Artificial Intelligence has rapidly become an integral part of our daily lives, and its continued impact on education is undeniable. While AI tools offer incredible potential to enhance learning, they also pose challenges for educators in the classroom. From ensuring academic integrity to fostering critical thinking skills, managing AI applications effectively is essential for a productive learning environment.

In our recent blogs, we’ve explored the diverse landscape of AI tools in education, including their potential benefits and drawbacks. Now, we are going to shift our focus to how we can manage these tools in efforts to ensure they are bringing as many of the benefits with as few of the drawbacks to classrooms as possible. Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions offer a powerful approach to address these challenges, empowering teachers and IT administrators to maintain control and maximise the benefits of AI in education.

Why Managing AI in the Classroom Matters

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the educational landscape, offering exciting opportunities and unique challenges. While AI tools can empower students and teachers with enhanced learning experiences and streamlined tasks, they also bring potential distractions, misuse, and ethical concerns.

Effective classroom AI management is crucial for schools to harness the benefits of AI while ensuring its responsible application and safe use. By implementing proper guidelines and tools, schools can create a balanced environment where AI supports educational goals, protects student well-being, and fosters a positive learning atmosphere.

The Challenge of AI and Academic Integrity

The rise of powerful AI tools has introduced a double-edged sword in education. On one hand, AI can be a valuable learning aid, enhancing research, providing personalised feedback, and even generating creative prompts. On the other hand, these same tools pose a significant threat to academic integrity.

Services like ChatGPT or essay-generating websites can produce convincing essays on virtually any topic. Students might be tempted to submit these as their own work, bypassing the learning process.

Additionally, AI-powered calculators and solvers such as Photomath can instantly provide answers to complex maths problems or code challenges. While helpful for checking work, they can also be used to complete assignments without understanding the underlying concepts.

With access to device management tools such as Mobile Guardian to manage AI applications in the classroom, educators are empowered to navigate the complexities of AI in the classroom. With application management functionalities, teachers can selectively block access to specific AI tools either entirely, or during specific and critical times, such as exams or quizzes, ensuring a level playing field for all students.

Alternatively, schools may curate a list of approved educational apps, promoting focused learning experiences by limiting distractions. Mobile Guardian utilises this approved list and ensures that applications outside of it are blocked, providing an easy process to implement application restrictions with far reaching implications. Application access may be scheduled, granting students permission to utilise certain AI tools during specific time periods while restricting them during other time periods.

In addition to app control, content filtering capabilities of Mobile Guardian’s Safer solution enables educators to block websites known for offering essay writing services or other tools that undermine academic integrity. This proactive approach safeguards students from potential pitfalls and reinforces the importance of original thought and authentic learning.

Moreover, monitoring and reporting features provide valuable insights into app usage patterns, allowing teachers to identify potential misuse of AI tools.

These insights can serve as a foundation for constructive conversations with students, fostering a greater understanding of academic honesty and responsible AI usage.

Distraction Management

In today’s digital age, students are constantly bombarded with notifications and tempting online content. The integration of AI-powered educational tools, while beneficial, can easily become a source of distraction.

For instance, AI-powered chatbots like Brainly, designed to help with homework, may lure students into off-topic conversations, or educational games might prove too engaging, diverting attention from core lessons.

As a Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution, Mobile Guardian offers a crucial safeguard by allowing educators to block or restrict access to these distractions during class hours, ensuring a focused learning environment.

Mitigating Privacy and Security Concerns

Applications, whether powered by AI or not, tend to collect more user data than is required to operate. 

This statement shouldn’t take anyone by surprise who has any experience in the modern, digital world. For K12 schools, this is for the most part more information than they are comfortable allowing applications to have access to. 

Unvetted installation of applications by students on to their devices can have serious consequences for data security and safety standards. This is due to the extensive amount of information available on student devices. 

Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is of primary concern for schools and leaders around the world, which includes information such as names, birth dates, device location data, and further contact information of the student that may be used to personally identify students. Which is a situation no school wants to have to consider. 

Installation of unvetted applications is easily avoidable through the use of mobile device management software. Tools such as Mobile Guardian are able to prevent students from installing apps that are not on a schools approved and vetted list of applications.

Fostering Critical Thinking

AI such as ChatGPT excels at automating tasks and providing quick answers, but it’s crucial for students to develop their own critical thinking and problem-solving skills. An overreliance on AI can hinder the development of these essential abilities.

I covered this in greater detail in another blog, the Negative Effects of Artificial Intelligence in Education, where I address tech dependence and its impact on critical thinking.

Mobile Guardian helps educators strike a balance by allowing for the control of exactly when and how AI is used in their classroom.

By strategically integrating AI tools while encouraging independent thinking, educators can ensure that students learn to use AI as a tool for enhancing their learning, rather than a crutch to replace their own cognitive efforts.

For instance, an MDM might be used to schedule specific times for AI-assisted research, leaving ample time for students to analyse and interpret information independently.

How MDM Empowers AI Management

There are a number of features in Mobile Device Management (MDM) software to empower schools to effectively govern AI use, both during and after school hours.

• Application block and allow lists: These allow for precise control over permitted AI applications, setting what apps are allowed on devices, and which are not – within a school or across a number of schools.
• Time and Location-based restrictions: These create dedicated usage windows for applications to ensure that students are not using applications when they should not, and may be based on time and location parameters, allowing for highly customised controls for application restrictions.
• Content filtering: The online gatekeeper of devices. Content filtering safeguards against inappropriate AI-generated material, and ensures that students are not accessing online content inappropriate or deemed unacceptable by their school.
• Device monitoring: Keep track of content accessed online. This functionality provides insights into usage patterns by students, identifying potential misuse, as well as which applications are used most frequently. In the case of AI-tools, knowing which are used and when, will allow for clear insight into appropriate tool use, as well as understanding when these applications are most used.
• Remote management: This feature, empowered by cloud-based solutions, enables swift policy adjustments across all devices, ensuring consistent and responsive control of devices may be immediately implemented.

A comprehensive feature toolkit such as the above equips schools to harness AI’s educational benefits while ensuring safe and responsible use, whether students are learning at school or from home.

Mobile Guardian is at the forefront of this revolution, providing an intuitive, flexible, and comprehensive MDM solution tailored for educational settings. Our platform features a user-friendly interface designed for both educators and IT administrators, simplifying AI tool management.

We recognise that every school is unique, and requires policies to match their learning goals and ambitions. Our device management policies are fully customisable to align with your specific requirements and may be applied at a single school level, or across multiple schools at once.

Further to this, detailed reporting offers valuable insights into AI and device usage trends, informing data-driven decision-making at classroom and school levels. Additionally, our dedicated support team ensures you have the guidance and assistance needed to seamlessly integrate AI into your learning environment.

Mobile Guardian is committed to helping schools navigate the complexities of AI management, fostering a safe, productive, and enriching educational experience.

The Path Forward: Guided Learning with AI

By implementing a comprehensive MDM solution like Mobile Guardian, schools can confidently navigate the integration of AI into education. Students gain valuable experience leveraging AI tools, while educators maintain control and foster essential critical thinking skills. AI becomes a powerful resource for guided learning, not a substitute for it.

Let’s empower the next generation to navigate the AI landscape responsibly and ethically.

Ready to transform how your school harnesses the power of AI?

Schedule a personalised demo of Mobile Guardian today.

Onwards,

Panashe Goteka

Team Mobile Guardian

‍