Written by: Kelly Hollis
The rapid rise of AI across industries is reshaping industries across the board, and education is no exception. The Australian government recently released its report on the role of generative AI in education, ‘Study Buddy or Influencer’, underscores that the responsible implementation of AI in the classroom is a top priority.
For regulators and educators alike, the challenge is navigating this uncharted territory. As we stand at this crossroads, it’s crucial to take a balanced and thoughtful approach to AI integration to enhance student engagement and outcomes.
The role of AI in education
The transformative potential of AI in education cannot be understated. In the face of teacher shortages and constrained budgets in schools, AI tools empower teachers by offering valuable support where it’s needed most. From creating personalised learning journeys for students to providing real-time 1-1 support, AI enables teachers to enhance the classroom experience that would otherwise be difficult in larger classrooms. AI frees up teachers to invest more time and energy in meaningful interactions that directly impact student outcomes.
However, for AI tools to truly have a positive impact in the classroom, it’s essential to choose the right one that aligns with the desired outcomes. This could be high-quality outputs, breadth of capability, protection of student data, or all three. Educational technology companies must work closely with educators to empower them to choose the tools that, ultimately, will best support their teachers and students.
Closing the learning loop
For AI to significantly advance learning outcomes for students, it must provide a continuous cycle of feedback that empowers both students and teachers. At Education Perfect, we’ve developed our AI-driven tool with an iterative feedback loop, allowing students to revise their work based on specific, actionable insights while keeping teachers at the heart of the process. Each round of feedback builds on the previous one, helping students gradually enhance their skills and knowledge – we can call this ‘feeding forward’.
By providing teachers with real-time insights into student learning and progress, Education Perfect amplifies teachers’ role in driving meaningful learning outcomes. Through the AI feedback loop, teachers are empowered with detailed visibility into student answers, allowing them to offer personalised feedback that complements the AI-driven support. This partnership between teachers and technology ensures students refine their skills continuously, achieving deeper and more sustained learning without minimising teachers’ role in education.
Protecting precious student data
One of the main concerns when it comes to AI in education is around the protection of student data. Advanced models are trained on a vast amount of data, which is crucial to developing high quality models that understand complex concepts and can provide accurate responses. So, how do we ensure student data is safeguarded while developing reliable AI systems?
To address this, there must be transparent communication between edtech providers and educators to ensure students and guardians understand how their data is used and provide consent for its use. Data sovereignty is also a key consideration – in Australia, student data should be stored and processed within the country to avoid exposure to foreign laws or less stringent privacy protections, thereby ensuring compliance with local regulations.
The role of teachers, regulators, and ed-tech
Collaboration between teachers, regulators and ed-tech companies is crucial to ensure the responsible development and use of AI. Each plays a vital role in this process: teachers focus on pedagogy, using their expertise to integrate AI tools in ways that enhance learning and maintain student engagement; regulators establish ethical standards and guidelines to protect privacy and security and promote fairness; and ed-tech companies are responsible for developing secure, reliable, and impactful AI solutions.
With open communication between all stakeholders involved, schools can ensure they invest in solutions that truly enhance learning experiences and outcomes. Ultimately AI tools must be developed and imputed with student safety and protection at the forefront.
About the author:
Kelly Hollis is the Australian Curriculum Specialist at Education Perfect and author of ‘The Engaging Science Classroom: Practical Strategies for EVERY Teacher.
She plays a pivotal role in shaping and advancing EP’s content strategy and development throughout Australia and has gained recognition on a global scale, acknowledged as one of the top educators leading flipped learning worldwide by the Flipped Learning Global Initiative.
Hollis is passionate about effective technology integration in education and is renowned for her influence in cultivating a culture of resource sharing and thought leadership within the educational community.
The Education Perfect Group, combining Education Perfect, Essential Assessment and EdPotential, serves more than 5,000 primary and secondary schools and 1.8 million enrolled students worldwide.
