{"id":17893,"date":"2026-03-12T12:03:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T11:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/uncategorized\/a-calculator-for-minds-or-systemic-laziness-the-essence-of-the-debate-about-ai-in-schools\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T09:44:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T08:44:39","slug":"a-calculator-for-minds-or-systemic-laziness-the-essence-of-the-debate-about-ai-in-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/en\/education-and-science\/a-calculator-for-minds-or-systemic-laziness-the-essence-of-the-debate-about-ai-in-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"\ud83d\udd12 A calculator for minds or systemic laziness? The essence of the debate about AI in schools"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In 2024 alone, about 50,000 &#8220;AI classrooms&#8221; were opened. Artificial intelligence is being implemented in education on a large scale. The teacher only supervises the students, and nearly half of them openly use AI to do their homework.<\/p><p>But that&#8217;s not happening here. It\u2019s in China.<\/p><p>China is showing how AI can be implemented in schools systemwide\u2014whether that&#8217;s the right approach is another question. Western culture approaches this issue in a decidedly more humanistic and cautious way, seeking to protect children&#8217;s cognitive processes.<\/p><p>However, the problem is urgent. It&#8217;s not just about how our children are learning today and how much dedication and hard work teachers are putting into it. Above all, it&#8217;s a fundamental question: with what competencies and habits these young people will enter the job market in a few years.<\/p><p>It was precisely this global contrast and the dilemmas associated with it that were at the heart of one of the debates at Generative Revolution Day. Two visions of the future of education clashed. Professor Maha Bali of the American University in Cairo and Professor Dariusz Jemielniak, vice president of the Polish Academy of Sciences, engaged in a discussion of a fundamental question: is bringing algorithms into the classroom an inevitable evolution, or rather a premature surrender of control over children&#8217;s cognitive development?<\/p><p><em>The rest of the article is below the video<\/em><\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Should schools embrace AI technology in education rather than forbid it?\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qEwysybn6qs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure><h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Progress or a trap?<\/h4><p>\u2013 The idea of giving young people a tool like AI before they have even learned to write and think is just as problematic as giving a child a calculator before they have mastered the basics of mathematics. By doing so, we disrupt their ability to learn it \u2013 notes Prof. Maha Bali.<\/p><p>Implementing AI in education brings unprecedented challenges. From Prof. Bali&#8217;s perspective, the greatest threat is the lack of developed critical thinking among the youngest when confronted with the technology&#8217;s imperfections. Algorithms can be fallible, and their errors (hallucinations) sound incredibly convincing.<\/p><p>\u2013 It\u2019s a statistical, probabilistic model. So it doesn\u2019t actually give the correct answer. And young people don\u2019t know this yet. They don\u2019t have sufficient knowledge about the world. They\u2019ll be too young to criticize it and realize that something might be wrong \u2013 the researcher warns.<\/p><p>This anxiety-laden vision collides with the pragmatic perspective of Professor Dariusz Jemielniak. In this context, the Polish researcher is interested in solving specific problems that the traditional education system has been unable to handle for years. After all, a human teacher has physical and time constraints.<\/p><p>\u2013 There is one teacher and 20, 30, sometimes 40 students, so the teacher basically has to aim for the average. They can&#8217;t really focus exclusively on one person. The teacher doesn&#8217;t have time for that. But machines can adapt \u2013 points out the vice president of the Polish Academy of Sciences.<\/p><p>A particular advantage of artificial intelligence, as noted by Prof. Jemielniak, is the ability to automate the spaced repetition mechanism, which is crucial for memory training.<\/p><p>\u2013 If you want to commit something to memory and retain it, you need to repeat it a certain number of times. And it&#8217;s not enough to repeat it a few times on the same day; you actually have to space it out over time \u2013 he notes. In his view, no teacher, not even the most outstanding, can handle such individualization of tracking each student&#8217;s progress.<\/p><p>Prof. Bali disagrees with the claim that artificial intelligence guarantees the personalization of the teaching process. In her view, this is a dangerous oversimplification that actually undermines student agency:<\/p><p>\u2013 Historically, whenever personalization was invoked, it wasn\u2019t truly personalization. Rather, it was categorization based on what similar people had done in the past \u2013 she notes.<\/p><h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What will become of them?<\/h4><p>Why is this important? Because today\u2019s decisions regarding schools will determine the competency profile of an entire generation. Graduates shaped by the current education system will enter the job market in a few years, joining teams and taking the reins in business.<\/p><p>Professor Maha Bali cautions that we should also not lose sight of the broader context and the intentions of technology providers:<\/p><p>\u2013 Of course, all the companies that are currently developing AI are entities doing it for profit. They don\u2019t really care about students. They don\u2019t care about teachers. They don\u2019t care about the learning process \u2013 she warns. In her view, an uncritical introduction of corporate tools into schools could produce passive consumers who rely on algorithms instead of their own judgment.<\/p><p>On the other hand, a total ban on AI is not a solution either. It would lead to digital exclusion and leave young people unprepared for the realities of the modern economy.<\/p><p>\u2013 I think this is one of the most pressing issues of our time. Many people will say that we shouldn&#8217;t use AI in education. I believe that&#8217;s the wrong approach, because when we think about it, AI is just a tool, and like any other tool, it can be good at some things and not particularly effective at others \u2013 argues Prof. Jemielniak.<\/p><h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Education at a crossroads<\/h4><p>An alternative to technological chaos, as mentioned by both researchers, is the concept of a kind of competence hygiene and a natural division of roles in the classroom. In this model, a vision emerges in which machines take over tasks related to reinforcing knowledge, thereby relieving educators. At the same time, both sides of the debate agree that relational and motivational functions remain the irreplaceable domain of humans.<\/p><p>\u2013 Teachers will most likely still teach better than a system would. I especially mean conversation and making sure that people are motivated \u2013 emphasizes Prof. Jemielniak. At this point, Prof. Bali agrees with him, unequivocally assessing attempts to automate student assessment: \u2013 Using AI to provide feedback is, in my view, fundamentally wrong, because we want students to have a human reader for what they write and to receive context-based feedback.<\/p><p>From the discussion, a picture emerges of an education system facing the need to redefine its priorities. Observing the competing trends in the marketplace, it&#8217;s clear that a key challenge may be to shift the emphasis to teaching critical thinking and rigorous fact-checking. Before algorithms become a permanent fixture in students\u2019 backpacks, we need to build their analytical foundations\u2014the ability to think independently, without which no tool, however perfect, can replace real education. The answer to whether AI will prove to be a calculator for minds or a cause of systemic laziness may depend precisely on whether we manage to build these foundations before we hand children a digital shortcut.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While Asian schools are turning education over to algorithms en masse, we are still seeking a humanistic compromise. The skills of the entire next generation of workers depend on which model we ultimately choose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":354,"featured_media":17785,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[863],"tags":[],"popular":[],"difficulty-level":[36],"ppma_author":[776],"class_list":["post-17893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education-and-science","difficulty-level-easy"],"acf":[],"authors":[{"term_id":776,"user_id":354,"is_guest":0,"slug":"redakcja","display_name":"Redakcja","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Zrzut-ekranu-2025-07-10-o-16.00.36.png","url2x":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Zrzut-ekranu-2025-07-10-o-16.00.36.png"},"first_name":"","last_name":"","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/354"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17893"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17894,"href":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17893\/revisions\/17894"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17893"},{"taxonomy":"popular","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/popular?post=17893"},{"taxonomy":"difficulty-level","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/difficulty-level?post=17893"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=17893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}