Harnessing the Power of AI in Education AI in the classroom – a headteacher’s experience

Fergal Moane has enjoyed using ChatGPT for lesson planning and in the classroom. AI, he feels, could act as a significant helping hand to teachers, managers and admin staff. While AI is not always bang on the money – yet -?it should save a considerable amount of money without replacing the all-important human aspect of education.

At Bromcom's annual event at The Shard in London, Fergal provided some enticing insights into how AI may be used to good effect in education. In fact, many of these supposed benefits of AI are already starting to happen.

He sees the benefits of AI as a teaching assistant, AI streamlining admin tasks, personalising learning journeys, monitoring pupil progress, attendance and behaviour and managing staff performance.

In this latest blog post, I’ll summarise how Fergal views the potential of AI and, more importantly, how he’s able to recognise how it is already changing?how schools function.

I’m always sceptical when I hear words like, ’transformative’ and ‘revolutionary’, as they can often feel like hype.?But this is how school leaders like Fergal feel.

Let us take a look at the reasons why.

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AI as a teaching assistant

No, not a physical robot T.A – at least not yet.

AI gives the gift of multiple TAs that support real staff in the background. Fergal used the example of how his Bromcom management information system (MIS), could deploy its AI-enhanced features to serve as a valuable companion to teaching staff. In his own experiences, Fergal has seen how AI could streamline the time-consuming task of lesson planning, freeing up educators to devote more attention to improving the quality of their lessons.

Until now the term ‘instructional design’ was not commonly used outside I.T or learning technology circles. Now, AI within an existing MIS can help create resources for algebra revision, for example. It could also enable educators, managers and admin staff to deepen their understanding of the connections between different subjects,?AI promises to help teachers really begin to understand how instructional design can create more engaging and rewarding learning experiences for pupils.

Furthermore, Fergal emphasized how AI can also play a crucial role in simplifying the process of identifying and addressing learning gaps. With its ability to personalise learning and link content to visually appealing learning resources, AI is already starting to help teachers reach, engage and monitor every student. ?

The future is already here for support staff

The conversation didn't miss the impact AI could have on support staff. According to Fergal, AI's ability to proactively identify issues, reduce administrative burdens, and predict potential behavioural changes in students is already making the day-to-day running of a school more efficient. What’s more, AI can provide critical insights and enable staff to make informed predictions, based on reliable and accessible data. Schools are starting to be more forward thinking, as there is less emphasis on historical data; AI facilitates informed projections.

Reducing the overall administrative burden

Fergal's presentation also examined one of the major pain points for educators all over the world. You guessed it - administrative tasks. He suggested that while AI might not entirely replace teacher intervention, especially in assessments, it could dramatically lighten their administrative workload, providing educators with more time and space for supporting their students.

But let us not get too carried away here. Could AI simply transfer the time that teachers spend on some tasks onto others, thus saving no time at all? Similarly, many people are eager to talk up the ‘transformative’ power of AI. Over to Fergal to unpack all of this.

A reshaping of the school ecosystem

Fergal envisages a near future in which all members of staff will be confident in the use of AI technology. Everyone in a school, whether they are a TA, senior leader, admin staff or teacher, is likely to be part of a transformative change, which is an essential component of the vision that Fergal shared at Bromcom’s event at The Shard. To be specific, outlined how this might look in reality:

·??????AI features within MIS help teachers plan lessons

·??????AI optimises workflow across the school

·??????AI helps with progress benchmarking

·??????AI supports transitions to enable staff to embrace new ways of working

In essence, AI functionality is starting to ?redefine the roles within the education ecosystem

Innovative projects

At the Bromcom event, Fergal unveiled some exciting projects where AI is seamlessly integrated into MIS to personalise learning and assessment, clarify the analysis of student performance, behaviour and attendance analytics, and optimise resources. He also told the audience about how AI is being explored to help staff manage their performance and support teachers' professional development. Fergal feels that Bromcom’s ‘one-stop-shop’ approach enables staff to deploy AI to identify and drill down into patterns across a range of ?data domains At the same time, this functionality strictly maintains data security and GDPR compliance.

The management of data is already managing and analysing voluminous datasets on all the crucial aspects of school life. Seamlessly assisted by Chat GPT, AI can easily generate effective communication for parents and staff, present data, identify patterns, predict outcomes and customise recommendations for various student groups.

The vision shared by Fergal at the Bromcom's Annual Shard Event paints an exciting picture of the future of education technology, showcasing the transformative potential of AI in reshaping our educational landscape for the better. The world of education awaits these innovations with bated breath.

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Fergal Moane is the Headteacher at Hitchin Boys' School