The age of AI in education has arrived

Mr Sam Sterrett Head of Enrichment

With the public release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, global attention is now alert to the growing power of ‘artificial intelligence’. One might assume it to be an American invention, a testament to Silicon Valley’s explosive innovation. However, the true genesis of this revolutionary concept traces back to the British logician and mathematician, Alan Turing. Famous for his depiction in ‘The Imitation Game’. In his 1950, seminal paper, ‘Computing Machinery and Intelligence’, Turing dared to imagine a “thinking machine,” laying the groundwork for what we now know as artificial intelligence. As the years progressed, so did the ambition of AI pioneers. From Parry the Paranoid program, created in an attempt to better understand psychiatric illness to Eliza the Psychotherapist (70’s), these early experiments sought to mimic human cognition with varying degrees of success. Yet, by the 1980s, the field encountered formidable obstacles. As Hubert Dreyfus quite rightly pointed out, computer system based on traditional symbolic rules-based coding were simply unable to meet the threshold for intuitive understanding inherent to human thought. Intuition underpins expertise, mastery and skill acquisition. Consider the grand chess master who intuitively makes moves in approximately 5-10 seconds. Or the expert driver who intuitively knows how to coordinate the brake, accelerator and steering wheel simultaneously…intuitively. No computer system at the time could come close to this and funding for AI research began to dry up.

However, the 1990s heralded a renaissance, marked by the convergence of neuroscience and computer science. Enter artificial neural networks, models inspired by the intricate web of neurons in the human brain. These networks, capable of learning from data, unlocked unprecedented possibilities, from ChatGPT powered robots to self-driving cars. Even mimicking behaviour akin to intuitive thinking.

Fast forward to 2024 and as we stand on the verge of a true technological revolution, the conversation has shifted. The ‘Singularity’ looms on the horizon and no longer a science fiction fantasy, a hypothetical event where machine intelligence surpasses our own. The great Australian AI philosopher David Chalmers and the godfather of AI, Geoffrey Hinton, both once envisioned this event as a distant dream but have now joined a chorus of AI expert researchers agreeing this may well be just around the corner.

AI and Education

The future implications of AI in education are clearly staggering. But what about the reality right now for a Scotch teacher? Well…we are at an early experimental phase.

In February, Scotch staff were treated to a lecture with Stirling and Rose AI expert Ty Haberland (OSC, 2016), who presented on the some of profound legal implications of AI for the future of the workforce.

Under the direction of Director of Teaching and Learning, Richard Spence, the College’s Enrichment Leadership Team decided to underpin our new experiments into AI integration with Rosenshine’s tried and tested Principles of Instruction. Developed by educational psychologist Barak Rosenshine, these globally recognised principles outline evidence-based strategies for effective teaching.

Let’s consider one principle: “Provide for practice and review.”

Traditionally, practice and review sessions rely on standardised exercises, offering limited engagement and feedback. However, with AI, these sessions can evolve into dynamic, adaptive experiences designed for far greater memory retention, not to mention, more fun for students!

So what does this look like in a Scotch classroom? Scan the QR code and take a look!

Stay tuned for the upcoming series of AI Teacher Hacks from the Enrichment Leadership Team.

As we embrace the dawn of this AI-enabled era of education at Scotch, it’s not all helpful hacks and time-saving techniques. In February, Scotch staff were treated to a lecture with Stirling and Rose AI expert Ty Haberland (OSC, 2016), who presented on some of the profound legal implications of AI for the future of the workforce. There are imminent threats we must take seriously and striking new EU laws may be a sign of things to come in Australia. The EU now imposes legally binding rules requiring tech companies to notify users when they are interacting with a chatbot or emotion recognition systems.

The birth of AI heralds not just a technological revolution but a reimagining of education itself. As a school with a globally outward looking approach and a long-standing tradition of progressive education, Scotch College is well placed to continue to provide our boys with a global standard of excellence, turbo charged by the best AI has to offer.