Interpreting National Teacher's Day In Reflection On AI Technology-Based Education Transformation

Illustration of teachers teaching (Doc. Microsoft)

JAKARTA - The adoption and innovation rate in the AI transformation era has brought changes in various aspects of life, including education. According to LinkedIn Future of Work Report 2023, although more than half of educators' work involves people skills that are best done directly by humans, such as classroom and teaching management. AI can increase productivity in tasks such as planning lessons and developing curriculum, which in fact becomes 45% of the responsibility of educators.

This assistance provides educators more time to focus on doing things only humans can do, such as connecting with students in the real world and in real time, in order to make positive differences in the learning process of students.

"AI has great potential in the world of education. For example, to personalize materials and learning processes, help teachers design lesson plans, simplify administrative processes, and provide data-based insights into student performance and registration trends. To realize these potentials, we need to overcome challenges such as accuracy, efficacy, and excessive dependence; and provide sufficient support to educators. In Microsoft, we focus on placing educators as experts in control, and integrating AI experiences into their workflows to really ease workloads," said Arief Suseno, Education Lead Microsoft Indonesia.

In Indonesia, teachers from various regions have actively studied AI technology. Entering their respective comfort zones, teachers are persistent in learning and innovating with AI in order to create more enjoyable learning for students, while preparing the nation's next generation to enter the world of work which now requires AI skills. Welcoming National Teacher's Day 2024, here are three inspiring stories from Indonesian teachers in utilizing AI in classrooms, which should be appreciated.

Starting From Training Participants To Become Champions Of The Innovation Story Of The MISS YOU AI Team From Probolinggo

Three visionary teachers named Fafan Adisumboro, Suci Romadani, and Sigit Hadi W., from Probolinggo, East Java, took innovative steps in teaching students critical thinking skills through the application of AI. Through the concept of AI MISS YOU (Artificial Intelligence to Improve Original and Unique Student Critical Bernulars), these teachers teach students not only to receive information, but also to create, innovate, and solve problems.

From this concept, students are introduced to the TEBALKAN' (For example, Imagine, Do, and Share) learning method, where students are invited to use AI technology such as Microsoft Copilot and Designer, to explore certain learning topics, imagine ideas creatively, implement ideas practically, and share their work.

"We are inspired by philosophical thinking of Ki Hadjar Dewantara which emphasizes that every child is not an 'empty paper' that only receives information, but creative people who need to be empowered. In this spirit, TEBALKAN method encourages students to be active and critical," said Sigit.

Over the past few months, these visionary teachers have directly practiced the TEBALKAN method on the Pancasila Student Profile Strengthening Project (P5), a multidisciplinary learning to build innovative and adaptive student characters to their surrounding environment. In the project, teachers invite students to process mango leaves into herbal tea, and ask students to find the best way to process them using AI.

We chose mango leaves because mangoes are typical of our area's food crops in Probolinggo. Using AI technology, students made a comparative comparison of each experiment in order to find ways to produce tea made from mango leaves with the best taste. Here, teachers play a role in providing guidance and strengthening their understanding of innovation," said Suci.

The project not only fosters the technical and critical skills of the students, but also opens up new economic opportunities that have market potential. Fafan, Suci, and Sigit were originally participants of the AI TEACH training program, an initiative carried out by Plan Indonesia and supported by Microsoft. Determination and creativity ultimately led them to become one of the winning teams for the Southeast Asian TEACH AI hackathon event. All three not only act as technology facilitators, but also as companions who provide direction and moral support for students. They ensure that AI strengthens their role as educators, not replacing them.

Easy To Understand Mathematics With AI Assistance A Transformation Of Learning By Mansur From South Sulawesi

Applying an innovative approach to AI technology to make mathematical lessons more enjoyable is its own motivation for Mansur, a math teacher at SMP Negeri 2 Pangsid, Sidenreng Rappang, South Sulawesi. With an innovative approach, Mansur invites students to use Copilot to understand the elaboration of the answer formula of the questions he shares. According to Mansur, the most important thing is not only the final answer of students, but whether students can explain how they get the answer. Here AI plays a role: accompanying students to train their reasoning and understanding of the stages of solving math questions, without the need to feel inferior if necessary to ask repeatedly, or have different speeds of understanding.

"We invite students to use AI as a means of solving mathematical problems in a fun and calming way. Of course, we also ask them to explain the flow of the mathematical formula they obtained from AI, to form accountable understanding and reasoning," said Mansur.

With this approach, Mansur inspires students to see mathematics not only as a collection of formulas, but as an opportunity to hone analytical and logical thinking skills. He also invites teachers to be open in the use of AI technology, by providing opportunities for students to explore new ways of making friends with math.

Since 2016, Mansur has been active as a member of Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert (MIEE), a global educator community that uses Microsoft technology innovatively to improve learning and collaboration experiences in class. Not only in school, Mansur also recorded achievements in establishing the Microsoft Innovative Teachers Community on the Merdeka Teaching platform and became a teacher representation from Indonesia in the Education Exchange in Singapore in 2018.

Mansur added It's been more than a year since we established Microsoft's Innovative Teacher Community on the Merdeka Teaching platform. So far there have been 4,000 members and every week we are actively holding webinars to discuss AI topics in different education and topics in order to add insight and skills to educators.

Increase Interest In Literacy And English Language Ability With AI The Story Of Marheni Widya Retna From Semarang

In Semarang, Central Java, Marheni Widya Retna, a 6th grade teacher at SD Negeri Sendangmulyo 04, became one of the elementary school teachers who had the opportunity to take part in the AI training at the Microsoft Indonesia event, Central Java Technology and Communication Development Center (BPTIK), and the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture in the first phase.

As a 6th grade elementary school teacher, Marheni especially takes advantage of the Reading Progress feature in Microsoft Teams to increase students' literacy and reading skills towards English language text. Reading Progress on Microsoft Teams is supported by AI technology to help teachers assess the development of students' reading skills more accurately. AI analyzes the results of video or audio recordings when students read a text, then provides data on students' reading performance, thus helping to improve reading skills efficiently.

It is known, this feature also has a comprehensive reading function that can automatically create questions along with answers based on selected text variations. This makes it easier for teachers to prepare learning materials that are tailored to the needs of students according to the level of class. Marheni understands that to increase students' interest in reading from an early age, teachers need to provide reading that is not only interesting, but also varied and in accordance with the level of students' abilities.

"By using Reading Progress, I can obtain more varied English-language texts to introduce to children, so that they get a new and interesting reading, and not boring. That's thanks to what I got during training using Microsoft Teams," explained Marheni.

Through this initiative, Marheni hopes that students will be more motivated in improving their English literacy culture and skills. This will help students prepare themselves for the next level of education, as well as open their insight into the literature in wider English.

In addition to helping students, the Reading Progress feature also provides more transparency for parents in assessing the academic progress of their children. Parents are happy to see the learning results that I share through Microsoft Teams, and many of them are starting to be interested in this technology," concluded Marheni.

Integrating AI Into The World Of Education, Steps Towards Indonesia Gold 2045

Indonesia needs a transformation of education that relies on technology as a driver of change and improvement in the quality of human resources. Entering the new era of AI, it is time to prepare a generation that is competitive and capable of AI use. Most recently, Microsoft has presented the AI Skills Navigator website, an AI-powered learning platform, which can help each individual, including teacher, to find their respective goals, levels, and learning styles. This platform is expected to help each individual to achieve success in the AI era.