By Emily Kowal
In public school classrooms across NSW, students turn to an AI chatbot. Nearby, their teacher is doing the same – using a bot to plan a lesson, mark assignments and write reports.
This is EduChat, the Education Department’s in-house generative AI tool, now used in every public school in the state. In just over a year the bot has gone from a shiny new thing, to a product as crucial as a calculator and the internet.
Deputy Secretary Martin Graham said teachers and principals each report saving 90 minutes a week using EduChat.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
“Half of teachers have used it in 2197 schools, which is almost every school,” said department deputy secretary Martin Graham.
“The people who have used the tool, there is a real light in their eyes ... it’s one of those things where if you use it, you find more uses for it.”
Launched as a trial in 50 schools, EduChat’s impact has been immediate, Graham said.
Teachers and principals report saving 90 minutes a week on tasks including activity planning, resource creation, parent communications and emails.
Students are also lapping it up: 89 per cent said EduChat helped them complete more work, and 85 per cent reported it improved the quality of their work.
However, there’s a real concern in academic communities about artificial intelligence overreliance, said AI in education expert Dr Jake Renzella.
“Academic over-reliance is this idea of students not being able to perform the tools the types of tasks they were performing prior without artificial intelligence-based tools,” he said.
“I don’t think for primary and high school students there’s been enough time for [these impacts] to be measured.”
He said students relying on AI can become “useless” without the tools.
“Students trick themselves into thinking they have learnt material when in fact they have not. When it comes time for your final HSC exams you’re clueless.”
Already, AI has changed classroom assessments. According to Graham, oral presentations are popular again, and drafts are more important than ever.
“Some schools will use Google Docs, which actually enable you to see how the document was developed,” he said.
At Hannam Vale Public School, EduChat has been a game changer, said principal Kelly Bryden.
Students were already using AI at home, but those apps tended to spoon-feed children answers, whereas EduChat is designed to give Socratic style responses.
“There’s no point avoiding [AI] ... so let’s teach it as part of our technology lessons around how to use it as a tool rather than using it to give us answers,” Bryden said.
She said students not confident to ask questions in class felt more comfortable using EduChat. “They feel they are not being judged because it is a computer.”
At The Ponds High School, AI has been embraced by teachers and students.
Year 12 student Zuha Nadeem likes EduChat because it gives a “step-by-step structure on how to write paragraphs” in English.
Year 12 students at The Ponds High School, Xavier Martinez, Aarush Veloremahender, and Zuha Nadeem, explore artificial intelligence tool NSWEduChat. Credit: Sitthixay Ditthavong
But using AI leaves year 12 student Xavier Martinez feeling torn. He worries about his generation, given AI’s proliferation.
“We can learn things better … but at the same time, it puts the fear of not having to use our knowledge properly,” he said.
“Before AI, there wasn’t much to worry about because you know you can take care of things for yourself. You can think for yourself. But with AI, you end up relying on it, and you stop thinking.”
He likes that EduChat doesn’t give him the answers, but fears it could make students turn to more direct AI bots.
“It makes you not want to use it because when you ask it a question it asks you questions back, and it can push you away from what your original task was,” he said.
“Most of my peers, they can’t really think for themselves ... as soon as [many of my friends] are assigned work, the first thing they do is: ‘Hmm, how can I do that as quickly as possible?’ ChatGPT is the best way.”
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