A quick post in follow up to my article yesterday on the proposals by the UK Department for Education to commission tech companies to develop an AI app for teachers to save them time. The Algorithm - a newsletter from MIT Technology Review picked up on this today, saying "this year, more and more educational technology companies are pitching schools on a different use of AI. Rather than scrambling to tamp down the use of it in the classroom, these companies are coaching teachers how to use AI tools to cut down on time they spend on tasks like grading, providing feedback to students, or planning lessons. They’re positioning AI as a teacher’s ultimate time saver."
The article goes on to ask how willing teachers are to turn over some of their responsibilities to an AI model? The answer, they say, really depends on the task, according to Leon Furze, an educator and PhD candidate at Deakin University who studies the impact of generative AI on writing instruction and education.
“We know from plenty of research that teacher workload actually comes from data collection and analysis, reporting, and communications,” he says. “Those are all areas where AI can help.”
Then there are a host of not-so-menial tasks that teachers are more skeptical AI can excel at. They often come down to two core teaching responsibilities: lesson planning and grading. A host of companies offer large language models that they say can generate lesson plans that conform to different curriculum standards. Some teachers, including in some California districts, have also used AI models to grade and provide feedback for essays. For these applications of AI, Furze says, many of the teachers he works with are less confident in its reliability.
Companies promising time savings for planning and grading “is a huge red flag, because those are core parts of the profession,” he says. “Lesson planning is—or should be—thoughtful, creative, even fun.” Automated feedback for creative skills like writing is controversial too. “Students want feedback from humans, and assessment is a way for teachers to get to know students. Some feedback can be automated, but not all.”