Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a pervasive force that augments society and drives innovations across industries. Introducing a higher level of efficiency, AI-based technologies like Natural Language Processing (NLP), generative AI, and machine learning are rapidly taking over traditional systems. They empower businesses to streamline processes and facilitate faster decision-making to stand out in today’s market. In Australia, 68% of companies have adopted AI in certain business functions, highlighting the rising trend for AI usage in the country.
The influence of AI is disrupting not only businesses but also Australia’s education sector. There’s pressure for the government to integrate AI into the Australian learning system as schools, educators, and students become increasingly interested in its benefits.
Explore in this article the transformative effects of AI in education, the role of governments and school boards in integrating AI into schools, and the challenges that come with it.
The Growing Interest in AI in Modern Education
The education sector is witnessing increasing interest in AI with the advent of AI-powered tools such as tutoring assistants, learning environments, and chatbots. This rising curiosity has prompted educators, students, and parents to explore how AI tools can produce stronger learning processes and outcomes.
Nations such as Singapore, South Korea, India, China, Finland, and Australia are at the forefront of this trend, progressively integrating AI into their educational systems. In 2023, the Australian education ministers passed the Australian Framework for Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Schools, allowing AI instruments like ChatGPT into the Australian education system.
Should AI be used in schools? As more countries consider AI implementation, governments and educational institutions must understand its technicalities and implications to create more adaptive, inclusive, and effective learning environments. Administering AI in sensitive settings like schools and universities requires careful regulation by authorities and boards of trustees to manage pitfalls, facilitating ethical and lawful usage.
How AI is Transforming Learning
Learning modalities are changing as AI becomes more integrated into the education system. Find out below about the multifaceted benefits of AI for students:
1. Personalised learning plans
Adaptive learning platforms and Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) are AI tools that analyse learning behaviours and create personalised learning plans for students based on their historical data. These tools offer multimodal approaches that promote dynamic learning and better student participation. Surpassing traditional processes, adaptive learning platforms and ITS can deliver assessments in real time. This allows students to receive targeted and timely interventions, addressing learning gaps effectively.
2. AI in Special Education
In Australia, the government recorded that only 17% of students with disabilities complete a bachelor’s degree, compared to 35% of students without disabilities. Advocates argue that this disparity is largely due to inadequate accessibility and support structures for students with disabilities–an area where AI can be especially beneficial.
Given this challenge, the potential of AI becomes particularly valuable for students with special needs. By powering assistive technologies such as speech recognition software and predictive analytics, schools can provide more responsive and inclusive learning experiences. This helps break down barriers to participation and understanding among students with special needs.
3. Virtual Classrooms
COVID-19 accelerated the adoption of virtual classrooms across the world. Initially implemented as a solution during a health crisis, this sudden shift revealed the value of AI technologies for online education.
Online learning remains a medium of instruction, despite many educational institutions returning to onsite learning. In the future, virtual classrooms will offer flexible options as blended learning becomes more widespread, with the market value expected to reach USD 49.6 billion by 2032. Virtual classrooms are expected to utilise more AI-powered features, such as automated grading systems, predictive analytics, and personalised learning paths, to enrich the learning journey of students.
How AI is Transforming Teaching
AI for teachers in Australia is transforming the education landscape by offering tools that support teachers in delivering more effective instruction. Discover how AI boosts educator productivity in classroom management, content creation, and student engagement.
1. Enhanced content creation with ChatGPT
The coming of generative AI allows educators to develop learning materials in less time. Platforms like ChatGPT and Canva generate content using only short prompts or keywords, which educators can refine and integrate into their lesson plans. By minimising the time required for content creation, educators can free up their workload, allowing them to focus more on fostering deeper connections with students.
To empower educators, Western Australia partnered with schools to pilot ChatGPT in classrooms, streamlining lesson planning and other related tasks. This project already involves eight schools across the state.
2. Increased efficiency and time-saving
Crucial to the success of a learning environment is effective classroom management, which involves recording attendance, grading, assessment, and announcement dissemination. Educators carry the burden of fulfilling these tasks while delivering quality lessons.
