Skills of the Future

The hype and myth in the media make it appear that Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is just around the corner. That an omnipotent GPT can now help us all cheat our way through the education system! Though the potential harm of accelerating advances in AI is a growing global concern, an AGI is perhaps decades, or more, or never, away.

Regardless, at a practical level - we're now seeing large language models at a stage of maturity that they are being trialled as assistive coaches in schools.

Khan Academy's AI assistant, Khanmigo, is currently being trialled by approximately 1,000 students, teachers and administrators in the US. Students can get personalised help with maths, write a story, prep for exams and learn computer programming.

However, Khanmigo won't give students a direct answer and will instead ask questions to aid their thinking.

The approach that Khan Academy is taking provides an excellent example of how education departments can proceed with AI in schools, with safety, privacy, equity in mind, and the vital role of teaching in the classroom remaining at the forefront.

"The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education."

— Martin Luther King Jr.

The Burden on Teachers

We're witnessing an ever-increasing burden to teaching in public schools. Teachers are under immense pressure, with high attrition rates as teachers leave the profession or move to higher paying jobs in private schools. There's increased complexity in teaching, with more diverse student needs.

There's been great focus in incrementally carving out time for teachers, 30 minutes here and there, by reducing administrative burdens. However, these have proved insufficient in making any significant dent in learning outcomes in schools. We need to start thinking of more transformative technologies that can become an intrinsic part of the teaching and learning cycle.

The Equity Question

Perhaps now is the time to take a more risk-aware approach and look for ways in which a more equitable future can be sought for all. Certainly, no blanket ban on GPT-4 exists across all education sectors in NSW or nationally.

If we truly trust teachers with what is the next step up from current search engines, then perhaps we should at the very least enable teacher access to it within schools.

Students fortunate enough to have access to this technology at home will no doubt access these tools, leaving others trailing behind, widening the risk of inequity.

No One-Size-Fits-All

There is no one-size-fits-all solution to the diverse population and needs of students in public schools in Australia. The potential this technology, together with instruction-tuned domain contexts, has in the short and medium terms, demands at the very least an accelerated, yet measured approach to trial and work with experts to improve the experiences of students, teachers and administrators.

Current approaches are at most glacial in pace compared to what we witness in the technology sector today.

The genie is truly out of the bottle, and it isn't going back in.