The Dawn of AI in UK Schools: A New Term, A New Challenge
As schools across the UK open their doors for the new term, leaders face an unprecedented opportunity and challenge: the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education. Recent surveys have highlighted the growing influence of AI in our classrooms: a staggering 67% of UK secondary students have reportedly used chatbots, such as ChatGPT, for their homework. Meanwhile, 66% of teachers believe they are now regularly receiving AI-completed assignments.
As the new term commences, school leaders and educators are at a pivotal juncture, needing to reconsider how they assign work and homework in this AI-augmented landscape. In the summer term, a coalition of leaders from some of the country’s top schools expressed their concerns about the “very real and present hazards and dangers” presented by AI, noting also that “Schools are bewildered by the very fast rate of change in AI and seek secure guidance on the best way forward, but whose advice can we trust?”
In response, and in an effort to inject pragmatic and positive guidance into a conversation that has been largely about the threat of AI, the Teacher Development Trust (TDT) and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) are set to launch a collaborative publication, “Understanding AI For School: Tips for School Leaders,” on Friday, 8th September 2023. This publication, which is being endorsed and co-published by the National Association of Headteachers (NAHT), the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), and the Confederation of School Trusts (CST), aims to guide school leaders through this new frontier.
