The Fourth Education Revolution Reconsidered

Sir Anthony Seldon, the prominent political biographer and leading educationalist, addresses one of the high-stakes issues that will influence our future: the role of artificial intelligence and its impact on education.

The use of AI promises an altogether new way of educating, offering learners from all backgrounds widespread access to personalised tuition and digital educational materials from across the world. Educational institutions across the world have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and many have migrated, at least temporarily, to online platforms. The debate about how to deliver knowledge has never been more relevant.

Many countries have an excellent education system with their schools and universities – excellent, but tailored to the twentieth century. The mass teaching methods of the third revolution era have failed to conquer enduring problems of inequity and lack of individualised learning. AI is disrupting the way we live, work and interact with the environment, and we cannot stop it changing our schools and universities. But we have time – albeit not for long – to shape this revolution. It will not be a panacea, and if we are not quick, it will start to replace what makes us human – being creative, having beliefs, and loving others.

This book, presented in considerably updated and extended second edition, is a call to educators everywhere to open their eyes to what is coming. If we do so, then the future will be shaped by us for the common interests of humanity – but if we don’t, then it will be imposed, and we will all lose.

‘This book has the potential to impel change in our education system which is so badly in need of reform. The new “reconsidered” version in the wake of the COVID pandemic serves to emphasize even more strongly the role AI can play in education and how its use is being accelerated.’ Lord Clement-Jones CBE