Over the last year, as an independent educational technology trainer, I have been having conversations and running workshops with school leaders and teachers on the practical, effective and ethical application of AI tools on teaching and learning. The journey I have been on will no doubt have been mirrored in many other schools, and although I am no global thought leader like Dan Fitzpatrick, I thought I might just (very) briefly reflect on the key elements I have encountered so far and thereby contribute to a public conversation from which I have already gained so much.
My first school visits begin with ensuring a shared understanding of the broader picture of AI as an irresistible societal phenomenon, its various guises, potential and current risks and limitations. Additionally, time is spent enabling teachers across all subject areas to engage with a few key AI tools that save them time creating or adapting resources, offer opportunities for planning or help generate ideas for new types of learning.
As the simplest possible framework for constructing prompts, I promote my own model of ‘Roles, Goals, Controls ‘ (couldn’t help it, I’m a linguist!). See table at the end of this post.
We also begin to explore simple ways in which students 13 and older might use the web-enabled version of ChatGPT to help with idea generation, adjusting the accessibility of teaching materials and asking/setting/answering questions on areas of study.
The next stage is shifting the emphasis even further away from teacher-creation of resources to a sharper focus on student use of AI. Given that we are right at that time of year of when Year 11 and 13 are taking mock exams and then facing the final run up to public exams, this is a perfect time to consider what role AI can play in our students’ toolkit.
Schools are naturally driven (not just by parents) to help students achieve their highest possible exam results. Sometimes, and perhaps especially for exam year classes, this can translate into teachers still doing everything for students, providing revision sessions, revision packs and to some extent re-teaching what has already been taught. To what extent do students take ownership of their own learning?
For me, one of the greatest potentials of AI is to wean students from this dependency model as we send them off to university and the world of work. We can choose to positively empower them with the skills to learn independently and to know how to use AI to actively engage both with materials accumulated over the period of the exam course in their OneNote Notebooks and with other resources they are drawn to, such as subject and exam board-specific YouTube channels and past papers. We can show them how to have the highly personalised Socratic conversations back and forth that are possible with web-enabled ChatGPT and other chatbots to revisit content, get questions, explanations and feedback.
For this to happen, teachers need to engage first with these tools, share what works between themselves and then demonstrate subject-specific approaches to their own students, guiding them through concrete tasks.
Finally, I can see great benefits for schools being proactive in sharing with parents how these tools can be crucial in the necessary and desirable goal of their children becoming independent, self-motivated learners that know how to harness technology the right way and are ready for the next step of their education and life.
Alongside all this is the need for clear school-wide guidelines on what constitutes acceptable and unacceptable use of AI, with particular clarity of message and processes needed for exam classes in following the latest JCQ guidelines for coursework.
Anyway, that’s a potted reflection of my journey with AI in schools so far, it would be good to hear what stage your school is at on this AI journey, and where the next stages are..
Naturally, do let me know if you think I can share my experiences in schools to help you along!
Steve Morgan Training 