Techweek event on AI in education draws enthusiastic audience

_{Forum facilitators (left to right) Dr Amit Sarkar, Pete Orbase and Dr Selena Chan.}

Exciting Artificial Intelligence (AI) initiatives in education were the focus of a well-attended Techweek seminar at Ara Institute of Canterbury, where teachers, students and AI enthusiasts gathered to explore its transformative potential.

The event was one of two symposiums hosted at Ara as part of the global Techweek celebration. The first, led by cloud-based software company Salesforce, examined AI in the workplace, while Ara’s session delved into AI’s role in education.

Ara Business and Digital Technologies tutor Dr Amit Sarkar, Education Developer Dr Selena Chan and Bachelor of ICT student Pete Orbase led an engaging discussion on AI’s applications in literacy and numeracy.

Peter Nock, Ara’s Academic Manager, Department of Business and Digital Technologies noted that Generative AI had become prevalent in discussions of educational technology, particularly in the context of literacy and numeracy education.

“AI models can engage in human-like conversation and generate answers to complex questions in real-time, with education reports accentuating their potential to make teachers' work more efficient and improve student learning,” Nock said.

The Techweek seminar focused on AI for numeracy problem-solving, AI for literacy tutoring and feedback, generative AI to adapt literacy and numeracy tasks and generative AI to assist teachers in planning.

Dr Chan emphasised the importance of “learning by doing” before relying on AI tools. She described AI as an aid for cognitive offloading, helping users manage complex tasks, but underscored that acquiring tacit knowledge remains essential to human learning.

“If you take shortcuts, you miss the journey. As educators, we must be clear about what needs to be learned and what can be offloaded. AI should complement learning, not replace it,” she said.

She also presented findings from an Ako Aotearoa-funded research project, in which Ara collaborated with Hagley Community College and Otago Polytechnic to develop an AI literacy tool tailored to student needs.

“The tool is being tested in real settings and Ako Aotearoa has now given us further funding to enhance the original chatbot ‘Ako AI’ and to work on AI tools to support foundation numeracy and Te Reo Māori,” Dr Chan said.

The research outputs from the 2024 Ako Aotearoa-funded project will be launched in August.

Dr Sarkar discussed responsible and ethical AI use, as well as strategies for prompt engineering, the art of crafting precise AI queries to maximise effectiveness.

“AI will respond based on the input it receives. The quality of output depends on context-rich, well-structured prompts. Understanding how to refine AI interactions is crucial for educators and students alike,” he explained.

Student Pete Orbase discussed his Capstone (senior project) work in the field of creating an AI to assist in numeracy learning for foundation-level learners in Trades.

Giving the audience a chance to experiment with the AI in real time he explained how he created a tool that gives step-by-step solutions, providing reinforced learning through iterative steps and making complex concepts more accessible to learners.

The seminar sparked lively discussions and admiration for the pioneering work of Ara’s staff and students.

As AI continues to shape education, experts and emerging ICT professionals at Ara are determined to be at the forefront, helping students and educators harness its potential to enhance learning outcomes.