adequacy, sustainability and integrity - included Saudi Arabia for the first time this year to offer a glimpse into the region.
The index highlighted fundamental issues for all 34 countries, such as a rapid ageing population and a low growth / low interest environment putting pressure on expected returns. It also highlighted the increasing popularity around the world of defined contribution schemes.
“Average life expectancy has been increasing by about three years every 10 years. Someone born in 1947 is expected to live until 85 whereas someone born in 2007 is expected to live to 103,” Mr Abukhater told the Mena Pensions Conference.
“Are our systems equipped to handle these kind of life expectancies in the future? If so many people retire at 60, they are going to be in retirement for 43 years – so we need to adapt our retirement age to our changing life expectancy.”
Saudi Arabia came in the middle of Mercer’s ranking with a score of 58.9. The report said the country's index could be raised by improving the minimum level of support for the poorest aged individuals and increasing the labour force participation rate at older ages as life expectancies rise.
Mr Abukhater said the challenges of an ageing population, increased life expectancy and some individuals relying solely on their government for financial support in their retirement years will put the system under strain.
“To relieve that pressure, governments need to consider whether it is time to switch to a defined contribution scheme so that individuals can supplement their own future with the help of government support,” he said.
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11 What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time. TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
