What to know
- Ontario is investing $60 million in a new EdTech digital learning platform, with all 72 school boards expected to have access starting in September.
- Nelson Education’s Edwin platform will offer Grades 1–12 curriculum-based resources, interactive tools and features to help teachers track progress and identify learning gaps.
- AI is already being used by students and teachers, but expert Sam Jenkins says the challenge is navigating too many disconnected platforms and a lack of training and guidance.
- Jenkins says AI should support and not replace teachers. Educators should be making the final decisions. He argues schools should focus on AI literacy, better learning outcomes and giving teachers more time to teach.
Ontario classrooms may soon see more AI implementation in their day-to-day tasks.
The province announced in June that it’s planning to put $60 million towards a roll-out of a new digital learning platform for schools, called EdTech. The technology would give students interactive learning tools and help teachers and educators grade student assignments and identify learning gaps earlier.
The new resource would be implemented in September, with all 72 of Ontario’s school boards having access to it.
Nelson Education’s Edwin platform covers subjects from Grades 1 to 12, in both English and French. The technology is set to provide curriculum-based material, aligning with lesson plans, activities, videos, presentations, and tools, which would assist teachers in tracking student progress.
With the recent rise and development of artificial intelligence and tools using the technology, schools have been navigating multiple platforms along with it.
Sam Jenkins is the co-founder of Punchcard Systems, which works in technology and education and builds AI-driven tools and software. He told Now Toronto that despite its recent surge, AI is already in classrooms, with or without formal policies governing its use.
“AI probably already has a presence in schools. Kids are using it. Teachers are using it. Whether or not there’s a policy, so the gap necessarily isn’t whether it exists. It’s whether it’s being governed properly,” Jenkins explained.
Jenkins added that the challenge facing schools is the number of AI-use platforms that both teachers and students are expected to learn and navigate in short periods of time.
“The bottleneck isn’t necessarily a lack of tools. It’s that there are many disconnected ones that exist within the learning and education ecosystem,” he said.
Ontario said EdTech is expected to address some of those challenges, with teachers able to use the platform to find materials by subject and grade. Students will also have access to interactive tools to track and improve their progress.
However, Jenkins said adding more technology to classrooms doesn’t necessarily mean teachers or students will actually benefit.
“I think it hurts when there is no training. I think it hurts when there’s no guidance, and I think it hurts when it’s just adding more infrastructure to an already busy classroom,” Jenkins explained.
A training gap could become increasingly common as more AI tools become more common.
Jenkins said teachers are already dealing with these rapid changes in technology while having limited time.
“Keeping up with the amount of change, you know, it overwhelms people at the best of times, and teachers are probably already short on time in the classrooms as it is,” he said.
Jenkins assured the answer to this issue isn’t to keep AI out of classrooms, but to make sure students and teachers understand how to use it in a responsible way.
“We need to be focusing on AI literacy as a part of our education systems,” he said. “Kids are already using AI… so we need to be planning on the fact that it’s going to be [in the curriculum], and folks need to be taught how to use it well. Otherwise, they’re going to be left to figure it out themselves.”
Jenkins also said technology should not replace the human side of education.
“I’m a believer that AI can’t be held accountable, but directly responsible individuals can.”
He added teachers should remain responsible for decisions involving students, even when AI is used to assist with drafting, suggestions, or evaluation.
“A teacher still needs to make the final call on what a student sees or on how they’re assessed; AI doesn’t get to be the decision maker,” Jenkins explained.
Ultimately, Jenkins said the goal of educational technology should be measured by whether it improves learning and gives teachers more time for other technology-free tasks.
“The outcome is giving teachers back the time to teach and giving students better judgment, not necessarily better shortcuts,” he said.
The investment could show a major push for a digital classroom experience.
But as AI becomes more integrated into education, the question may be whether it’s being used in a way that actually improves how students learn.
“What we should be thinking about in education is: Are we producing better thinkers, and are we giving teachers more time to teach?” Jenkins said. “If [the platform] can’t point to progress on either of those, I think it’s solving the wrong problem.”
