CAS AI Community

For those who missed last night’s meeting, you can access the resources discussed here Experience AI and see the slides used here CAS AI thematic community - Google Slides and the recording here https://youtu.be/ud_6HoUTz7ghttps://youtu.be/ud_6HoUTz7g

This looks like a useful website:https://teachingwithchatgpt.org.uk

Government funding on conversation courses for postgraduate study in AI and Data Science.

Government funding programme to study a master’s in AI and Data Science.

Scholarships worth up to £10,000 depending on whether candidates meet a selected criteria.

For more information - please see the following links below:

I hope this helps any educator considering studying for a masters between April 2023 and March 2025.

Regards,

Joe

That’s really interesting Adam and sounds like a really good use of Chat-GPT. If the outcome is accuracy and reducing your workload around marking then that’s a big win! I’m curious whether or not you have tried putting in the same answer two or three times and see if the model returns consistent marking and feedback? I think the way you have used it to support you as a the expert is really cool. I’ve got slightly unfounded worries about students doing the same for their own work and the potential damage it could do if they got inaccurate feedback. My other unfounded worry which I’d love someone to research, is whether or not there could be any bias in the feedback. For example, let’s say there is hidden bias in that certain writing styles associated with a gender broadly result in lower marks, could that bias be replicated by an LLM?

That was going off on a tangent somewhat, sorry! But thanks Adam for sharing…super interesting.

I’m sure that many are doing this but I recently uploaded a 6 mark business studies question (GCSE), the mark scheme (both as images) to ChatGPT and then 24 responses from my class. I am new to teaching the subject (CS is my specialism) so was interested to see how I compared with what it output. I prompted ChatGPT to provide feedback and also award a mark out of 6 (levelled response) for all students. I let it do its thing… the feedback looked super, spot on in fact. I checked all responses and made 1 change from 3 to 4 marks. I then asked the subject leader for BS, who is also a TL for the paper the question was on, to check all the responses, my marks and feedback as it was my first time through and wanted his opinion, it took him a while. I did not tell him what I’d done. His response was that I was setting a bit of a precedent with the feedback given it was a quick question at the end of a 15 mark MCQ test. He said he agreed with my marks in all but one case. Happened to be the one I changed. He said it was definitely 3 not 4.

Whilst there are lots of tools around, this does seem like a really effective way to start to use AI for the benefit of students and also teachers as time saving. I saved an hour here easily and the quality of output was A1.

A useful looking webinar: Authentic Assessment with AI: Webinar Recording + Resources — AI for Education

Interesting collection of resources and panels around AI in Education https://www.ai-in-education.co.uk/

Keep an eye on Epsom College, 2nd conference in a year happening today (20/11 - £25 for stream attendance) AI in Education: Cut Through The Noise | Epsom College

Sorry here is the link Neural Networks in Education: Revolution, Pandora's Box or Roadblock?

This online conference looks interesting. I’ve signed up to attend Neural Networks in Education: Revolution, Pandora's Box or Roadblock?

Hi Everyone, I am new to this group and currently work at a College Teacher in Cambridge. I have been looking into ways how to use AI in Education and attended one or two previous CAS events in Cambridge that focused on AI. I have read Dean Fitzpatrick’s Book “AI in the Classroom” and found it very helpful. I am hoping to do more CPD training for my colleagues and gave a previous talk back at the start of the academic year. I would be very interested to hear about how other members have used AI in the classroom or if you have given any AI training yourselves. I think that is a very exciting time to learn about this technology and its implications. I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Thank you for reading!

Hi everyone!

ISTIP, the appropriate body under which I’m doing my ECF had a webinar with Dean Fitzpatrick, who seems to have been early out of the gate with his “AI classroom” book (The AI Classroom: The Ultimate Guide to Artificial Intelligence in Education - Google Search)

He didn’t get enough time to do his full slide deck, essentially demoing the book, but what he’s shown is impressive and immediately applicable.

Zoom replay here:

Take care,
Will

I do agree Alan and it was something I wondered about.

You effectively have to learn how to correctly ‘talk’ to your AI for it to produce something that will be helpful to you. It feels like a parallel to when we first started using search engines to find websites. Carefully considered search terms yielded better results than someone who tried an Ask Jeeves approach to finding what they wanted. As search engines have matured, they are able to better guess what we need but there is still a skill in honing what you want to search for and to use tricks to steer it to what you want.

