[Schule NRW 07/08-24]
When ChatGPT was published at the end of November 2022, it quickly became clear that AI would have a major impact on life and work, schools and lessons. In order to give schools confidence in their actions and to encourage them to make the functionality, potential and risks of text-generating AI part of their lessons, North Rhine-Westphalia was the first federal state to publish an action guide on dealing with text-generating AI in February 2023.
Since then, a lot has happened in schools when it comes to AI. Text-generative AI can be used to produce a wide variety of text types and offers teachers numerous options when preparing lessons. This includes summarizing and differentiating texts, creating letters to parents or transcribing videos. Pupils also use these options and let AI help them with text production, preparing presentations or translating. This gives rise to numerous questions that need to be clarified.
Young people expect AI to bring about a comprehensive change in teaching and exams. Study by the Vodafone Foundationthat around 75 percent of young people have already used AI tools. Almost a third even regularly use AI to support them in a school context. At the same time, there is still a lack of uniform regulations in schools.
As early as March 2023, a working group of the KMK on the topic of AI was set up on the initiative of the North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of Education. The aim is to achieve a common position across all states on how to deal with AI in school education processes. The influence and effects of AI on learning and didactics as well as performance assessment formats are taken into account, as are the professionalization of teachers and regulatory needs. The question of access to AI applications for all students in the interests of equal opportunities is also examined here.
The Standing Scientific Commission of the KMK also approved a Impulspapier published. From a scientific point of view, there are indications on how to use text-generating AI in school education processes.
It is obvious that the topic of AI cannot be ignored in the school context. Schools must be prepared to make the best possible use of the opportunities that arise for learning and to prepare students for new challenges.
In this edition of Schule NRW you will find concrete examples of current projects and work areas of the Ministry of Schools and Education NRW with support offers for schools.
The article on Prompting skills explains the role that basic skills and the so-called 4Cs (communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking) play in effective and efficient dialogue with AI, but also gives suggestions on how you as a teacher can benefit from Large Language Models with the help of clever inputs in the preparation and follow-up as well as the conduct of lessons.
Also alternative performance review formats play an increasing role in the face of AI. With the decision on the key points paper for the further development of the upper secondary school, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia is taking the next step and taking into account the academic, social and technical developments by, among other things, showing new possibilities for the use of artificial intelligence in connection with performance assessment formats. Future skills such as the 4K and reflection skills are also taken into account here. The importance of presenting work results and taking the work process into account will become even more important in the future. The article on possible uses of text-generating AI in formative feedback provides an overview of this.
The idea of combining virtual reality technology with AI is exciting. In the coming school year, VR technology will be made available at all centers for practical teacher training and at a large majority of municipal media centers (KMZ) for use in teacher training and school lessons. This can be made available to schools, including a media library, for use in lessons. In addition, the VR application “Smart City for teaching and learning in the digital world” is being created as an offer for the social sciences. Image-generating AI and text-to-speech have already been used in some cases during development. The article offers a further outlook on the possibilities of using AI to create 3D environments that can enrich virtual experiences.
On the website www.lernen-digital.nrw you will already find offers for the use of AI, including a set of cards for prompting skills and practical examples for lesson planning and implementation in foreign languages. To make such offers even easier to find, they will soon be accessible directly from the homepage. With a podcast on the topic of AI, the MSB NRW will be focusing on other key topics on the topic in a loose series. This includes information on how text-generating AI works and on the use of it in math lessons.
In addition to testing the use of AI to promote learning, the school’s educational mission also includes supporting students in the responsible and safe use of AI. The NRW media competence framework serves as the basis for this. What changes are being made by AI? What significance does AI have in the context of the targeted influence on societies, for example in the context of elections? How can students learn to use fact checks to identify deep fakes, i.e. audio, images and videos generated using AI? These and similar questions must be addressed in school and discussed in class. There will also be further offers on this on the website.
Author: Dr. Birte Güting, Ministry of Schools and Education NRW
