From the RectorKia ora whānau,
I am a firm believer that schools should represent opportunity as well as stability. Of these two, currently, stability is the most important. 2025 will be remembered for a lot of things, but as far as worldwide foundational change, you would have to go a long way back in time to see an evolution as rapid as that of the growth of Artificial Intelligence.
Many of us are now using AI tools in the workplace and have found the use invaluable. Our boys are no different; they are embracing this new tool and finding ways that it can help them to manage being teenagers within the helter-skelter world that they live in. It is easy to ask ChatGPT to write an email for you, or update your CV, or complete an assessment. However, unless you already know how to do these tasks and understand what the finished product is supposed to look or sound like, it is impossible to know if the results of your AI-generated work are correct or coherent - and most importantly, align with your voice and worldview.
With this new hurdle placed in front of us, Southland Boys’ High School is posed a simple question. Do we block it out and keep it away from education? Or do we teach our boys how to use it to improve their learning experience without undermining it? It is a simple question, but educators around the world are torn as to the best way to answer it.
Here is what we know now:
- Most AI generators available online are open filters to the internet. This means that any information uploaded to the generator will become freely available online. For this reason, the use of ChatGPT and other free online platforms should come with a warning: do not give it any information you are not willing to share with the world (personal information, bank account details, passwords etc).
- SBHS has developed a Traffic Light System for all assessments. On the front of the assessment outline, it will show a Green Light (all AI use is permitted), an Orange Light (AI use limited to areas clearly outlined within the assessment), and a Red Light (no AI use is permitted).
- Credibility, in the eyes of the world, is often measured by a person’s ability to complete tasks and meet deadlines. While using an AI generator may help you meet a deadline, you have not completed the task - the machine did. As we grow, we must learn how to work through something and own the outcome as being authentically ‘ours’.
- Schools are learning venues, so the purpose of the work in classrooms is to impart knowledge and build skills. When a person uses an AI generator and then completes work without understanding what is written in the answers, they have not learned anything. Eventually, this process of circumventing the knowledge-building process catches up with you. Remember, don’t just finish a task - understand the task and how the outcome came together.
Ngā mihi nui,
Ray Laurenson
Rector
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