Experiencing an emerging wave of increasing educational need and its importance in our lives entirely does hold heavy significance in all aspects we as humans could think of.
The innovations of technological marvels have immersed our modern educational world with all its evolving constraints, evidently for the betterment of the curriculum and people advancing from it.
Technological advancements have immensely surprised us with their marvels in the most amazing ways. One of these marvels is Artificial Intelligence, also widely known as AI.
The way our lives are embedded into technological marvels, AI is one of those that constantly ease our daily necessities and enables us to do varied things dependent on it while enhancing the quality of education, which would make education and work a smart process altogether.
The introduction of AI into education has amazed not only the students but also the professors working to make it happen in education. And the ones making this history into the system are the two renowned professors, Dr. Williams Lyons, Professor of Theology, Minister at the University, and Michael (Mike) Mathews, Vice President of Innovation and Technology from Oral Roberts University.
Whilst instilling the advances into academia, it is equally mandatory to make complete use of it through the various mediums it offers to its usage to students. It would be the first time in history that students have an interactive smart mirror that they can observe and reduce tasks of their journey. It helps presents observations from students’ previous academic records, which suggests habits and patterns for better outcomes for students in the University.
Let’s unravel the intriguing journey of AI into Education and know more about it!
Guiding Lights of AI
The ones taking the responsibility of being the torchbearers of these innovative advancements are Michael Mathews and Dr. William Lyons.
Michael L. Mathews (Mike) has over 24 years of experience as a senior-level IT executive bringing creative solutions that value the end-users of technology and business process management.
Michal has held positions as a VP of Innovation, chief information officer, general manager of CIOs, chief strategist for innovation, business development officer, trainer, teacher, and vice president of academic services for leading corporations and higher education. Mike has been a CIO within higher education and corporate training for over 19 years.
Michael was named the 2021 Leading Technologist by CIOViews, 2020 Top 20 Business Leaders by Industry Wired, 2019 Top Ten Innovators by Industry ERA, one of America’s Top 30 Education innovators in 2017, and a 2018 CIO 100 Award Winner.
With the supportive partnership, Dr. William Lyons is a Professor in the College of Theology and Ministry at Oral Roberts University and teaches both on the graduate and undergraduate levels. He holds a Ph.D. in Religions of Western Antiquity from Florida State University, an M.A. in Hebrew and Semitic Languages from the University of Wisconsin, and an M.A. and B.A. in Biblical Studies from ORU. He has taught at Regent University (Virginia), Florida A&M University, Florida State University, and internationally in India, Guatemala, Russia, and South Africa.
He has written on the war in the Hebrew Bible (including here, the so-called “holy war”), ancient Near Eastern thought; women in the Bible; Old Testament character ethics; biblical hermeneutics (including feminist, rabbinic, and modern evangelical perspectives); and Wisdom Literature.
AI into Education
Initiating the beginning of AI at the University:
In early 2019 as a part of designing an AI environment to accomplish tasks required by students in a fresh new way. This AI-driven environment was called the AI-driven MQ-Mirror. It included a Smart TV with a surface mirror over the LCD panel on the TV. While Inside the TV was an AI-enabled programmed mirror coding language that addressed numerous education challenges and displayed suggested recommendations on the screen.
The newly introduced application allows students to interact with personal data, global communications, self-navigation, self-help, data analytics, music, video, education, fitness, artificial intelligence, and robotic functionality via a glass mirror. This new form factor of a glass mirror has all the attributes to engage in human-to-digital-and-visual interaction fully.
The glass mirror, combined with the tiny new computer design hidden within the mirror frame, has made significant advancements in personal fitness by combining the mirror, smartphone, and wearable watch. All three synchronized together to provide a premier digital experience that accesses personal data, AI, machine learning data, personal trainers, e-Courses, and text-to-speech narration. The mirror itself provides the real-life experience of both virtual and augmented reality (Mirrored Reality).
Diving into Mirror Reality
The ability to program AI within the MQ-Mirror has created a test case to permit students to interact with the mirror and test their level of mental health and well-being. Using natural language programming, mirror coding language and the AI capabilities of Amazon Alexa provides breakthroughs in creating an autonomous method to address mental health in a self-navigating manner. This concept of nudging students takes on a whole new meaning with the MQ-Mirror. Remember, AI can provide speech and text recommendations (nudging) based on the recurring pattern of behaviors.
The advanced AI intelligent Mirror application has been designed to bring the power of IQ, EQ, and now MQ (Mirrored Intelligence) together via a glass mirror. The mirror integrates a mini-processor, IoT, AI, a digital assistant, and the entire world’s digital ecosystem. Students of the University can access all global cloud-based services and all campus services as a life-sized digital assistant.
