The head said pupils should be taught to make robots serve them
A boarding school headteacher has revealed that he will employ an expert to “embed AI [artificial intelligence] into the curriculum”.
A head of AI will be in place at Cottesmore School, a boarding preparatory school in West Sussex, to prepare children for the future.
Head Tom Rogerson said pupils should be taught to make robots serve them.
He told The Telegraph: “We need to prepare them for a life of using and living with AI and robots which have AI installed in them.
“They’ve got to learn for it to be their benevolent servant.”
A number of schools – including New York City Public Schools – banned ChatGPT due to concerns over cheating and worries that the tool doesn’t help youngsters develop critical-thinking and problem-solving skills.
However, Mr Rogerson said the technology should be embraced not feared. He wants to see children using AI for creative inspiration. Chat bots can be used, for example, to create a “mood board” of images to inspire the work of students in design and technology classes.
While pupils should be able to write an essay in a classroom with the help of AI, they need to also become skilled in how to prompt applications.
“An essay written by ChatGPT is only as good as your prompting,” he said. “We need a generation of master prompters.”
Intelligent tutoring system is also being explored by the school. This is when AI provides immediate and customised instruction or feedback to learners, usually without requiring intervention from a human teacher.
Language learning apps are also being considered to help with pronunciation, comprehension and fluency.
The new head of AI’s role will include guiding teachers to use chat bots to reduce their workload, such as for writing lesson plans.
Mr Rogerson plans to hold a free AI “masterclass festival” in early September, which will be open to all educational professionals.
His words comes after headteachers have warned that UK schools have been left confused by the fast rate of change in AI and its impact on education.
In a letter to the Times, educators from the state and private sector described the developments as “bewildering”.
They are launching a panel of experts to advise schools on which areas are “beneficial, and which are damaging”.
AI is the “greatest threat but also potentially the greatest benefit to our students, staff and schools”, the teachers, led by Sir Anthony Seldon, the headteacher of Epsom College, say in the letter.
