It Is fair to say that significant momentum is building behind the use of AI in education with each passing week. A mere review of the TeachNet blog will see 3 of the last 6 blog posts focussing on Microsoft’s AI Upskilling Programme, Using AI to Help with Productivity and the use of Google Bard in the classroom. In a previous blog post, I spoke about the ways in which AI (and Chat GPT, in particular) could be used to reduce teacher workload and enhance learning experiences.
In recent weeks, a number of Irish educators have been sharing some excellent ideas about how they are using Chat GPT in their schools. Last week, school principal Simon Lewis shared a thread on X explaining his experience of playing around with AI. This resource highlights how daily news articles from RTE are being used to automatically generate units of work at a specified class level. The recency and relevance of the content being created and explored makes the learning more authentic for children.
Scoilnet have also produced two learning paths which provide teachers with sample ways in which they can use AI to increase productivity. The learning paths cover a variety of topics, including:
- Building comprehension skills
- Designing science experiments
- Producing disciplinary literacy scripts
- Crafting writing samples
- Creating tiered assessments
- Supporting guided reading
As more educators have the time and inspiration to explore the use of AI / Chat GPT in education, we can expect many more exciting and innovative ideas that will enhance children’s learning experiences and positively impact on the ever-increasing workload of teachers.