Kerre Woodham: Should AI be utilised more in schools?

You might remember a month or so ago we had Justin Flitter, an AI expert, in the studio for an hour talking about the fact that AI is here, it's already being used by numerous early adopters, it's not going away, and you'll have to get on board or you'll be left behind. And as you can imagine, the calls were a mix of oh no, it's a disaster, stop it now and King Canute trying to turn back the tide, and others who were saying it's brilliant, already using it, been using it for over a year. A woman in her 70s who was working with disadvantaged kids found AI enormously helpful in terms of teaching tools. 

So some people are ready, willing, and able to embrace change, technology, advancements. Others don't see it as an advancement, they see it as taking jobs, as concerning, as worrying and I get that. But it is here, and it would be pointless to bury your head in the sand and say I don't want it to come. It's already here. It's already being used. Job seekers are using AI to write their CVs and cover letters. AI’s being used by employers to screen job applications. It's being used in job training. It's being used in research and now, Education Minister Erica Stanford says the use of AI as a marking tool will be expanded over the next few years. It's already been used for the literacy and numeracy corequisite exams. Now, she says, it will be used as the education system moves away from NCEA Level 1. She says AI is as good if not better than human marking. It will undoubtedly be as good, if not better, at setting exams.  

Remember 2016? Late changes in a top-level school exam math's paper led to a mistake so bad that students could not answer the question. It was unanswerable because of a mistake made by a human, leading to students walking out of the exam doubting themselves and beside themselves. That same year, it was revealed for other external NECA maths and stats exam papers were affected by mistakes, but they weren't considered as severe. Now if you can iron out those kind of glitches, all well and good. And if AI can free up teachers to teach, not doing the boring admin tasks, again, so much the better.  

It's not perfect. It's only as good as the human input it receives, but like automation it is brilliant at doing the basic repetitive jobs. So for those of you who are on board, love to hear from you, those of you who have had bad experiences too love to hear from you on that as well. And is it suitable to be used for setting exams, marking papers? The sort of admin that takes up so much of a teacher's time in school. I would say absolutely get on board. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Carry Wooden Morning's podcast from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
He'd b you might remember a month or so ago,
we had Justin Flitt, who's an AI expert, in the
studio for an hour talking about the fact that AI
is here, it's already being used by numerous early adopters.
It's not going away, and you'll have to get on
board or you'll be left behind. And as you can imagine,

(00:31):
the calls were a mix of oh no, oh, it's
a disaster and stop it now and can cannot trying
to turn back the tide, and others who were saying
it's brilliant, already using it, been using it for over
a year. A woman who was working with disadvantaged kids.

(00:54):
This was a woman in whose seventies found AI enormously
helpful in terms of teaching tools. So some people are
really willing and able to embrace change technology advancements. Others
don't see it as an advancement. They say it is
taking jobs as concerning is worrying, and I get that,

(01:18):
but it is here and it would be pointless to
bury a hiad in the sand and say I don't
want it to come. It's already here already being used.
Job seekers are using AI to write their cvs and
cover letters. AI is being used by employers to screen
job applications. It's being used in job training, it's being

(01:41):
used in research, and now Education Minister Eric Stanford says
the use of AI as a marking tool will be
expanded over the next few years. It's already been used
for the literacy and numerousy correquisite exams. Now, she says
it will be used as the education system moves away
from NCAA Level one. She says AI is as good,

(02:06):
not better than human marking. It will undoubtedly be as good,
if not better, at setting exams. Remember twenty sixteen, late
changes in a top level school exam maths paper led
to a mistake so bad that students could not answer
the question. It was unanswerable because of a mistake made
by a human which and this was I think top

(02:30):
NCAA Level three maths, so we're talking quite pointy headed
stuff and it was simply unanswerable, leading to students walking
out of the exam doubting themselves beside themselves. That same year,
it was revealed four other external NCAA maths and stats
exam papers were affected by mistakes, but they weren't considered

(02:52):
as severe. Now, if you can iron out those kind
of glitches, all well and good. And if AI can
free up teachers to teach not doing the boring Adminton
asks again, so much the better. It's not perfect, it's
only as good as the human input it receives. But

(03:14):
like automation, it is brilliant at doing the basic, repetitive jobs.
If you don't want to say, I can remember my mum,
who was a teacher, bringing marking home and she was
marking primary school papers, so it was pretty basic stuff,
but it was still fifty odd papers that would have

(03:35):
to be marked and she'd bring it home and should
do the marking and it would take her a couple
of hours. Why would you not use AI to do
something that is boring and repetitive? Why would you not
use AI to do the communication to parents? If you've
got an email that has to go out to parents
once a week, why wouldn't you use it for edmund

(03:59):
And why wouldn't you use it for marking? I would
love to hear from those of you who are already
using AI in your work. I'd love to hear from
those of you who are using AI and your search
for a job. We've got the job numbers out, the
unemployment figures out later this morning and talking to Liam

(04:20):
down after eleven, how many of you have used AI
to look for a job, how many employers are using
it to screen your applicants. I was talking to a
young woman in Wellington when I was down to do
a job and she was coming back into the workforce

(04:40):
after having a baby. Hair and makeup artist. She used
AI to create her website. She said it was absolutely brilliant.
She was going great guns and turning away work. She
had no idea about AI, no idea about technology. Thought
she'd have to pay a web design maestro to build
the web page for hers done and a couple of hours.

(05:06):
So for those of you who are on board, love
to hear from you. Those of you have had bad
experiences too, love to hear from you on that as well.
And is it suitable to be used for setting exams,
marking papers, the sort of admin that takes up so
much of a teacher's time in school. I would say absolutely,

(05:27):
get on board.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
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