ASK BETTER QUESTIONS: THE IMPACT OF AI ON EDUCATION

Matt Seddon Secondary Principal, Bangkok Patana School

On 30th November 2022, ChatGPT, an online tool developed by OpenAI, was released to the public, creating an unprecedented wave of curiosity, excitement and fear within the education community. As an enthusiastic leader, I am self-aware about my propensity for hyperbole and my excitement for new technology. Despite this, I believe that ChatGPT (and the vast array of other similarly powerful AI apps and websites) has truly changed education forever, catching many of us off guard.

The possibilities of this technology seem to be limitless, and it is freely available to our students today.

Educators have long talked about being ‘futureready’, but when it comes to AI, the future has well and truly arrived, forcing us to consider the impact in our schools today. Here are five points that we have been considering:

1. Academic Integrity

ChatGPT is a language model which generates human-like text, effortlessly completing basic tasks like language translation, essay structuring and modelling answers. The early adopters are now really beginning to understand its power, finding that it can solve complex mathematical equations, write sophisticated essays and even generate computer code.

With the advent of AI writing, academic integrity has become a primary concern to many. However, I believe that we need to quickly move beyond this as a source of worry and ensure we are promoting ethical learning environments that prioritise honesty and integrity, rather than reacting to the latest technology. Schools must educate their staff and students on how to use AI technology in an ethical and responsible manner. A wonderful line of enquiry with students is to philosophically discuss whether AI writing is an extension of spell check or an editor function!

2. Train Your Teams

To ensure a positive culture around AI technology, staff must be well-trained and confident. Leaders should outline the expected culture and empower their staff to use AI tools. In a school setting, this can help teachers reduce their workload by automating routine tasks such as creating resources, grading work against a rubric and providing real-time feedback. Staff need to know that this is acceptable, and be encouraged to use it, allowing them to prioritise delivering high-quality instruction and engaging with their students on a more personal level.

3. Getting Ahead of the Game

As history has shown, opposing technology is rarely successful. When calculators first entered the classroom, many teachers were afraid of the impact on mathematical learning. The reality has seen students access higher and more complex problems.

By encouraging students to use AI technology for legitimate purposes, such as receiving instant feedback and suggestions on how to improve their essays, or developing innovative solutions to complex problems, we can accelerate student learning so that they can achieve their potential. I encourage our teachers to set healthy parameters for its use and help students to understand how to use it in a responsible and ethical manner. This is where magical outcomes can be achieved.

4. Ask Better Questions

AI technology provides the best outcomes to those who ask the best questions. This is also true of education itself. Teachers who ask better questions of their students shifting away from traditional recallcentric problems, will allow their students to access higher-order thinking skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking and creativity.

Traditional homework tasks appear to become meaningless when considered through this lens. Is asking students to complete 10 quadratic equations a good use of anybody’s time? Would it be better to ask students to use AI technology to learn how they can solve quadratic equations, encouraging them to generate their own increasingly challenging questions and learning how to structure their answers, so that they deepen their understanding, ready to present their findings to their peers in the next lesson?

5. The Future of Assessment

The role of traditional examinations is likely to be a debate that rages amongst educators, parents and students over the coming years. Whilst our understanding of high-quality teaching and learning has evolved beyond all recognition, the format of examinations has not changed much since the 19th century. As we discover how to harness AI technology, it is likely that educators will first ‘double down’ on tests as an assessment tool. After all, what better way is there to guarantee authenticity than sitting in exam conditions? But in a world where technology has made information and modelling more readily available than ever before, I suspect we will soon start asking ourselves why on earth we are setting these tasks in the first place.

I believe that a wonderful challenge awaits educators to develop new assessment methods that measure students' ability to apply knowledge in real-world situations and reward creativity and innovation. The future of education is exciting and full of potential, and we must embrace this new technology to prepare our students for the challenges that lie ahead.