To streamline classroom management, schools support educators with AI-powered tools like Google Classroom to automate their routine tasks. This significantly increases productivity and efficiency among educators, allowing them to foster a more engaging and supportive classroom environment.
3. Reshaping traditional educational pedagogies
AI challenges traditional teaching paradigms, encouraging educators to adopt modern teaching and learning pedagogies. Rather than merely delivering information, educators are becoming facilitators who guide students in developing their knowledge through effective use of the Internet and AI. By becoming open to these new teaching paradigms, it is easier for educators to foster dynamic and adaptable learning environments.
Challenges of Implementing AI in Education
Despite the many benefits of AI, governments and school boards must always consider the challenges that come with it. Here are the common challenges when implementing AI and how they occur:
1. Overreliance on AI tools
Stakeholders have diverse opinions on AI in education. While it can generally help improve teaching and learning, its ethical implications make stakeholders apprehensive. They are concerned that generative AI, particularly Large Language Models (LLMs), can compromise academic integrity.
Generative AI tools like ChatGPT bypass traditional learning processes, affecting the development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills in students if left unchecked over time. Students use them rampantly to rephrase answers, generate essays, or draft sections of thesis papers without proper research. In 2023, Turnitin’s AI writing detection tool analysed over 200 million papers and flagged more than half as AI-generated.
This trend puts additional pressure on educators to develop innovative ways to regulate and detect AI use in classrooms—especially as AI tools evolve by producing more human-like content.
2. Algorithmic biases
AI engineers and data scientists load AI models with algorithms from existing datasets, which can inadvertently carry biases. Algorithmic biases happen when an AI tool favours certain answers due to data predictions rather than providing accurate and proper answers. Such tools can amplify stereotypes and discrimination within classrooms, altering learning outcomes.
3. Regulatory compliance and data privacy concerns
AI learning environments store student records, faculty information, research findings, and intellectual properties. Weak authentication and security protocols increase the risks of cyberattacks, which may lead to privacy standards violations, legal disputes, and reputational damage.
In Australia, the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) outlined in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) mandate schools to handle personal data with integrity, transparency, and accountability. Another national program is the Australian Framework for Generative Artificial Intelligence in Schools. It outlines how schools can ensure the security and privacy of students when using generative AI. This includes provisions on privacy and data protection, privacy disclosure, protection of students’ inputs, and cybersecurity and resilience.
4. Teacher displacement
Educators are greatly concerned about losing their jobs over the increasing demand for AI in schools. They worry their roles will diminish as more schools integrate AI into classrooms. However, educators must view this shift as an opportunity to refocus their efforts on impacting students’ learning meaningfully through emotional support, mentorship, and the development of critical thinking—roles that AI can’t replace.
5. Digital divide
Introducing AI in schools can widen the digital divide among students, particularly in communities with limited resources. AI in learning environments requires more sophisticated infrastructures, reliable internet, digital literary training, and modern devices. It will be more challenging for educators to create a conducive learning environment without these resources, worsening inequalities in learning outcomes.
Role of the Board of Trustees in AI Implementation
The board of trustees’ leadership is crucial in guiding schools to successfully implement AI technology for educators, staff, and students. Here are the factors they must consider when planning for AI implementation:
1. Aligning AI implementation with strategic plans
The board of directors is the main governing body and must lead strategic discussions to develop a comprehensive roadmap for AI integration in schools. Their involvement helps align AI initiatives to the institution’s long-term vision and objectives. They have visibility over operations and management, which are critical in setting clear KPIs, establishing timelines, and allocating resources. Through the leadership and governance of the board, the institution can mitigate risks and execute a smoother implementation.
2. Localising AI programs
Educational institutions vary in preparedness for AI adoption, with each country enforcing its version of guidelines. The board must understand how the laws and requirements work to localise AI facilities properly. To gain ground-level insights, the board can meet with key stakeholders to understand their preferences and hesitations. This helps in the development of targeted guidelines, encouraging more support.
