Following a teacher training webinar that suggested using ChatGPT to help students create poetry, there are calls for further guidelines for artificial intelligence (AI) in schools when it comes to creative tasks.
Conor Murphy, an English teacher who is also president of the Drama, Film and Drama Teachers’ Association, said he recently attended training with Oide, the Department for Education’s support service for teachers and school leaders.
Murphy said the use of AI was proposed three times during the webinar, two of which were related to creative tasks. The Zoom webinar was related to the Leaving Cert Applied subject English and Communication.
One of the important tasks that students have to do is to compose their own poems, songs, or raps.
Murphy said the webinar suggested that some students may find this exercise difficult, so the advice for teachers was to consider using AI to write poems, plays or songs and allow students to rewrite them. I gave an example.
At the webinar, it was suggested that AI could be encouraged to write a play and that it could rewrite and perform it on its own.
“You don’t need to do anything [Óide] In terms of using AI in the classroom, what they’re saying is that they’re suggesting to teachers that AI can be used, and perhaps should be used at certain stages of the lesson, and for certain students.
“I don’t agree with that suggestion. I don’t think AI should be used for any creative work.
“That’s when they get educated, that’s when they get creative.
“I would like to see proper guidelines that say, ‘AI should not be used for creative work,'” Murphy said.
“I am fundamentally opposed to this approach. It is anti-educational and it is shocking that a government agency would promote this.”
An Oide spokesperson said: “We do not encourage, encourage or promote the use of any particular AI model to replace the need for students to learn creatively.” The company’s policy on AI is in line with guidance on AI issued by the Department of Education last October.
A core principle of this guidance is that AI should “complement and support teaching and learning, with teachers being key decision-makers regarding pedagogy, assessment and learning design.” All output generated by AI must be reviewed and verified by educators, they added.
“Oide’s role is to help schools make informed decisions about whether, when and how such technology is appropriate in their context. Oide understands that there may be some concerns about the use of AI, which is a rapidly evolving technology.”
“Guidelines for the safe and responsible use of AI are under constant review.”
