The interplay of learning, analytics and artificial intelligence in education: A vision for hybrid intelligence

Abstract

This paper presents a multidimensional view of AI's role in education, emphasising the intricate interplay among AI, analytics and human learning processes. Here, I challenge the prevalent narrow conceptualisation of AI as tools in Education, exemplified in generative AI tools, and argue for the importance of alternative conceptualisations of AI for achieving human–AI hybrid intelligence. I highlight the differences between human intelligence and artificial information processing, the importance of hybrid human–AI systems to extend human cognition and posit that AI can also serve as an instrument for understanding human learning. Early learning sciences and AI in Education Research (AIED), which saw AI as an analogy for human intelligence, have diverged from this perspective, prompting a need to rekindle this connection. The paper presents three unique conceptualisations of AI: the externalisation of human cognition, the internalisation of AI models to influence human mental models and the extension of human cognition via tightly coupled human–AI hybrid intelligence systems. Examples from current research and practice are examined as instances of the three conceptualisations in education, highlighting the potential value and limitations of each conceptualisation for human competence development, as well as the perils of overemphasis on approaches that replace human learning opportunities with AI tools. The paper concludes with advocacy for a broader approach to AIED that goes beyond considerations on the design and development of AI and includes educating people about AI and innovating educational systems to remain relevant in an AI ubiquitous world.