(Menarfin– Khaleej Times) A Dubai-based professor shares a shocking experiment he conducted in a PhD student class. “One of my students has a ChatGPT Premium account and we decided to come up with a list of five interesting PhD thesis topics for the next five years,” said Dr. Khalid Al Murri of the British University in Dubai.“And I have to admit I failed. ChatGPT came up with a better list than mine.”
On the second day of a recent ‘remote’ conference in Dubai, Dr Khalid spoke on a panel about why he thinks modern technology could be a threat to jobs.
Speaking at an earlier meeting, Noura Al Kaabi, Minister of State and Rector of Zayed University (ZU), addressed the opportunities and challenges of exploring distance higher education, citing an OECD report that 1.8 billion jobs will become obsolete due to technology.
However, Zaki Anwar Nusseibah, Cultural Advisor to the UAE President and President of UAE Universities, said teachers can overcome this challenge by effectively educating and upskilling students. “We need to guide them into adopting a new mindset that teaches them continuous self-development,” he said.
“They need to learn flexibility and resilience. Understanding and meeting the needs of future job opportunities is no longer a luxury, but a necessity.”
He also stressed that the education system needs an overhaul. “Students go to college to specialize in one major,” he said. “But that trend is coming to an end. It’s not enough for doctors to study science now. They have to acquire other skills. They need to know math to work with big data. They need to know social research and many other topics.”
Al Kaabi agrees with him and quotes. “The main factor in education is the rapid change in technology,” she said. “How do we ensure that the syllabus provides multidisciplinary research? Also, we have artificial intelligence. It has these skills. What is the technology lacking? Students have to think, how can I ensure that the machine does not replace me. They have to work hard to develop critical thinking And emotional intelligence. Those are aspects that machines can’t replace.”
Using Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom
Meanwhile, educators in the UAE are using artificial intelligence (AI) in the classroom to improve the learning process. Al Kaabi explains how they use AI to study their students.
“At Zayed University, we have a platform to evaluate student interactions,” she said. “At the same time, we also make sure that a certain percentage of our knowledge is absorbed.”
We measured it and we were able to see what percentage of students were able to master the topic. This helps us understand how students learn. This is both a challenge and an opportunity. “
Dr Al Murri mentioned how universities around the world are preparing to use virtual spaces for teaching. Some experiments have shown that using Metaverse for education can be cost-effective up to 60%. “
In the UAE, several government departments, including the Dubai Municipality, have started using Metaverse for food safety activities. A DM spokesperson told Khaleej Times how inspectors learn about food safety hazards, temperature control and food handling in the metaverse.
Also read:
UAE jobs: Should employees worry about ChatGPT, other AI tools replacing them?
