The South Australian government has announced a trial of AI technologies in eight public high schools.
This is the first trial of its kind in Australia.
“Edchat”, an AI chatbot similar to ChatGPT but designed for educational use, has been developed by the state’s education department and Microsoft.
The eight-week trial will explore the use of AI to support student learning and understand the benefits and risks of these new technologies. After this, the government will decide whether to adopt the tool for other schools.
ChatGPT can be used by those 13 and over with parents’ consent.
But after ChatGPT arrived at the end of 2022, South Australia has been the only Australian state that has not banned generative AI tools in public schools.
In May, the Western Australia government lifted the AI ban for teachers in public schools.
But in private schools, the use of AI has been more widespread, raising the fear of the digital divide between public and private schools.
Attempts to limit or ban the use of AI technologies are also inherently problematic. A June 2023 survey by YouthInsight showed 70% of 14–17-year-old Australians have used ChatGPT – 59% used it for schoolwork or study, and 42% for completing school assignments.
Trying to restrict use translates to students using this in more informal and unsupervised spaces. A ban means students do not receive supervised support to learn how to best use these technologies for their education and future work lives.
What is the SA trial looking at?
The SA school trial will examine the benefits and challenges of using AI tools to support student learning.
Edchat is specifically designed for educational use, meaning its responses will take students’ learning in mind. While ChatGPT or Google Bard would simply answer a student’s question, Edchat does not necessarily respond in this way. Instead, it provides an appropriate hint or suggestion or will ask the student a counter question, in the same way a good tutor would support their students.
EdChat will available to students 24/7, providing them support both inside and outside classrooms.
Because Edchat is provided by the government, its usage data will be available for further examination. So it will be possible to understand how students interact with AI tools, what questions they ask, where and when they use the system, and so on. Much of the current AI discussion is based on speculation, but this trial will provide the first real world data to answer these questions.
This trial will attract much attention and will be closely monitored by other governments who are also grappling with similar questions around the use of AI in schools.
Authors
Vitomir Kovanovic, Senior Lecturer in Learning Analytics, University of South Australia
Shane Dawson, Executive Dean UniSA Education Futures, University of South Australia
FULL ARTICLE
High school students are using a ChatGPT-style app in an Australia-first trial (The Conversation)
PHOTO
Open AI/ChatGPT
