Challenges of Globalization

Human Rights Dialogue 1.11 (Summer 1998) "Toward a "Social Foreign Policy"
with Asia"

June 5, 1998

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LIVE STREAM NEWSLETTER

Globalization poses four major challenges that will have to be addressed by

governments, civil society, and other policy actors.

 One is to ensure that the benefits of globalization extend to all countries. That will
certainly not happen automatically.

 The second is to deal with the fear that globalization leads to instability, which is
particularly marked in the developing world.

 The third challenge is to address the very real fear in the industrial world that increased
global competition will lead inexorably to a race to the bottom in wages, labor rights,
employment practices, and the environment.

 And finally, globalization and all of the complicated problems related to it must not be
used as excuses to avoid searching for new ways to cooperate in the overall interest of
countries and people.

Several implications for civil society, for governments and for multinational institutions
stem from the challenges of globalization.

 Civil society organizations concerned with development have traditionally focused on

aid and resource transfers; they now are going to have to broaden their agenda to deal
with the much more complex issues of trade and investment, international financial
flows, environment, and migration, among others. Civil society organizations in the old
industrial countries also will have to deal with the backlash against global ization, which
is producing a growing unwillingness to support multilateral cooperation.

 Governments are going to have to decide what they mean by “civil society” and to
identify new ways of dealing with its organizations. At the Overseas Development
 Council, we define civil society broadly to encompass not only development and
advocacy groups, but also corporations, financial institutions, think tanks, foundations,
and a range of other groups that are not part of government. But governments and
other actors need to decide whether civil society is simply an effective—and even
cheap—way of delivering social programs, or whether it is good in and of itself, an
essential component of a democratic society. In other words, they are going to have to
be much more precise about the purposes of working with civil society groups and
about how they fund them.

 Then, there is a whole set of critical questions for the multilateral institutions, particularly
concerning participation and transparency. These issues are extremely difficult because
these remain governmental institutions, and governments often do not welcome the
participation of civil society in decisions.

 Finally, there is a need for high-level political discussions among leaders from the old
industrial countries, the emerging economies, and the countries that risk marginalization
by globalization. We are urging the Group of Eight this year in London to call for a new
summit on globalization in order to begin a discussion of maximizing its benefits and
minimizing its costs.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND EDUCATION
Artificial Intelligence have a great role in the field of education. Computers have been
used in education for over 20 years. Intelligent tutoring systems have been shown to be
highly effective in increasing student motivation and learning. Computer-based training
(CBT) and computer aided instruction (CAI) were the first such systems deployed as an
attempt to teach using computers. In these kinds of systems, the instruction was not
individualized to the learner’s needs. Instead, the decisions about how to move a
student through the material were script-like, “if question 21 is answered correctly,
proceed to question 54; otherwise go to question 32.” The learner’s abilities were not
taken into account in this type of learning system. Even though both Computer-based
training (CBT) and computer aided instruction (CAI) effective in helping learners, they do
not provide the same kind of individualized attention that a student would receive from
a human tutor. For a computer based educational system to provide such attention, it
must reason about the domain and the learner. This prompted research in the field of
intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs). ITSs offer considerable flexibility in presentation of
material and a greater ability to respond to student needs. These systems achieve their
“intelligence” by representing educational decisions about how to teach as well as
information about the learner. This allows for greater flexibility by altering the system’s
interactions with the student. Intelligent tutoring systems have been shown to be highly
effective at increasing student’s performance and motivation.
15 Pros and 6 Cons of Artificial
Intelligence in the Classroom

LiveTiles
JUN 5 T H 20 17

Technology is an essential part of human progress. Whether it be sticks,

stones or smart phones, tech has allowed us to excel in our environments.
With tech becoming more ubiquitous and classrooms being digitized, the pros
and cons of artificial intelligence have been the focus of many heated debates
between education and tech experts.

After all, computers are getting smarter, and artificial intelligence is more
science-fact than science-fiction. Educators could soon find themselves at the
head of a digital classroom with AI at its heart. What could possibly go wrong?

Source: https://blogs.technet.com/b/nzedu/archive/2013/01/07/collaboration-
and-the-role-of-technology-in-the-21st-century-classroom.aspx
P ro s a n d Co n s o f A rt if icia l I n t e llige n ce : 1 5 Re a so n s W h y it W o rks

1. Personalized Learning: Much attention is usually given to what

students learn, with a historical tendency to focus on curriculum.
However, how a student learns is just as important. Advances in AI are
giving teachers a better understanding of how their students learn and
allowing them to customize the curriculum accordingly.

