As businesses across all industries adopt AI tools in droves, they’ll need employees who can use them effectively. That’s why, he says, artificial intelligence needs to become part of basic technology literacy.
While the previous two articles talked about coding, this one deals with another topic that is gaining popularity and interest: artificial intelligence, or AI. Yiannis Papelis, robotics research professor at the Virginia Modeling, Analysis, and Simulation Center (VMASC), makes the surprising yet accurate point that “twenty years ago, having computer skills was special. Now having computer skills is commonplace. Twenty years from now, understanding AI will be commonplace.”
Teachers should want more for their students than just passing standardized tests; teachers should want to prepare their students for their long-term future, and part of that preparation, especially in the 21st center, is learning technological literacy skills. Before, classes like keyboarding and accounting were considered some of the most practical courses you could take as electives (”extra” classes), but now, times are changing and there are skills one can’t necessarily get in one of their core classes. Maybe it’s time to make more robotics and AI courses in high school.
Because there is so much tech in so many career industries, it only makes sense for students to be exposed to as much new tech as they can. Also, AI is communication technology, because AI can be fitted and programmed to be anything that it user needs it to be.