A Simcoe County District School Board executive claims that “A.I. has prompted a change from prioritizing “what a pupil knows” to “how a student applies what they know.”
When calculators were initially introduced into schools, there was concern that it would encourage cheating or impair students’ capacity to learn.
But like calculators, Jennifer Flanagan, president and CEO of actua and a youth engagement expert, thinks artificial intelligence (A.I.) will play a significant role in education.
She claimed that it can be frightening because it’s a new tool that teachers, students, and parents are still getting to know.
With its accessibility, it has truly taken us all by surprise, she remarked. Every day, it has been infiltrating our lives in ways that we may or may not be aware of.
She said that there are many chances for A.I. technologies to be used incredibly well in the classroom as well as many legitimate worries about the technology.
ChatGPT is currently one of the popular ones, she noted. There are many methods for both students and teachers to use it to enhance learning, be more effective, and be more individualized.
From the viewpoint of a student, Flanagan thinks artificial intelligence is interesting because of its strength and potential. However, it is still new and being experimented with.
We’re seeing that it can give students who might not be prospering in a classroom with 25 other kids extra support or resources, she said. They could require information to be delivered in a different way or have different inquiries. They could want assistance in particular literacy areas, and when utilized properly, a technology like ChatGPT can function as a private tutor.
Teachers have been able to use A.I. to free up their time so that they can focus more on pupils, despite it only having been introduced to classrooms a little over a year ago, according to Flanagan.
It lessens some of the labor-intensive lifting that they must perform, she noted. I’ve observed teachers using it to develop fresh lesson ideas, new exercises, and to help give feedback on homework.
There are many wonderful ways for this tool to assist in the classroom, according to Flanagan, who believes that it will “inevitably” change how people learn.
In addition to having it in some classrooms, she added, “kids have it in their pockets on their phones.” “This is currently prevalent everywhere, and much learning is taking place.”
If they haven’t already, she predicted that they will do so shortly. “Calls will be made on how it is used and how it is regulated. It cannot be disregarded; there is no way to claim that we are not dealing with it or that it is not present in our class.
According to Chris Samis, the Simcoe County District School Board’s superintendent of student achievement (K–6) and special education, the board understands the value of using technology as a teaching and learning tool for children.
According to Samis, artificial intelligence (A.I.) has benefits for all facets of teaching and learning, including the capacity to boost teacher productivity, customize student learning, generate prompts, and offer inspiration.
Flanagan said it’s just a matter of time before school boards adopt artificial intelligence in the classroom if they haven’t even started to consider its possibilities.
As A.I. becomes more prevalent in classrooms, learning and evaluation are rapidly shifting from what students produce—such as essays or math problems—to how they use information—such as during discussions, projects, group collaborations, presentations, and individual reflection.
The importance of “what a student knows” has to shift to “how a student uses what they know,” he stated, because of artificial intelligence.
Samis continued, pointing out that the board’s Policy 4181 Cheating and Plagiarism, which states “the use or close imitation of words, without attribution, in order to represent them as one’s own original work, including student-work generation through the use of A.I. is not accepted,” was revised in March 2023 to include A.I.
The board’s policy on plagiarism and cheating had not been updated since May 2018 prior to the policy change in March 2023.
By the time this article was published, the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board had not provided a comment.
Student trustee Weiqi Xu questioned the potential repercussions for students who are accused of exploiting artificial intelligence (A.I.) at a program standing committee meeting back in March. She also questioned whether teachers or other technologies employed to catch cheaters would make the charges.
A.I. is growing more human-like with syntax as it becomes more sophisticated, according to Xu at the time.
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