2. ITS (Intelligent Tutoring Systems): ITS aren’t some far-off vison of the
future—they already exist in a practical capacity. While far from the norm, they
are capable of functioning without a teacher having to be present and can
effectively challenge and support the learner using different algorithms.

3. Adaptive Group Formation: By analyzing learner information, AI can

generate groups particularly suited to a certain task, or groups that balance
one learner’s weaknesses with another learner’s strengths.

4. Facilitation by Example: Models of effective collaboration can be used to

support learners and help them identify effective problem solving strategies

5. Intelligent Moderation: Intelligent Moderation allows human tutors,

moderators and teachers to analyze the data produced by large groups with
the assistance of AI techniques like machine learning. In turn, educators can
be more efficient in the classroom.

6. Virtual Reality Learning: Taking a page from aviation education, VR-

assisted learning allows for educational support in authentic environments and
extends the boundaries of the classroom. Realistic immersion in virtual
environments can provide learners with a richer understanding of the material.
This will also act as a stepping stone to real-world experiences, with fully
integrated AIs, humans will employ machines for space and ocean
exploration, fraud detection, knowledge management, job training and
precision surgeries.

7. Essay Grading Software: Software that can instantly grade student

essays is a significant benefit. Every graded essay adds to a central database
to which future essays are compared.

8. Real-time Problem Solving Assessment: This reduces the load on

teachers by providing simultaneous instruction in a classroom setting.
Source: https://medium.com/ai-revolution/when-will-the-first-machine-become-
superintelligent-ae5a6f128503#.g8ydf092h

9. Improving Course Quality: AI can analyze patterns in which a large

number of students submit wrong answers to the same questions. By alerting
the educator to these patterns, AI can help make teachers more effective.

10. Dynamic Scheduling and Predictive Analysis By using predictive

computing, AI can learn students’ habits and propose the most efficient study
schedule for them. This is a benefit for the customer service agent, medical
intern, or anyone who does a repetitive or labrious tasks; a machine won’t get
bored, tired or need a break and should the machine encounter a problem or
question out of its programming a human will be contacted to step in.

11. Custom Textbooks: Educators will be able to import a syllabus and AI

will generate a textbook filled with the core content (CTI). This makes for an
incredible amount of customization, not only from class to class or grade to
grade, but within the school year itself.

12. Virtual Humans: While seemingly something out of science fiction, virtual
humans are already a reality. Intelligent interfaces like “the twins” at the
Boston Museum of Science, for example, provide a much-needed social
dynamic to artificial intelligence. Virtual humans like avatars, digital assistants
or Chatbots are cost efficient and can work 24 hours, seven days a week in
those repetitive and time-consuming tasks no human enjoys doing.

13. Intelligent Game Based Learning Environments: Using gamification to

motivate learners can help improve retention while making the learning
experience fun.

14. Machine Translation: While today’s translation apps are not as accurate
as human translation, machine translation can be faster and more efficient.
Machine translation has the potential to bridge the language gap for many
second language students.

15. Empowering the Disabled (Differently-Abled): AI programs that

augment the educational experience for the disabled are already in
development by companies like Facebook. These advancements can grant
learners with special needs a greater sense of autonomy.

As groundbreaking as AI in the classroom can be, it is not without a few

drawbacks.
P ro s a n d Co n s o f A rt if icia l I n t e llige n ce : 6 Re a so n s t o b e S ke p t ica l

1. Cost: When combining the cost of installation, maintenance and repair, it’s
clear that AI is expensive. Only the most well-funded schools will find
themselves in a position to benefit from AI.

2. Addiction: As we rely on machines to make everyday tasks more efficient,

we risk technology addiction.

3. Lack of Personal Connections: While smart machines improve the

education experience, they should not be considered a substitute for personal
interaction. Relying too much on these machines to grade or tutor may lead to
educational oversights that hurt learners more than help.

4. Unemployment: Making teaching more efficient could create less of a

demand for educators. With the advent of MOOCs, class size is no longer as
much of a determining factor in quality education, and even at the K-12 level,
the implementation of AI may mean a decrease in teaching aids and
assistants.

5. Efficient Decision Making: Computers are getting smarter everyday. They

are demonstrating not only an ability to learn, but to teach other computers.
However, it is debatable whether they can implement intuition-based decision
making in new situations, which often arises in the classroom.

6. Loss of information: When the inevitable occurs and an AI needs repairs,

how much information will be lost?