For me I think it is important to not lose sight of what is important to learn before we try and get AI to help. I can find and filter searches more effectively because I know what to look for based on a knowledge of the subject I am investigating. I am wary of arguments that say we don’t need to learn how to program because AI can do it for us. Yes it can (to some degree), but we firstly need the base knowledge and experiences that learning to program taught us. Then we need these experiences to help us tailor what we ask the AI to produce.

Therefore I suggest there are two parts to this divide. Understanding how to talk to AI, but also having sufficient knowledge about the subject to make it more of an enlightened conversation.

Just watched this short video from Craig Barton’s podcast, where he interviews Peps McCrea (two heroes in one video, wow!) What's happening in AI right now, and what does it mean for education? - Tips for teachers
Peps suggests that LLMs like ChatGPT are as powerful as the prompts make them. This suggests that there will be a new digital divide, between those that can instruct AIs effectively, and those that cannot.

This makes me think back to programming pedagogy, but instead of programmers we now have the rise of “prompt engineers”. Are we seeing the emergence of a paradigm requiring a new notional machine here?

Just like the “program is a sequence of steps” works for the imperative programming paradigm, and a if the programmer has in mind a matching “notional machine” they become better programmers (see Du Boulay e.g. here Ben du Boulay – Notional Machines Research – Felienne's blog) - but the same notional machine would not help a programmer write functional programs, e.g. in Haskell, or OOP programs in any object-oriented language. For each of these they would need a new notional machine.

Is proficiency in prompt engineering contingent on developing a notional machine that predicts what the AI is going to do with our prompt?

This started as a shower thought, and I felt this community would be the best in which to develop it! Ideas welcome

Excellent presentation Miles. Looking forward to hearing you in person in December!
I’ve written a couple of blog posts recently on GAI, just trying to shift the thinking from GAI “cheating” being a problem for educators, onto thinking about the purpose of assessment and the positives of GAI.
(ChatGPT will change everything. No, not like that)[ChatGPT will change everything. No, not like that. – How to Teach Computer Science]
and
(Stop calling it cheating)[Stop calling it cheating. – How to Teach Computer Science]

The Government have posted an update about AI:
To harness the potential of generative AI, students will benefit from a knowledge-rich curriculum which allows them to become well-informed users of technology and understand its impact on society. Strong foundational knowledge ensures students are developing the right skills to make best use of generative AI.

The education sector needs to:

prepare students for changing workplaces
teach students how to use emerging technologies, such as generative AI, safely and appropriately
At different stages of education, this teaching may include:

the limitations, reliability, and potential bias of generative AI
how information on the internet is organised and ranked
online safety to protect against harmful or misleading content
understanding and protecting IP rights
creating and using digital content safely and responsibly
the impact of technology, including disruptive and enabling technologies
foundational knowledge about how computers work, connect with each other, follow rules and process data
The Office for AI is currently conducting research into the skills that will be needed for future workforce training.

The education system should:

support students, particularly young pupils, to identify and use appropriate resources to support their ongoing education
encourage effective use of age-appropriate resources (which, in some instances, may include generative AI)
prevent over-reliance on a limited number of tools or resources
DfE will continue to work with experts to:

consider and respond to the implications of generative AI and other emerging technologies
support primary and secondary schools to teach a knowledge-rich computing curriculum to children up to the age of 16
See more here: Generative artificial intelligence (AI) in education - GOV.UK

This event looks really useful: Webinar: Preparing children for artificial intelligence and BCS e-Learning AGM | BCS

Some useful resources from OCR here: Artificial Intelligence (AI) support - OCR

There are so many great educators I follow who share so many brilliant resources, especially around AI.

I wanted to share a list I made of some of my favourite AI tools and Chat GPT prompts for Education.

Hope you find it useful: ESIR AI tools and Prompts.pdf - Google Drive

I’ve also created a Video Course on Embracing AI in Education which I produced for Carousel Education.
It can be purchased here: https://carouseleducation.org/computing

Thanks,
James

I spent Monday in Ipswich at a Festival of Learning, supported by the NCCE Suffolk hub. It was an outstandingly good day, and a great privilege to give the opening keynote, on AI in secondary schools. My slides are online at The truth about AI - Google Slides if any here are interested.