Artificial intelligence could free up huge amounts of time for teachers and help pupils who badly lack confidence - but schools must also be acutely aware of myriad pitfalls of AI.
Those were among the messages that resonated with headteachers when AI expert Dina Foster addressed primary school leaders’ body AHDS in Glasgow.
Ultimately, if used well, AI could help to change education radically for the better, she said, if it means deeper learning in schools and less emphasis on pupils “regurgitating” knowledge.
Addressing last week’s AHDS annual gathering, Ms Foster - a former secondary school deputy headteacher and now director of AI CPD at Educate Ventures Research - revealed some relatively quick wins for teachers using AI, such as producing lots of differentiated materials very quickly.
“If you can create that without being a tech wizard, fantastic,” she said.
AI could save teachers time in many areas, she suggested, and she asked delegates if there was any “point in spending 40 minutes on an amazing graphic” if AI could do it much quicker and allow teachers to focus their efforts elsewhere.
Will AI in schools change education?
There are also potential benefits for “learners who are worried about putting their hand up” if they can interact with an AI, because this “provides a safe space to make a mistake”.
If, for example, a shy pupil feels able to ask an AI tool “can you explain photosynthesis?” but would be reluctant to pose the same question to a teacher, this should be seen not as replacing a teacher but as helping a teacher, said Ms Foster.
AI tools such as ChatGPT might be used to produce 10 adjectives that pupils then have to weigh up, she said, or to come up with a poem about sunshine, which pupils could then analyse in groups to decide what was good and bad about it.
More fundamentally, Ms Foster addressed what she saw as education systems’ traditional emphasis on assessing pupils by their capacity for “regurgitating” knowledge.
There is a deeply ingrained “focus on knowing stuff” - whether it is spelling, cursive handwriting or capital cities - but such “knowledge-heavy” approaches could be consigned to the past by AI, she said.
Ms Foster was hopeful for a future of “augmented intelligence” - combining the best aspects of AI and human intelligence - in which learners are freed up by AI to “reflect on [their] own thinking”.
She reassured the room of primary schools leaders that they can “hold the reins” of AI, and that how they use it should be “up to you”.
However, Ms Foster also highlighted risks of AI, including “inherent bias” and concerns over “a lack of transparency and accuracy” in AI responses.
She believes “an agile, evolving AI strategy is of fundamental importance”, and that CPD to ensure a “strong foundation of AI literacy” in schools is also crucial.
Delegates’ notes for Ms Foster’s AHDS session state: “AI brings with it huge potential to radically change education. However, a balance must be struck between pursuing the potential benefits of this technology and safeguarding against the threats that also accompany artificial intelligence.”
While “education has been slow to adapt and embrace technology”, the Covid-19 pandemic had “accelerated this progress”, the conference notes add.
After her presentation, Tes Scotland asked Ms Foster if there was a danger of a “digital divide” whereby more affluent students had access to better AI.
She replied that, in fact, some experts saw a danger of another type of divide between rich and poor: a future where everyone has access to AI but only the wealthy get to work with a human teacher.