As humans, we intend to have an innate fascination with a mirror combined with the emergence of AI, virtual digital assistants, machine learning, eLearning, and 5G connectivity allows real people to become front-and-center instead of the technology itself. Up to this point in the history of computers, the device has taken center stage.
These misleadings of advancements have caused many undesired social, physical, and psychological outcomes. They have allowed the labeling of technology 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, etc., versus a focus on civilization 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. CIO Magazine has labeled this newly designed MQ-Mirror as the breakthrough service called XaaS, meaning ‘Everything-as-a-Service.’ It’s about time AI enters all sectors.
AI-driven Lives
With AI capable of mastering the repeatable processes in life, it can remove the routines of the education systems, making everyone an academic success story. Designed correctly, AI has the potential to liberate individuals to focus on the heart-and-mind matters of attaining the next level of education versus being overwhelmed by the routine tasks along the journey. These overwhelming everyday tasks cause many to drop the pursuit of the next level of educational attainment.
However, not everyone has followed this academic pathway. The clearest example of a non-traditional journey is told by author Malcolm Gladwell of Chris Langan, who possesses the highest IQ in the world. Chris Langan’s story is one of the millions of similar stories whose life circumstances have prevented them from achieving the next level of educational attainment. It is a classic yet often repeated journey that happened to the very person who possesses the world’s highest IQ. Malcolm Gladwell’s case study gives credibility to the belief that the top academic students are not necessarily the smartest. Instead, it demonstrates that they have become adept at following the rules and routine tasks required to excel. Both Dr. Trent Grundmeyer and Dr. Sam Varano, who earned Principal of the Year status in Iowa and Pennsylvania, have concluded that the best rule-followers often make the Valedictorian status. Suffice it to say; the best rule follower is the person who has mastered the routine of the education system.
In like manner, the global education picture is ripe to have AI resolve the everyday functions that cause less than 7% of the world’s population to have a college degree or certificate. 93% of the world has limited access to quality education, knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom. Even though we know that education can liberate people, access to these life-changing values lies behind the mundane routines required to complete educational degrees.
Proficiency Of AI
We all live in an evolving world with increasing responsibilities, tasks, relationships, and non-stop information. Wouldn’t it be helpful if we could separate the routine functions from the complex tasks? Our everyday repetitive tasks are estimated to consume 90% of our day.
What if we could automate 90% of the repetitive tasks and perfect the 10% that truly matters? The 10% are the matters of the heart, which include faith, hope, and love. With such demanding schedules, it is no wonder that so many couples, children, and parents are prone to say things that they later wish they hadn’t. We all love the people involved in our lives but expressing this love can easily be squeezed out among all the routine tasks in front of us each day.
Artificial Intelligence’s (AI) novelty and intrigue make it one of the most fascinating yet elusive technologies. This intrigue is what makes AI such an exciting and transformative technology across all industries and interests. After careful examination, many sectors (business, medicine, agriculture, and education, to name a few) have innovatively enabled subtle pieces of AI. These subtle aspects of AI inside products and services have given many companies a very balanced approach to the world of AI without sacrificing their reputation with significant transformations with AI.
AI is only suitable for routine functions that it has observed and tabulated over time. This reality should counter any negative things we have heard about AI and allows us to leverage AI for the very things that we keep forgetting to do. Married couples, for instance, will always be capable of observing and remembering each other’s behavioral patterns better than anything or anyone outside of the marriage. The miracle of marriage is a simple one: couples do know one another better than they know themselves individually, and by loving and working together, they enhance the godly force of faith, hope, and love significantly. This is beyond the reach of AI.
What if we could spend 90% of our time on the matters-of-the-heart while letting AI take care of all the common elements of life? This scenario is precisely the outcome of a happy marriage between two people who complement one another.
Augmented intelligence described in the paragraphs above would significantly reduce anxiety, stress, depression, disappointment, failures, and non-heart matters. It would allow us to focus on heart matters where all the real-life issues flow. In return, this would reduce the number of relationship concerns over petty issues and ultimately reduce marital problems.
For some people, AI is a forbidden and unthinkable technology as they fear the displacement of jobs; or, worse yet, the entrance of the anti-Christ into people’s homes and minds. The reality is that artificial intelligence is much simpler than people fear or imagine.
AI is only capable of learning repetitive patterns of behavior. It is programmed to know us better than we know ourselves, but only from a repetitive behavioral perspective. AI will never be able to possess faith, hope, or love, which are the three core virtues of all people of faith.
