On 1st July, NUS AI Centre (AICET) organised a learning journey for educators. Presentations covered a useful range of topics including pedagogical considerations of a national learning system, human-centric vs AI-centric creativity, use of various AI chatbots, affordances of an online marking tool and using LLM to create digital interactives.
The opening address by Mr Chia Hai Siang, principal specialist, Ministry of Education, was dense and thought-provoking. What does a national learning system have to strive towards? How can our actions as teachers on the ground, in classrooms and labs, within and between lessons align with broader national objectives?
Mr Chia shared that there is a need for a “pedagogical layer” in good EdTech. This pedagogical layer is the deliberate friction introduced into the learning process so that students can engage in the productive struggle necessary for learning. Good pedagogy decides the type, timing and thickness of a pedagogical layer. What friction should be introduced? When, how and how much?
After sitting with this slide for a while, I suppose this is true for teaching in general. With or without the use of EdTech, we do need to consider how best to motivate our students to learn given that learning requires effort and most would choose the easy route over the effortful one.
Another interesting presentation was given by Mr Donn Koh, Assistant Professor, Industrial Design, NUS. His talk covered the distinctions between human-centric and AI-centric creativities. If a student were to use AI to generate a handbag-bag pack usable in daily life, is this design done by a human or by AI?
As I write this post, I wonder about implications of assigning ownership. What if the entire design is carried out in 5 minutes using a single prompt? What if it is reiterated in a series of prompts over twenty hours? Does this affect how we view/value the artifact?
Various teachers and teaching teams also shared how they used EdTech to deliver their lessons. Ms Diana Ma from Eunoia Junior College covered the use of Softmark, an online marking platform which can reduce marking inefficiencies.
I shared a workflow on creating interactive activities using LLMs. The resources for my sharing are available here. Much thanks to Ms Geraldine Tan and the AICET team for this opportunity!
The closing panel discussion was fun. Someone asked how to prevent AI-assisted cheating.
Prof Ben Leong, Director, AICET, reframed the question. Instead of asking how to prevent AI cheating, ask how to prevent cheating. When we were young, cheating was prevalent. Copying homework in the morning before the first bell rang was a common sight in classrooms across nations. We, ourselves, might have cheated.
There is, however, a great shift in student behaviour when caught. Previously, students would apologise and promise not to cheat again. Nowadays, they would deny they are cheating even when their essays are exactly the same as others’ right down to the spacing between words.
Prevention is better than cure though not necessarily easier or cheaper.
On a tangential note, I wonder about the prevalence, extent and result of cheating in this brave new AI world. A recent study by a Chinese team discovered that using AI for answers can cause exam scores to plummet by up to 20%. Could we assume that using AI for answers cause an additional drop on top of the drop caused by the baseline pen-and-paper-copying-before-morning-assemblies-cheating?
Another question was about the prospect of studying computing with the rise of increasingly sophisticated AI models capable of coding with minimal guidance.
Prof Leong mentioned that there will always be people who excel and people who don’t. The crème-de-la-crème will have no lack of lucrative job offers – 200k to 300k per year! – while the bottom 20% – 30% of the cohort will probably not work in any computing field. He suggested that students major in what they enjoy and to discover what they enjoy, they must be exposed to various fields when they are young. Ah, a truism we often hear.
As with any well-organised learning experiences, there is much to digest and assimilate. Some of these big-picture ideas can and should guide lesson delivery.
The NUS AICET website has a more detailed article on this learning journey. Thank you for reading this post and here’s wishing everyone a transcendent Youth Day!
