This article was written and Published by Lauraine Langreo — December 9th, 2024
Matthew Marino, a professor at the University of Central Florida who studies the intersection of technology and special education, is excited about the potential of generative artificial intelligence for teaching and learning.
AI is “going to open a whole new front for education,” he said.
The sentiment is shared by a majority of parents and educators of students with learning disabilities, according to a report from the Special Olympics Global Center for Inclusion in Education. The survey shows that parents and educators believe AI will make learning more accessible, inclusive, and personalized. But they’re also concerned about AI’s potential to decrease human interaction and leave some schools and students behind.
Marino underscores that there are ways AI shouldn’t be used in instruction, especially because there still isn’t enough data on how using generative AI for instruction could affect students with disabilities. Most datasets that AI tools are trained on contain a lot of information about neurotypical students, but they don’t have nearly as much to draw from on students in special education, which could translate into technology that isn’t as helpful for those populations.
Marino spoke with Education Week about why he’s excited about AI for special education, what research is out there, and how educators can use the emerging technology.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Could you explain why you think AI is ‘going to open a whole new front for education?’
The capabilities we now have with AI are absolutely amazing. Students no longer need to struggle to write a paragraph, for example. All they have to do is create a prompt, and a large language model can write for them. I’m not saying it’s a tool that’s going to be used in place of learning to write, but it’s a tool enabling students who have disabilities to spend more time refining their thinking than on generating basic text content. I have a student with muscular dystrophy who can’t physically write a paragraph. It allows students like him to spend time evaluating their thoughts and organizing them in a way where they can be communicated effectively.
Why is that approach more beneficial?
A lot of times, kids will get stuck with the first task, where they have to take information that they’ve learned in one context and transfer the knowledge into a paper. This type of assignment is common in classrooms across the country. When students have to generate text from scratch, they often shut down and do nothing or they become a behavior problem for the teacher.
What we’re trying to do is give them a venue where they can generate text information and reflect on it. We want them to develop a thought process following the scientific method. They’re using the problem-solving method to analyze text that’s been generated by AI.
