200,000 French students to benefit from the rollout of MIA, an AI-powered revision app
Students in French lycées will be able to use a new educational tool powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to help revise literature and mathematics.
The app - called “Modules interactifs adaptatifs,” or MIA - was created by EvidenceB, a French EdTech start-up.
Making access widely available to 15-year-olds was one of the last decisions taken by former French education minister, Gabriel Attal before he became the country’s new prime minister in January.
The decision was made following the publication of alarming results regarding the educational level of French students.
The education ministry announced in a statement that it “will be made available for free to 200,000 Year 11 students over the next few months, before being rolled out to all next September”.
“MIA offers 20,000 adaptive exercises for students,” EvidenceB’s co-founder, Thierry de Vulpillières told French broadcaster BFM.
“The tool makes students think and does not create for them.
“You need to offer exercises that are difficult enough to challenge the student, but not too hard so that they become discouraged, and not too easy so that they become bored,” de Vulpillières added.
The app’s algorithm uses AI to give the student the best exercises to make progress.
“The application includes a dashboard for the teacher to monitor the progress of each student. This gives a very convenient overview,” Cécile Cathelin, a teacher who collaborated with EvidenceB for MIA’s resources, told Euronews Next.
According to her, the solution could help teachers save time. “Artificial intelligence will immediately see the strengths and weaknesses of students,” she added.
‘Not a miracle solution’
“It's not a magic tool, it's not going to change everything, it's going to be a new tool with which we'll be able to work,” Cathelin said.
However, not everyone is sharing her enthusiasm.
Snes-FSU, the largest trade union for secondary teachers in France, was quick to raise concerns denouncing what it called “techno-solutionism” and “[how it] makes it possible to get around the question of the material conditions necessary to be able to do one's job properly”.
“By making quality work impossible, the Ministry is encouraging people to accept and even enthusiastically embrace technologies that would "save time," but which in fact legitimise an increase in the number of tasks imposed,” the union added.
Using the application would not be mandatory for students, Attal told BFM.
