How to seize the benefits of artificial intelligence, and avoid the pitfalls
As a leading online school, we have a key interest in exploring AI in education. It is less than two years since OpenAI launched ChatGPT, a generative AI chatbot that allows users to enter prompts and receive outputs generated by artificial intelligence. The impact has been phenomenal: like others across the world, our staff and students are exploring how such new and accessible tools can improve their lives.
How do we make sure that our online school makes best use of these exciting new tools? How can we harness AI in education to help students learn and develop? And can we protect student wellbeing as they explore generative AI?
Artificial Intelligence for students at our online school
In this article, we share the challenges and benefits of AI in education for students, helping them and their families understand when, where and how best to use it. In Part 2, we’ll look at AI in education for schools, including how teachers can get the best from AI and the positive impact this can have on our learning environment.
Empowering students to use AI in education
AI is a powerful tool which is already influencing student life at every level, as well as changing life and work beyond education. At Wendover we believe that we must take the reins of AI in education, empowering our students to explore AI tools safely and transparently, and setting them up for a healthy relationship with digital tools.
Wendover Policy on AI in Education
Our experience as an online school gives us an excellent understanding of the ways in which apps and technology can be exploited for good. Now, we are creating a clear policy on the use of AI in education at Wendover. This will give students, their parents and our staff guidance how and when to use AI, as well as protecting them from the negative impacts.
We are fortunate to benefit from the expertise of Alex Coxall, Teacher of Science at Wendover, who has a keen interest in artificial intelligence relating to education. As part of his Master’s degree, he is currently engaged in research on AI in teaching, and he is working closely with Vice Principal Sarah Thomas to guide and protect our community as we keep track of the fast-moving evolution of AI in education.
The benefits of AI in education
AI can be used effectively to support education in a number of ways. For the student, it offers a more personal education than is available in a large class:
- The opportunity to research a subject more widely, broadening their experience and understanding of a topic.
- The ability to learn in their own time and in the way they find best.
- The chance to improve their writing skills.
- An easy way to practise subjects, for example by verifying language skills and improving pronunciation.
- A new and interactive way to check their understanding of a subject, with real-time feedback.
Personalised learning
At Wendover we already offer a flexible curriculum tailored to the needs of your child. Whilst AI offers the potential to personalise learning for those in larger classes elsewhere, our online school is ahead in delivering a highly personalised curriculum and timetable to every student.
In our small classes (from 1-6 pupils) our students also enjoy personalised lessons delivered by specialist teachers. The relationship is open and supportive, so students can ask questions directly to the teacher, and the lesson is tailored to the skills and needs of those individual students. It is clear that these small class sizes boost the learning of our students and give teachers the opportunity to gauge where extra support is needed.
In this rich online school environment, we know our students well and are delighted to share with them the AI that will safely help them explore and learn even more.
The dangers of AI in education
As we have seen, incorporating technology into education has the potential to enhance education for students. But it also has the potential to do harm. Let’s take a look at the main dangers posed by the indiscriminate use of AI in education:
1. Cheating
2. Misinformation and bias
3. Education is about more than just academic success
4. Data privacy
1. Cheating with AI
ChatGPT and similar tools create the opportunity for students to pass work off as their own. Essays, creative work and images can all be generated through a series of prompts – and AI is continually evolving to deliver ever more human, credible responses. Should schools prevent students from using AI? There are ways we could try:
a) Check essays for plagiarism
Apps have been developed to attempt to verify the originality of work. However, AI is learning fast, and it is harder than ever to spot machine input. For example, last year detection tools, including Turnitin and Plagiarism Check widely used by academic institutions, were shown to be grossly inaccurate.
b) Return to pen and paper exams
A return to exams which depend wholly on independent student performance could be a solution. However, many educators feel that tests that assess rote learning should be revised, as these skills have become redundant. Better, perhaps, to train students to use AI and digital research transparently and effectively, since this will set them up better for their future.
c) Use Vivas to check understanding
Viva voce (oral) exams can help teachers and examiners check that their students can explain the work they have produced, indicating whether it is their own work. In schools where class sizes are too large for teachers to know their students well, this would demand significant extra time.
