‘Well, I would have liked this myself when I was in secondary school,’ starts Patrick IJntema, lecturer at Fontys ICT in Eindhoven. He himself no longer has to study for tests, as a year and a half ago he graduated from the same study programme where he now teaches.
‘But the reality is that in the past decade, many parents have started working full-time and therefore have less time to help their children with school. At the same time, I also see that many children prefer to work on their own and do not want to depend on their parents or friends when learning teaching material.’
So that is where StudyBuddy comes in, an interactive AI tool that playfully converts lesson material into questions so that students better retain the necessary information. ‘You take pictures of your book, upload them into StudyBuddy and within five to 10 seconds you get all your first questions. A rehearsal that you used to do with your parents, but are now in your own hands.’
10,000 users
And whether for maths, history or languages, Studybuddy can help with anything. For theory subjects, content questions are formulated, for maths you get new assignments and when learning French or German words, for example, you also get a customised list that helps.
StudyBuddy has now been around for six months and attracts between 5,000 and 10,000 users a month. Some 200 to 300 users pay for the online study buddy's services. Users - when using the trial version and setting up an account - can access five overthrows unlimited. ‘After that, you have to take out a subscription of 8 euros a month or 48 euros a year.’
Farmer's sense
That, of course, leaves one question. Is working with ChatGPT for this age dangerous, or is it actually good to introduce them to this form of AI at a younger age? According to IJntema, the opinions of secondary school lecturers are quite divided about it. For while many are enthusiastic about a platform like StudyBuddy, others take measures to stay just as far away from it as possible. ‘The differences are immense, but I think education cannot exclude AI. This innovation is here and it is also quite groundbreaking.’
So how can secondary schools best deal with it? By developing a bit of farm sense in students, says IJntema. ‘Let students use AI, but also make them aware of the risks. Perform assignments with and without AI tools and see what the differences are. We need to let them experience what the risks are and what to watch out for, so that they always think critically about what is shared.’
Source: www.bron.fontys.nl