The use of ChatGPT and other Artificial Intelligence (AI) programs in schools has become a hot topic of late, with parents and educators concerned about the potential impacts on students.
By Phyllis Stylianou, P&C Federation Communications Manager.
While much of the debate has centered on cheating and its effect on students’ ability to learn the skill of crafting and writing their own thoughts, UNSW Professor Leslie Loble is also concerned about equality of access to the technology. Professor Loble, who served for 20 years as Deputy Secretary of the NSW Department of Education until 2020, said there was potential for learning applications such as ChatGPT to exacerbate the digital learning divide. “Apps like ChatGPT will soon become less of a stand-alone product, as Microsoft, Google and other edtech providers add it to their own AI products,” she said
“This will create a future that calls into question who gets the best access.”
If you want the full-service account of ChatGPT, schools (or families) today would have to pay $240 per student per year. In a school with 1,000 students, that’s a quarter of a million dollars each year. Schools are struggling with resourcing and time as it is and schools, particularly disadvantaged schools, are facing tough decisions. So, equality of access concerns me.”
Professor Loble called for urgent controls over the use of AI, and for children to be taught to question and control it.“The time is now to set standards,’’ she said.
“Schools need advice about what are high quality (AI) tools built on good research. If we get the wrong tools and end up using AI in the wrong way, we could end up exacerbating learning gaps and ethical issues.’’
Then there’s the issue of supporting teachers in knowing how to use these applications to support their students. “We need to set standards for what’s quality
and provide resources to schools and teachers to be able to use it in the right way,” Professor Loble said. “You cannot assume these AI tools are
accurate.’’
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