Empantallados is an educational platform with a clear mission: helping raise healthy digital citizens. The initiative was created to support families as they navigate their children's digital lives, based on the belief that "technology influences many aspects of our lives, and we believe it is important to educate children from an early age on the responsible and healthy use of technology, rather than waiting until they are older."

Did you know that 65% of today's school-aged children will work in jobs that have not yet been invented and will be closely linked to technology?

The Impact of AI in Spain

Empantallados, together with GAD3—a social research and communications consultancy—and with the support of Por un uso Love de la Tecnología, the European Commission, and Fundación Fomento, has published the first study on the impact of artificial intelligence in education in Spain.

The report presents the main findings of research conducted at the end of 2023, based on surveys of a representative sample of 500 families in Spain, 200 young people aged 14 to 17, and 200 non-university teachers.

The study explores, among other topics, how students, teachers, and parents use AI, what they use it for, and their main concerns, opportunities, and expectations. It also analyzes how these groups perceive artificial intelligence and the role it may play in education.

The Study's 10 Key Takeaways

1. AI is a new technological reality that is attracting growing public interest.
2. The internet and the media are the main gateways to learning about AI.
3. ChatGPT is one of the most widely used AI tools.
4. Improving reliability and accuracy remains one of AI's short-term challenges.
5. There is a need for a clear legal framework regarding privacy and data use.
6. AI represents a new digital frontier for students, teachers, and families.
7. AI has significant potential as an educational tool.
8. Creativity and critical thinking are the main educational challenges associated with AI.
9. AI can strengthen teachers' work without replacing their role as educators.
10. Educating people in the responsible use of AI is essential.

Some Key Findings

The study found that 57% of parents believe AI will have a positive impact on their children's education. This figure rises to 61% when considering AI's impact on their children's future careers.

Among teachers, however, only 39% believe AI will positively influence education, while 54% think it will benefit their students' future professional lives.

When it comes to improving student efficiency, both parents and teachers see clear benefits in using AI.

However, there is one notable difference:

While parents believe AI will foster creativity, teachers tend to believe it could actually hinder it.

Parents also report feeling more overwhelmed and less knowledgeable about AI than both teachers and students.

At the same time, 78% of parents express strong interest in learning more about AI, compared to 63% of students.

Parents are also the group most supportive of incorporating AI tools into their children's curriculum (60%).

Teachers, on the other hand, are more cautious regarding students' use of AI. Only 33% recommend its use in general, compared with 42% of parents.

Regarding AI's impact on teachers' own work, educators identify efficiency and autonomy as the competencies where AI can provide the greatest value. They are most likely to recommend AI for information gathering and research, while creativity ranks much lower among the areas where they see AI adding value.

Creativity and Critical Thinking: AI's Greatest Educational Challenge

Most families and teachers agree that AI can effectively support practical tasks.

However, they are much more skeptical about its ability to foster competencies such as autonomy, creativity, and critical thinking.

On a scale of 10, families rated AI's ability to develop these competencies at 5.9 and 5.6, respectively.

Teachers were even more skeptical, giving AI 4.5 for promoting autonomy and 4.2 for encouraging creativity.

This raises an interesting question:

Could this actually be an opportunity to delegate repetitive and efficiency-driven tasks to AI, allowing educators and students to invest more time in creativity, reflection, and higher-order thinking?

As Xavier Marcet recently wrote in his column on knowledge workers:

"In the age of artificial intelligence, people must retain the monopoly on asking questions. If you think, technology empowers you. If you don't think, technology takes you wherever it wants."

Artificial intelligence has the potential to become a highly valuable educational tool.

At the same time, it presents important challenges for the development of students' key competencies, not only cognitive skills, but also socio-emotional ones.

Could AI also help us not only perform educational tasks more efficiently, but support the development of students' personalities and socio-emotional competencies?

The emergence of AI appears to represent much more than another technological advancement.

It is already driving—and will continue to drive—a profound shift in educational thinking and practice.

Read the full study here 👉🏼 https://empantallados.com/ia

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