Artificial intelligence in education
Artificial intelligence at Warwick
Artificial Intelligence (AI) represents a broad range of technologies, approaches and tools within which the growth of widely-available Generative AI (GenAI) is a recent development. The guidance provided here refers to both the larger umbrella category AI and the specific variations of GenAI that are enabling the automated rapid production of texts, images, sounds, videos, etc.
From the introduction of computers and AI (c.1950) to the internet (c.1983) to smartphones (c.2007) to Generative AI exemplified by the release of ChatGPT3.5 (c.2022), technology continues to evolve. This has implications for how we live, work and study. The recent emergence of widely-available Generative AI technologies and the integration of Large Learning Models (LLM) and chatbot assistants into our tools and practices are already shaping directions in higher education.
“Learning how to use AI technologies appropriately is rapidly becoming necessary for academic practice and career success. Many students will increasingly be expected to use AI to generate content in their professions. It is crucial that their university education plays a role in developing their critical thinking and reflective skills around the evaluation of a range of sources including AI-generated material, as well as developing students’ comfort and confidence in using and applying AI in collaborative production of assessment.”
(Monash Task Force on Generative Artificial Intelligence: Education Working Group Report 2023 p17)
Amongst rapidly changing technologies and practices students and staff need to:
- continue to learn to think for themselves, and learn to think and work with AI;
- prepare to coordinate diverse human and artificial intelligences;
- develop expertise to make informed decisions and address complex contemporary issues;
- develop abilities to critically evaluate information and situations;
- maintain curiosity along the journey of lifelong learning, while experimenting and imagining alternative possibilities for learning;
- build capacity to adapt to dynamic circumstances;
- cultivate human capacities and capabilities.
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Key considerations
AI presents opportunities and challenges for educators. As we progress AI integration across a range of learning processes and scenarios, it is important to reflect on:
- How we use technologies responsibly and ethically including recognising and mitigating biases, data and privacy risks
- How we critically evaluate AI outcomes and incorporate outputs
- How we collaborate with AI and maintain human accountability
- How we operate across the spectrum of knowledge production from individual humans demonstrating their performance to productive collaborations of multiple humans and AIs
- How we celebrate and advance human capacities/capabilities
- How we remain open to experimentation and change within dynamic technological contexts
Many of these considerations are explored within the following pages.
Note: These resources were produced by multiple, primarily, human intelligences at Monash University and are used with permission to support colleagues at Warwick develop approaches to working with AI.