Teach Secondary 13.5

6 ways you can use AI right now With the market for AI services growing ever larger, Lyndsey Stuttard sets out six practical and effective uses for the technology within your classroom A t ACS International School Cobham, we’ve seenmany benefits from introducing AI into the classroom. Based on our experience, here are my six recommendations for how you canmake use of AI in your setting – as well some potential pitfalls practitioners should bear in mind... 1. Exploring alternative perspectives Many teachers can feel out of their depth when approaching new themes as part of their school curriculum and syllabus planning. We’ve experienced this at ACS Cobham, when our staff were tasked with rewriting the entire Lower School curriculum to ensure each unit included a theme from the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. It’s not always obvious how teachers canmake new curriculummaterial relevant to students – which is where AI tools can be leveraged to highlight any gaps that may have beenmissed. By entering the new criteria and unit into ChatGPT, teachers can quickly see if there are ABOUT THE AUTHOR Lyndsey Stuttard is a digital teaching and learning specialist at ACS International School Cobham, and was previously recognised as Digital Innovator of the Year (Silver) at the 2023 Pearson National Teaching Awards; for more information, visit acs-schools.com/cobham any additional topics that might be relevant for specific age groups. 2. Providing real-time learning feedback Sadly, teachers aren’t always able to provide as much feedback as they’d like for homework or assignments. At ACS Cobham, we use the tool Quizlet in Middle School, which helps students practise their vocabulary and make flashcards. Quizlet’s Chat Robot tests students on the meaning of a term, and if a student submits an incorrect answer, that answer is analysed. Feedback is then provided, explaining the term inmore detail and helping the student understand where they may have gone wrong. 3. Supporting reading comprehension Another recent addition to Quizlet is a set of AI features aimed at making vocabulary learning more accessible and engaging. Via the app’s ‘Magic Notes’ tool, students can insert longer articles into Quizlet and receive a summary or outline of the key points, thus saving teachers time while supporting students who might struggle with comprehension tasks. 4.Making revision plans AI tools can be highly beneficial for students who find it difficult to structure their own learning. Students can use ChatGPT to create workflows, study strategies and even revision plans that work for them, making a potentially overwhelming task muchmore manageable. 5.Teaching unfamiliar topics AI can aid teachers with delving into new, hitherto unfamiliar teaching topics. We sought to incorporate the aforementioned Sustainable Development Goals into our curriculum, but are by no means experts in each of the Goals. AI tools can serve teachers as helpful ‘idea generators’ by providing an introduction to a topic and recommending one or more age-appropriate learning activities. 6. Elevating professional development AI presents clear opportunities for teacher CPD, but it’s important that teachers are only shown what functionalities and commands will be useful in their education setting, since the possible avenues can be overwhelming! We’re planning to hold educator workshops at ACS Cobham later this year, by which time we should know a little more about the technology’s capabilities and how it could be useful for our teachers. On the other hand... With so many AI tools having only become widely available to the public within the last couple of years, we’re still in the process of investigating the potential for AI to support teaching and classroom learning in ways beyond those outlined above. Because the truth is that not all schools will benefit from using AI. For many, there can be multiple, muchmore pressing issues to consider. If you have the capacity, it may be helpful to designate a member of staff to research possible AI applications within the context of your school’s needs and present summaries of any avenues that might be worth exploring. AI’s never going to be foolproof – which ultimately means that any teachers looking to harness the technology effectively will need to do so responsibly, and only after identifying those tools that will be most purposeful for students. “ChatGPTcan createworkflows, study strategies andeven revision plans” I N A S S O C I AT I O N W I T H 79 teachwire.net/secondary