THE increasing popularity of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has opened new avenues for innovation in education. From personalised learning experiences to assisting teachers with lesson planning, GenAI is making its mark in classrooms. GenAI has been around since circa 1955; today we have Bard, DALL-E, ChatGPT 3.5, 4, Claude, etc, with almost all our frequently used software and applications having some GenAI built into them, for example, Microsoft365, Grammarly, and Google.

One of the key advantages of GenAI in your classroom is its ability to create personalised learning experiences. By analysing students’ learning patterns, GenAI can generate custom-tailored content, quizzes, and exercises, catering to individual strengths and weaknesses. This helps students progress at their own pace and ensures a deeper understanding of the subject matter. GenAI can foster creativity and engagement in the classroom. For instance, it can generate interactive storytelling experiences or create art based on students’ inputs. This not only makes learning fun but also encourages critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

As a teacher, using GenAI tools in your classroom can assist you in various ways, such as automating administrative tasks, and generating teaching materials and lesson plans. Automated assessment tools such as those powered by GenAI can provide real-time feedback to both students and teachers. This ensures that there is more time to allocate to one-on-one interactions with students and focus on pedagogical activities; ultimately improving the overall quality of education. These tools can evaluate students’ work and offer suggestions for improvement, helping students track their progress and enabling teachers to identify areas that need attention.

GenAI can support students with disabilities by generating alternative formats of content, such as audio or Braille, making educational materials more accessible. It also facilitates translation and transcription services for students pursuing language subjects ensuring that language barriers do not hinder learning whilst providing a personalised learning experience. In subjects like science, GenAI can simulate virtual lab experiments, providing students with hands-on experience even when physical labs or resources are not available. This enhances understanding and engagement.

For students, GenAI such as ChatGPT can be used to draft essays, summarise notes, overcome writer’s block, prepare slide presentations, etc. However, remember, the machine is trained on the information provided to it, it has no creativity or argumentation skills, and so the information provided is only a draft to support formulating your ideas. GenAI is a good ‘C’ student as it only regurgitates information it has been exposed to and may “hallucinate”— provide inaccurate or biased statements. Therefore, it is your job to fact-check, refine, revise, and review. Beware GenAI collects and stores information, therefore ensure that it is used responsibly. DO NOT PROMPT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION.

Teachers, with GenAI in your classroom, assessment tasks must be improved to give a true and fair representation of what students know and can do. GenAI almost always provides a different solution with each prompt. This means it may be difficult to identify when an output is AI-assisted which makes the mis(use) of GenAI unprovable. Be clear on what students are asked to do, design assessments with thought, and make them personal and connected to life outside the classroom, making them innovative and authentic. Talk to your students about what is expected of them and explore using AI tools together in the classroom to provide learning opportunities for students on their appropriate use and create shared standards.

GenAI has the potential to revolutionise teaching and learning by personalising learning, improving teacher productivity, and fostering creativity. However, it also comes with privacy, equity, and quality control challenges as such, having a “human-in-the-loop” is required. Striking the right balance between the benefits and drawbacks is crucial as we continue to explore the integration of generative AI in the classroom.

Jeneve Swaby is a measurement specialist. She is the founder and CEO of Psychometric Associates, offering professional development courses to teachers in educational assessment, and conducts psychometric and data analysis on all forms of assessment — educational, medical, psychological, credentialing, and workplace. Jeneve may be contacted at psychometric.associates@gmail.com.