When ChatGPT burst on to the scene two years ago, some of my students, who had previously barely been able to string a few words together, were suddenly producing phenomenally well-constructed written work. They must have thought we, their teachers, were born yesterday.
The concern that students will lose the willingness or ability to study, and instead pass off work done by chatbots, is an extremely valid one. But Generative AI – of which ChatGPT is just one example – is also an immensely useful tool. In many schools, AI has become a focus for professional development as leaders seek to harness its potential while ensuring it is not misused.
World ORT is an educational not-for-profit that supports Jewish schools in more than 30 countries, prioritising high-quality STEM education. At our recent annual Hatter Technology Seminar, we explored how AI can enhance teaching and learning, support leadership and equip students for a future where mastering AI will be essential to succeed in the workplace.
We shared our fears about the risks posed by unregulated AI. There is an urgent need to adopt policies to promote responsible AI use and provide training that highlights its risks, including bias, misinformation and potential job losses. We must work towards ensuring that students develop their critical thinking in order to spot hallucinations, or inaccuracies, and to understand when to use their own thinking to complete tasks.
But we also learnt about the opportunities AI provides and that, as it rapidly evolves, we and our students must not be left behind. We were reminded that, just as previous technological advances – calculators in the classroom, for instance – caused concern, AI is also here to stay.
AI’s far-reaching benefits include improving student engagement and broadening access to learning in the classroom. Teachers can use AI to modify lesson plans, for example, to make them for accessible for pupils with special needs.
Crucially, we heard that creation is no longer the highest order of thinking in a post-AI world. To thrive, students must excel at collaboration and innovation, generating novel solutions and ideas. Our discussions emphasised the importance of training students to retain agency, use AI safely, protect privacy and spot bias and discrimination. The reinforcing of racial or gender stereotypes, among other inequalities, is also present in the virtual world – if you ask AI to create an image of a computer programmer, it will generate a visual of a young white male.
If we ban students from using AI, some will take advantage of it anyway; this will be at the expense of their engagement in learning. But by adapting our teaching and assessment practices to support responsible AI use, we can encourage openness, debate and collaboration. This creates an environment in which students develop critical thinking and ethical awareness. They will use AI for deeper learning and innovation rather than as a shortcut for rote tasks.
My priority at Ort is to create a forum in which participants can share resources and good practices and strengthen our professional networks. Our participants left motivated to serve as AI champions in their schools, leading professional development and training for both their teachers and students in responsible use of AI.
AI did not write this article but if it had and you had found it informative, would it matter? As educators, however, it is the process rather than the output that has always been at the heart of learning. Engaging with AI tools and using them to enhance students’ thinking – rather than doing the thinking for them – is critical.
Leor Harel is learning development manager of World ORT
