TeacherMatic

The AI pioneers project which is researching an developing approaches to the use of AI in vocational and adult education in Europe is presently working on a Toolkit including analysis of a considerable number of AI tools for education. Indeed a problem is that so many new tools and applications are being released it is hard for organisations to know what they should be trying out.

In the UK, JISC has been piloting and evaluating a number of different applications and tools in vocational colleges. Their latest report is about TeacherMatic which appears to be adapted in many UK Further Education Colleges. TeacherMatic is a generative AI-powered platform tailored for educators. It provides an extensive toolkit featuring more than 50 innovative tools designed to simplify the creation of educational content. These tools help in generating various teaching aids, such as lesson plans, quizzes, schemes of work and multiple-choice questions, without users needing to have expertise in prompt engineering. Instead, educators can issue straightforward instructions to produce or adapt existing resources, including presentations, Word documents, and PDFs. The main goal of TeacherMatic, the developers say, is to enhance teaching efficiency and lighten educators’ workloads. To allow teachers to dedicate more time to student interaction and less to repetitive tasks.

For the pilot, each participating institution received 50 licenses for 12 months, enabling around 400 participants to actively engage with and evaluate the TeacherMatic platform.

The summary of the evaluation of the pilot is as follows.

The pilot indicates that TeacherMatic can save users time and create good quality resources. Participants commended the platform for its ease of use, efficient content generation, and benefits to workload. Feedback also highlighted areas for improvement and new feature suggestions which the TeacherMatic team were very quick to take on board and where possible implement.

Participants found TeacherMatic to be user-friendly, particularly praising its easy-to-use interface and simple content generation process. The platform was noted for its instructional icons, videos, and features such as Bloom’s taxonomy, which assists in creating educational content efficiently. However, suggestions for enhancements include the ability to integrate multiple generators into a single generator. It also remains essential for users to evaluate the generated content, ensuring it is suitable and accessible to the intended audience.

TeacherMatic was well-received across institutions, for its capabilities, especially beneficial for new teaching staff and those adapting to changing course specifications. Feedback showed that TeacherMatic is particularly valuable for those previously unfamiliar with generative AI. Pricing was generally seen as reasonable, aligning with most participants’ expectations.

TeacherMatic has been well-received, with a majority of participants recognising its benefits and expressing a willingness to continue using and recommending the tool.

A Game Changer for Education?

Amritha R Warrier & AI4Media / Better Images of AI / error cannot generate / CC-BY 4.0

Open AI launched its latest product – GPT 4o – yesterday. Its difficult to tell from a demo but it seems to be faster model of GPT4 with new audio capability, improved quality and speed of ChatGPT’s international language capabilities, and an ability to upload images, audio and text documents for the model to analyze.

It may have much more capability as a tutor – or more likely as a personal research assistant. As MIT Technology Review says the big pictureis, the company’s demonstration suggests, “a conversational assistant much in the vein of Siri or Alexa—but capable of fielding much more complex prompts.” But none of this is game changing. What is new is the business model. Although the increasingly outdated ChatGPT, based on GPT3.5 is free to users, ChatGPT4 which is the basis for the new model, costs 20 Euro a month. Now this is being provided for free. And for education which is concerned with access and equity allowing all to participate free use is a game changer.

Of course we have to wait to try it out. And there are still issues about the accuracy of what it returns. I enjoyed this this “hallucination” from Benjamin Riley quoted by Gary Marcus in his newsletter, Marcus on AI, this morning.

Generative AI, Assessment and the Future of Jobs and Careers

Ten days ago, I was invited to make an online presentation as part of a series on AI for teachers and researchers in Kazakhstan. I talked with the organisers and they asked me if I could speak about AI and Assessment and AI and Careers. Two subjects seemed hard to me but I prepared presentation linking them together and somehow it made sense. The presentation was using a version of Zoom I had not seen before to enable interpretation. My slides were translated into Russian. This was a little stressful as I was changing the slides in Russian online and in English on a laptop at the same time. It was even more stressful that my TP Link to the internet went down after two minutes and I had to change room to get better connectivity!

Anyway, it seemed to go well and there were good questions from the audience of about 150. Given that the recording was in Russian, I made a new English version. We still experimenting with the best way to do an audio track over slide decks and provide a Spanish translation so sorry that some of these slides are not perfect. But I hope you get the message.

A Compassionate Approach to AI in Education

Alina Constantin / Better Images of AI / Handmade A.I / CC-BY 4.0

I very much like this blog post, A Compassionate Approach to AI in Education, by Maha Bali from the American University in Cairo. Maha explains where she is coming from. And she addresses ethics, not from the point of an abstract ethical framework, of which we have many at the moment, but from the point of ethical practice. What follows is a summary but please read the whole blog

The article discusses the challenges and opportunities that generative artificial intelligence (AI) presents in education, from the viewpoint of a teacher and researcher deeply involved with educators worldwide through these changes. She emphasises a feminist approach to education, centered on socially just care and compassionate learning design, which critically examines the inequalities and biases exacerbated by AI technologies. The article is structured around four key strategies for educators and learners to adapt and respond to AI's impact:

  1. Critical AI Literacy: Developing an understanding of how AI operates, especially machine learning, is fundamental. Educators and students must grasp how AI outputs are generated, how to judge their quality, and where biases might be embedded. Training data for AI, often dominated by Western, white, and male perspectives, can reinforce existing inequalities, particularly affecting underrepresented groups. The author provides an example where an AI tool incorrectly associated an Egyptian leader with an unrelated American figure, highlighting the importance of recognising biases and inaccuracies. The global South is often underrepresented in training data, and the AI workforce is predominantly male, which can discourage women from pursuing technical skills.
  2. Appropriate AI Usage: While some AI uses have proven beneficial, such as medical diagnostics and accessibility features for visually impaired people, educators must distinguish when its application could be harmful or unethical. AI's biases and limitations mean it should not be relied upon for personalised learning or critical assessments. The EU has identified high-risk AI applications that require careful regulation, including facial recognition and recruitment systems. In educational settings, AI should not replace human judgment in crucial evaluations, and the emotional aspects of learning should not be overlooked.
  3. Inclusive Policy Development: Students should be actively involved in shaping AI policies and guidelines within classrooms and institutions. The author suggests using metaphors to help learners understand when AI is appropriate, comparing it to baking a cake. For instance, sometimes students need to bake a cake from scratch (doing all work without AI), while other times, they can use pre-made mixes (using AI as a starting point) or purchase a cake (fully using AI). By having these discussions, students understand the purpose of assignments and when AI can enhance or detract from learning outcomes.
  4. Preventing Unauthorized AI Use: Understanding why students might be tempted to use AI unethically is critical. Students often misuse AI due to tight deadlines, lack of interest or understanding in assignments, lack of confidence in their abilities, and competitive educational environments. The author advocates for empathetic listening, flexible deadlines, and creative assignments that encourage genuine engagement. Moreover, fostering a supportive classroom community can reduce competitiveness and emphasise collaborative learning over competition.

The article encourages a compassionate, critical approach to AI in education. By understanding the biases embedded in AI, developing critical AI literacy, and involving students in policy-making, educators can ensure that students ethically and effectively use AI tools. This approach aims to empower learners to shape future AI platforms and educational systems that are socially just and inclusive.