2. Misinformation and bias in AI responses
False ‘facts’ are widespread on the internet. AI responses can pick up fake news or have ‘hallucinations’, creating, for example, a person or event that simply never existed.
Further, as Alex Coxall points out, there is a danger that AI systems can distort. Discriminatory data and algorithms can become baked into AI models, which then amplify the resulting negative effects.
“We must be wary of believing that AI is real, human intelligence,” notes Alex. “Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT produce text that is an output of the imitation paradigm at the core of AI. So, it’s easy to see why LLMs can produce gender or demographic bias and even hallucinations.”
3. Education is about more than just academic success
At Wendover, we understand that there is more to education than pure academic success. Using AI can be fruitful and enjoyable for students as a support to their schoolwork, but those students who come to rely too heavily on AI-generated work miss out on the benefits of live lessons with an expert teacher, and challenges shared with their peers.
4. Data Privacy
Students must learn to be cautious in using digital tools. Every time a student uploads information to a large language model like ChatGPT, the information is stored along with whatever data is encrypted alongside it. This means that students can unwittingly share private details that should not go beyond their classroom.
Many employers will not allow their teams to use AI tools outside their control because of this risk of exposure of personal or commercial data. So, becoming familiar with the dangers of data exposure is key for every student.
How Wendover minimises the risks of AI in education
Cheating with AI
At Wendover we work with our students to understand that pretending work is their own is counterproductive: they will not learn. Instead, we encourage students to make wise choices:
- To use appropriate AI tools to improve their understanding or accelerate their work.
- To choose and improve their prompts in order to get the best from AI tools.
- To be clear and open about when and where they have used AI in their work.
Misinformation and bias
We use PHSE and tutorial sessions to look at fake news and share the importance of checking facts. We explore bias to make them aware of its presence in life and how to avoid it, and we see whether we can identify AI-generated works.
Education is about more than just academic success
Our whole ethos at Wendover is to inspire a love of learning and curiosity for the world at large. Our students are encouraged to work in ways that do not lead to over-dependence on external support such as AI, giving them:
- Confidence in tackling and solving real problems by ourselves or in groups
- Social confidence and skills
- A rich imagination and creativity
- Active learning for life, including the ability to think critically and evaluate input.
Data privacy
We teach our students to use AI carefully, ensuring that they understand that most of these tools will make free use of any and all uploaded data. We help them take care not to expose their personal data, and to be cautious of the tools they use.
AI tools – Alex’s Top Tips for students and parents
As early adopters of new technology, children and young people will often experiment with AI tools and share them with their friends. It can be difficult for parents to know which tools are worth using, and which should be avoided, so we asked our AI expert Alex Coxall to give us a few tips.
ChatGPT: a handy tool, but not ideal for education. Good for checking whether ideas can be expressed more clearly, but the free version does not use current resources so is not great for factual information. The current version requires a subscription.
CoPilot: (formerly Bing Chat) built into Microsoft Edge browser: good for academic study, and effective for conversations such as ‘in what paper did I read this information?’ More robust, current events are built in as it uses GPT-4 and is free.
Canva: new AI tools make this a great tool for student presentations, with lots of free build PowerPoint designs and an improving AI assistant.
Grammarly: a helpful AI writing tool, built into many systems.
Quillbot: great for strengthening writing and providing summaries, and has better feedback than Grammarly.
OtterAI: good for taking notes and summarising meetings.
Chatpdf: summarises pdfs and allows you to interact with questions – good for research.
Socratic: Gives students powerful feedback to support their learning with visual explanations of important concepts in each subject. It does not give students the answers, and guards against some keywords to provide student protection.
Harnessing AI in education to support our students
At Wendover we believe AI need not be feared – indeed, it can bring great benefits to learning if used wisely. Alex and his team are working on a policy that will guide students and parents (as well as staff) on AI in education, allowing them to engage transparently and safely with these exciting new tools. We look forward to sharing this with you shortly.
We also plan to invite some key speakers from the world of AI to explore its application in education, and to share how AI is changing their lives. It is a fascinating area!
Please get in touch if you would like to know more about our approach to AI in education or would like to be involved in (or could offer) talks or interviews on this subject – we’d be delighted to hear from you. Contact us here.
