Key Takeaways
- AI is in the classroom, and teachers, administrators and safeguarding leads oversee how to best utilise it.
- There are multiple benefits to using AI in the classroom and learning environment, with the right policies in place.
- The risks associated with AI use can become great teaching opportunities when approached with the new UKSIC guidance.
AI is in our Classrooms
AI is a hot topic in our modern landscape – it’s on our phones, our laptops, even on our television sets. The classroom is no exception. AI is making its way there too. Just one quick google about AI usage in the schools makes the classroom and learning environment of today sound dire. Teachers, professors, and tutors are reporting ‘huge’ numbers of students using AI to cheat on exams and to do their coursework for them, pupils are treating AI like a confidant, and even new reports are suggesting using AI makes people ‘stupider’!
Are things as bleak and dystopian as people are trying to make out? The short answer is no, no it’s not. As with all new technology, there are uses and risks to using AI in the classroom, and we’re intent on to helping you find solutions to make AI a safe and useful tool for education.
Uses for AI in the Classroom
Planning
AI is an exceptionally useful tool for teachers in their day-to-day and weekly planning sessions. Generative AI has been praised in recent discussions and testimonials from teachers about its ability to help create lesson plans and resources. Educators are preparing upwards of five lessons a day, and in secondary education those plans cross different age groups–this time could instead be better used actively engaging with learners and their feedback. Using an AI to help generate task questions and resources will allow educators to invest more time into giving students feedback and having hands on teaching experiences.
Accessibility
Many students require additional support that one teacher in a classroom just cannot provide. SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) students may require technology that includes voice and text generators, making it possible for them to interact with their education and the rest of the world around them, and some students may require language translations during learning time so that they can engage with their education.
Not every educator can meet all of these needs in the space of a single lesson. This would be where an AI model, designed for these specific needs, comes in. Students with accessibility needs will be able to feel like active participants in their education and maintain their growing independence.
Risks of AI in the Classroom
GDPR and Data Safety
Some children might not be completely aware that the AI they’re talking to isn’t a human, and that though it talks to them politely – it isn’t their friend.
With children, particularly primary school age, there is a risk that they may naively or inadvertently share sensitive information about themselves, their family, or their school, with the AI. This could easily become a safeguarding and cybersecurity nightmare!
Or, educators and school teams could take this as an opportunity to teach students, in advance, about internet safety, covering topics such as:
- How to keep themselves and their sensitive data safe.
- How to identify a safe or dangerous person or space on the internet.
- How to inform a trusted adult about something they saw online that doesn’t feel right.
Critical Thinking and Over Reliance
One spin on the internet will show you everything you need to know about general trepidation when it comes to AI in the classroom.
‘The AI is going to make all our children stupid! It’s ruining their critical thinking skills!’
While it is possible that over reliance on AI could damage critical thinking and research skills, we don’t have to let it be a threat–so long as students are given the opportunity to learn and develop crucial cognitive and learning skills.
There are a lot of ways to safely use AI, especially with the new UKSIC and KCSIE guidelines and legislation. The new guidance allows, and empowers, schools to decide which AI platforms should be blocked from school access, which should have their usage monitored closely, and allows for log keeping of any student AI usage in the classroom. These new guidelines mean that educators for all age groups will be able to utilise AI in a safe and meaningful way and have valuable teaching opportunities about how to use research tools effectively.
When it comes to new technology in the classroom, there will always be potential risks. With the proper knowledge, management, and official guidelines from UKSIC and KCSIE, we now have the tools to turn these risks into valuable awareness-raising, teaching moments for students and staff.
Summary
If you or your school/organisation have any questions about the new UKSIC and KCSIE changes, feel free to read our previous article about the topic here. If you’d like to know how Lightspeed can support your school in implementing safe AI, please get in contact with us here.
