AI - The Future of Tutoring?

One of my colleagues recently told me a story. His elementary-aged son asked him for help studying for a vocabulary quiz. My colleague was busy with a task and in a moment of what he admitted to be not particularly present parenting, he pulled out his phone, opened ChatGPT Pro, and verbally instructed it to quiz his son on particular vocabulary with particular guidance and particular question types. 30 minutes later the studying was done, and little John did excellently on his quiz.

In April and May, as our class prepared for the AP World History exam in May, my students consistently asked for more guidance regarding tools they could use to prepare that were mobile and user-friendly. I suggested AI Tutor Pro, and in short order, students were copying course content into the site, answering AI-produced questions, and receiving AI feedback.  While exam results will not be released for a while yet, my students have never expressed as much confidence in their exam outcomes as they have this year. I place a lot of credit on the motivation and effort of the students, I claim some as the educator, but I also note that tools such as AI tutoring played a significant role in student preparation.

If one takes the time to search for AI Tutoring online, the result is a long list of options. This is an exciting development as a potentially outstanding source of support in learning. It pays to remember that "a tutor's role is to augment the learning experience, not replace it." (Bajarin, 2024) As such, tutoring is a use of AI that is ethical and encourages learning rather than replacing the process.