‘It’s revolutionising the classroom’: Meet the teachers embracing AI

Bobby Kenny, principal of Scoil Mhuire in Rosslare, Co Wexford, believes artificial intelligence (AI) tools have the potential to transform teaching and learning in primary schools.

“It is far better to render pupils competent digital citizens than it is to protect them from every conceivable technological threat,” he said.

He says staff use Google Gemini, which is similar to ChatGPT but, in his view, better.

“Our digital learning team is experimenting with simple AI tools like auto-grading quizzes, and using AI-powered rubrics to provide more personalised feedback to pupils.”

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While teachers can also use it for administrative tasks, he says it helps him save time in crafting emails and newsletters, ensuring they are consistent.

“I also use it for budgeting, resource management and planning. Crucially, it can also be used to create individual lesson plans for children based on their interests, strengths and weaknesses,” he says.

At the recent teacher conferences, Minister for Education Norma Foley announced that her department had commissioned research into the benefits and risks of artificial intelligence in education.

While the major advances in AI may have taken most of us by surprise, students and teachers from primary through to third-level have been using it for years. In most cases, it is as a learning tool or, for teachers, to help with lesson plans or correcting.

But there is also a widespread concern that some students can use tools such as ChatGPT to do their homework for them – and this comes at a moment when the senior cycle reform is moving away from an emphasis on exams and towards project work that can be done at home.

Dr Michal Wieczorek is an Irish Research Council Government of Ireland fellow, and he is researching emerging technologies, including AI in education and the ethical issues that it may throw up.

Wieczorek, who has a background in philosophy and ethics, says there can be problems with the use of AI in education, but that it also has huge potential to improve teaching and learning.

First, the negatives.

“Some AI products are commercial and expensive, so not every school can afford them,” he says.

“Teachers need training, and the infrastructure needs to be kept up. There is a risk that schools become dependent on these technologies and, instead of parents having to buy new textbooks every year, schools or parents have to pay for licenses.”

Wieczorek also says that AI is not as transparent as, for instance, a textbook. AI can reflect the biases of its creators and ignore the experiences of women and minorities.

A recent New York Times report shows how, in the hands of big technology companies, it may breach multiple regulations to harvest data.

“It’s not just bias; there can be inaccuracies, too,” Wieczorek says. “We know that ChatGPT has, on occasion, used made-up citations, and we could see this happen with AI textbooks. AI tools could promote the mainstream, and may not be as useful for, say, a non-native speaker, or for Irish-language students.

“And it could lead to monitoring and behaviour of students, without regard to different ways of learning and engaging. If it monitors attention levels, for instance, this could penalise neurodivergent students.”

As for the positives, Wieczorek says that AI can “visibly” perform some jobs better than teachers, including lesson plans and automated assessment. Indeed, many teachers are already using it for just these reasons.

“Teachers can use analytics tools and student data to glean insights into how students are progressing.

“At scale, AI can increase diversity by increasing the number of available resources, especially in schools that may not have a great library. If carefully designed, it can help neurodivergent students or students with disabilities or learning difficulties.”

While Wieczorek points out some areas of concern, he believes that AI can be a positive in education – it’s just that it needs to be approached with caution.

The Irish Times has interviewed educators who, already, are using AI. Broadly, they are positive about its potential.

Natalie Doyle, a post-primary teacher at Chanel College in Coolock, north Dublin, says the pay-off in using AI tools is huge if they master how to craft queries and instructions for the technology.

“It helps brainstorm universal design for learning strategies to engage a diverse classroom or draw on the expertise of specialists in countless fields, be it subject knowledge or specific education needs like autism and anxiety,” she says.

Chanel College’s website includes links to a range of resources that teachers are using.

“For someone like me, who is juggling roles as a special-education teacher, AI is invaluable, bridging gaps in my knowledge and helping me to design engaging comprehension lessons around things like Lego or Star Wars, topics that resonate with my students but aren’t my areas of expertise.”

Teacher Patrick Hickey also says it is “revolutionising” the way that he teaches.

“The benefits are considerable, but there is a need for adequate training, as only those who understand its full potential and risks should be employing AI.”

One way in which Hickey uses it is to give prompts to AI to generate more detailed and in-depth feedback for his students – still time-consuming, but less so than without AI.

Hickey is conducting training for teachers via Ireland’s network of education centres.

Ultan Mac Mathúna is director of Dublin West Education Centre, which has created resources for teachers around AI.

“We have worked with teacher Shanon Ahern, a teacher in St Declan’s College in Cabra, who is using ChatGPT to create personalised learning experiences in science, technology and maths education,” he says.

“She has used it to generate statistics on areas that may interest her class – Formula One, for instance – and used this as a tool for teaching data analytics.

“AI can be used to make learning fun and tailored to each student. It is a useful tool for creating resources and for school planning.”

At Carlow Educate Together National School, principal Simon Lewis has a project called mash.plus.

“It creates units of work, lesson plans and resources based on simple prompts,” he says. “For International Women’s Day, I created over 130 units of work on inspirational women in less than a day.”

He says AI alone won’t make a teacher better but, if its power is harnessed, it could help teachers create original and more engaging content.

“But if a teacher asks a student to produce a project, there is a risk they’ll simply go to ChatGPT and ask it to produce it – and as AI gets better, it will be more difficult for a teacher to know.

“However, skilled teachers will find ways.” (And, indeed, without wishing to alert students, many teachers and lecturers already have innovative techniques to catch cheats).

Ireland’s first national strategy on AI, Here for Good, was published in 2021, while the EU has moved on the issue more recently, assessing the application of AI across education as high-risk.

“There is a need [for] careful consideration about the use of AI in all aspects of teaching, learning and assessment,” says a Department of Education spokesperson. “Teachers and school leaders [need] the necessary resources and skills to support them.”

The Department’s digital strategy for schools, covering up to the year 2027, aims to empower schools with digital literacy and competence, says the spokesperson. Its research into AI is being carried out with the State Examinations Commission and Oide, a support service for teachers and education leaders.

“Reform of the curriculum is under way, and the DES continues to monitor developments in the AI space, and the impact it may have in education and assessment settings,” the spokesperson said.

“The Minister has asked the SEC to commission research on the potential role and impact of generative AI in teacher-based assessment in particular, and emphasised that such research should consider both the unique opportunities and challenges associated with it.”

* This article has been updated to more accurately reflect how staff are using AI tools at Scoil Mhuire in Rosslare, Co Wexford

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