In 2023, the Department of Education in South Australia developed EdChat with Microsoft. Modelled after ChatGPT, this generative AI tool uses the same features and data access. However, instead of storing data on the same server as ChatGPT, EdChat uses a local server in Australia. This allows them to localise the tool while complying with the state’s requirements and regulations.
3. Developing educators through training
Responsible for guiding students through AI implementation, the board must support educators with opportunities to gain hands-on experience through comprehensive digital literacy programs on AI applications, data analytics, and adaptive learning technologies. This helps educators gain knowledge they can transfer to students, enabling the school to make the most of AI investment and achieve desired learning outcomes.
4. Navigating legal and compliance challenges
Adopting AI in education raises legal, ethical, and compliance challenges the boards must address before implementation. Sound policies from the board regulate data privacy, algorithmic bias, intellectual property rights, and plagiarism, ensuring that everyone practices ethical use of AI.
The implementation of AI and its impact on schools greatly depends on board governance. Board members must engage in a series of meetings to develop a comprehensive implementation plan, covering crucial topics such as timelines, budgets, and priorities. Without proper communication and streamlined decision-making on the board, achieving a successful transition to AI-powered learning will be a challenge.
To support the board of trustees in fulfilling their role, board portal software offers a digital solution for strengthening governance. By centralising functions of boards in one secure platform such as meetings, voting, announcements, and approvals, the board portal enhances efficiency, transparency, and accountability among board members.
What is the future of AI in the Australian Education Sector?
Australian educational institutions initially expressed interest in incorporating ChatGPT in teaching and learning but faced concerns about its potential risks. Recognising the growing local curiosity in AI, the government permitted its usage in schools, together with a framework to guide institutions to properly integrate it into Australian education systematically.
This paved the way for the Australian Framework for Generative AI in Schools in 2023. Led by the national AI schools task force, the framework regulates AI usage, particularly ChatGPT, across all people connected with school education. The framework is anchored on six guiding principles: teaching and learning, human and social well-being, transparency, fairness, accountability and privacy, security, and safety.
The Australian government allocated 1 million USD for the following:
- Provide educators with comprehensive programs in AI and digital literacy.
- Review generative AI tools regularly to evaluate their security levels and effectiveness.
- Test education-specific generative AI solutions.
- Assess the effectiveness of the framework in regulating AI usage among schools.
Universities, such as the Australian National University, Deakin University, Monash University, and the University of New South Wales have developed guidelines to regulate the use of generative AI by students and staff. Overall, Australia is taking a progressive approach to implementing AI in the country, highlighting the critical role of digital literacy in empowering both students and educators.
As AI adoption accelerates, school and university boards must champion innovation and drive digital transformation within their institutions. Board leadership and governance are crucial to equipping educators, students, and staff with the right tools, policies, and resources to adopt AI responsibly.
Empowering Boards with the Right Tools for Managing AI Implementation
Generative AI disrupts the Australian education system with innovative solutions for learning and teaching. As educational leaders and policymakers establish a solid foundation for responsible AI use, the Australian Framework for Generative AI in Schools will serve as an essential guide for integrating these technologies effectively.
To execute a seamless transition to AI, schools and universities must be fully equipped with the right tools and knowledge to harness its full potential. Board executives can rely on Convene board portal software to streamline board management and facilitate informed decision-making in schools and universities.
Packed with intuitive features, Convene simplifies the tracking of proposal approvals, meeting action items, and other mission-critical tasks. Its centralised document repository ensures that relevant board materials are always within reach, allowing board members enough time to review them before making decisions. Convene’s agenda builders and review rooms enhance the efficiency of discussions, enabling teams to strategise their next AI initiatives with clarity and focus. Additionally, Convene boasts enterprise-grade security features to safeguard all data, empowering board members to collaborate confidently without compromising data integrity.
Want to learn more about how Convene can support your board in navigating AI adoption, streamlining discussions, and making informed decisions for the future? Schedule a demo with our team to explore its comprehensive features.
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