TRANSCRIPT
Do you use Artificial Intelligence to do your work or school assignments?
Do you keep it a secret?
What would your boss or teacher think of you if they were to find out that it was A-I doing your work for you?
British sixth former Miya Crofts has few, or no concerns about using new technology including A-I when it comes to homework and revision.
“I use it a lot for online homework, revision tools, so if I need any additional support and I don’t want to ask my teacher, or it’s something she can’t give me, it is available, like whenever I need it on, like AI programmes."
Fellow pupil Kyle Harris says he finds the tool useful for his language homework.
“I would say a large proportion of school children do use AI especially for homework.”
But a survey by U-K firm RM Technology says teachers aren’t sure whether they are comfortable with their students using artificial intelligence.
The company advises schools on how to introduce technology into the classroom and how to use I-T to improve the management of schools.
It’s carried out a survey of 500 secondary school teachers in the UK.
The results found that nine per cent of teachers couldn’t differentiate work carried out by students and work produced by A-I programmes.
Forty-one per cent of teachers said they wanted better regulation of A-I, while a just over a third wanted government intervention.
R-M Technology’s consultant Mel Parker is a former mathematics teacher and former head teacher.
She believes the new technology can be used to improve education, but she also believes the government is too far behind in setting new guidelines for how it can be used.
“There definitely needs to be government regulation especially from a safeguarding point of view."
She says both teachers and pupils have to understand what the rules are when using A-I.
“How can they learn from it, how can they get better understanding of concepts, but actually what is cheating and what is good practice. ...There is concern, absolutely because teachers haven’t been equipped with what they need in terms of pulling together the understanding, so they need that support so they can spot it.”
In Australia, Education Ministers agreed in March to establish a National Artificial Intelligence Taskforce to develop a draft framework for using A-I in schools.
The draft framework was presented to Education Ministers in July, and Ministers agreed to release the draft to get advice, feedback and ideas from teachers, parents, students and other stakeholders.
Minister for Education Jason Clare says these discussions will help shape a final Australian Guide for Generative AI in Schools.
The aim is to let schools, teachers, and students benefit from A-I, but also to keep them safe from any issues.
Judy Kay is a Professor of Computer Science.
She leads the Human Centred Technology Research Cluster, in the Faculty of Engineering and I-T at the University of Sydney.
A core focus of her research has been to create infrastructures and interfaces for personalisation, especially to support people in lifelong, life-wide learning.
Professor Kay says the world is still coming to terms with how to handle A-I.
“So it's a worldwide concern. Obviously, it's happened very fast and people are trying to work out how best to deal with it. And we're going to have to let things play out a bit. In one sense, I think it's best to think of it as in some ways a continuation of what we've always had. We've always had students getting all the help or having the work done for them sometimes by their parents, or by coaches or whoever. So having someone do your work for you is really not new. It's just a bit more egalitarian now."
She says that in some cases it is easy to spot when students use A-I, but not in all cases.
This has led to the University of Sydney taking a new measure as of semester one.
"Some students use it in such obvious ways that include the prompt and give away the fact that they're using generative AI. But I think you also want to know what the response looks like. And certainly I can say the University of Sydney has now said, as of semester one, there was a move to pen and paper exams, and other exams where we can be confident we know that we are really assessing what a student can do. But I think that's only part of the story. Clearly, we need in some places to have assessment that is really meaningful. But the big picture is - this is a game changer."
Professor Kay does see A-I as something that is here to stay, and it may not necessarily be a bad thing.
"We've got to embrace it. We've got to learn how to help our students use it really well. It's an incredible creativity tool, incredible opportunity to play with ideas and think about ideas to have a partner in your learning. So I think that the picture we have to look at is all the positives we can turn it into and at the same time look at doing solid assessment that measures what students actually do know and can demonstrate."
For demonstration purposes, SBS Audio asked ChatGPT if students were using it to cheat.
ChatGPT said:
“A-I advancements have led some students to use it for cheating in various ways: AI-generated essays. Math problem-solving apps. AI-driven translation tools. Tools to paraphrase and mask plagiarism. AI help with coding tasks. Searching for test answers using AI. Potential bots impersonating students online. Educators are often aware of these methods and adopt countermeasures. While these tools might offer temporary grade boosts, they don't promote genuine understanding, hindering long-term academic and professional growth."
