UK Government Launches AI Project to Assist Teachers with Lesson Planning and Homework Marking

UK launches AI project to help teachers plan lessons, mark homework

LONDON (AFP) - The UK government announced on Wednesday a "first-of-its kind" GBP4 million (USD5.2 million) project to bolster artificial intelligence tools to help teachers plan lessons and mark homework. As part of project, government documents like curriculum guidance, lesson plans, and student assessments will be provided to AI companies to train their tech to "generate accurate, high-quality content, like tailored, creative lesson plans and workbooks". The generative AI tools will help teachers mark work and create teaching material, the science and education departments said in a press release. "Today's world-leading announcement marks a huge step forward for AI in the classroom," said early education minister Stephen Morgan, part of the recently elected Labour government. Science Secretary Peter Kyle said the project aims to "ease admin burdens" and will "transform how we see and use public sector data". The project claims to have a "first-of-its kind approach to processing government data for AI". The previous Conservative government had announced investment of GBP2 million for AI resources in education. A government-commissioned research paper on public attitudes to AI in education published today found that while those surveyed agreed AI could help teachers, there were concerns of overreliance on the technology. Parents and students "were worried about the loss of key social and technical skills and reduced human contact-time leading to unintended adverse outcomes", according to the research. UK schools have been rocked in recent years by teaching strikes over a decrease in salaries in real terms, while struggling to retain teaching staff in sufficient numbers.

AI to mark school homework and plan lessons in £4m project

Intervention by artificial intelligence aims to ease burden of teachers, but critics fear breakdown in caring relationships with pupils School homework will be marked by artificial intelligence under a new government project. A database made of official curriculum-specific documents, including anonymised student assessments, lesson plans and teacher guidance is being created with £4 million of taxpayer money. Technology companies will use this resource to create bespoke educational AI tools for use by teachers in the classroom to help with the more time-consuming tasks. It is envisioned that AI trained on the official database will be more accurate, less biased and more secure than current commercial options and free up teachers to focus on helping students. Teachers are broadly supportive of the technology as a way to reduce the workload but say artificial intelligence will not be able to replace them in the classroom. Lesson plans and in-class activities will be made by AI under the current plans and classwork and homework will also be marked by AI tools. Commercially available AI systems such as ChatGPT are already being used by both teachers and students and educational companies such as Pearson are now making their own custom AI programmes. However, the Department for Science hopes that establishing its own trusted datasource will make the tools more useful to pupils of all ages, and at both state and independent schools. Government analysis claims that the project will make classroom AI 92 per cent accurate, compared with the 67 per cent rate for current commercial alternatives. AI 'will help teachers' Peter Kyle, the Science Secretary, said: "We know teachers work tirelessly to go above and beyond for their students. "By making AI work for them, this project aims to ease admin burdens and help them deliver creative and inspiring lessons every day, while reducing time pressures they face." The Government is encouraging tech companies to submit proposals for AI tools to help with marking and feedback by March 2025. A survey from the Department for Education (DfE) found parents were "initially sceptical" about AI in the classroom with worries centred around the use of child data and the potential for it to damage the relationship between pupils and teachers. Parents also believe there should always be human oversight to ensure the technology works in addition to the role of the teacher, and not as a replacement. A key belief of parents was also that consent should be given before a child's data can be used in the database, even if it is anonymised to only reveal gender and age. It is understood that the government project will keep no personal information of children and all documents will need the permission of the individual, or their parent/carer, before being included. An official framework for safety in AI used in education is being created by DfE officials and is expected to be finalised later this year. 'AI is, essentially, uncaring.' Mike Sharples, emeritus professor of educational technology in the Institute of Educational Technology at The Open University and a consultant on educational technology, told The Telegraph the biggest concern about introducing officially-sanctioned AI into the classroom is that it may overburden teachers and lead to a breakdown in the caring relationship between pupil and teacher. "There's no evidence from 30 years of education technology that adding more technology into teachers' lives is going to make them more efficient," he said. "The important thing is that teaching is a caring profession. Teachers care for their students and for the knowledge, but AI is, essentially, uncaring. "If teachers have to dance to its tune then the real worry is that you then just automate some of the caring aspects of teaching." He added that while he thinks the overall idea is a good one, it needs to be led by teachers from the perspective of the classroom, and not by the AI companies. Stephen Morgan, the minister for early education, said the project will "harness the power of tech" to free up some of teachers' time and allow them to focus more on face-to-face teaching than admin. "Today's announcement marks a huge step forward for AI in the classroom. "We are determined to break down the barriers to opportunity to ensure every child can get the best possible education - and that includes access to the best tech innovations." Pepe Di'Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, welcomed the announcement and said it could "do some of the heavy lifting" in the classroom with marking, lesson planning and admin. "Ensuring that it is as reliable as possible will help to alleviate some of the concern that staff may feel about AI," he added "However, it is important to recognise that AI is a tool and not something that can replace the human expertise and interaction with students that can only be provided by our highly-skilled and professional education staff." The downside of AI has seen some universities banning students from using ChatGPT for fear of cheating, concern over use of AI in scientific papers, ridiculous images and indecent pictures appearing because of AI.

Make AI tools to reduce teacher workloads, tech companies urged

Special access granted to DfE resources to train AI models to generate workbooks and lesson plans Tech companies are being urged to create better AI tools for reducing teachers' workloads, as ministers announced they would give AI models special access to the Department for Education's (DfE) bank of resources. The education minister Stephen Morgan said the move was "a huge step forward for AI in the classroom", with the government spending £3m to create a "content bank" of official assessments, curriculum guidance and teaching materials. While many teachers say they already use AI to assist them, current AI tools are not trained on material specifically designed or approved for use in England's classrooms. The new content bank will allow developers to train their AI models to generate "accurate, high-quality content" such as workbooks and lesson plans, according to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). A further £1m will be awarded to developers in a competition for the best ideas to use the DfE's database in reducing teacher workload. Each winner will build an AI tool to help teachers with feedback and marking tasks by March 2025. Morgan told an international education conference in South Korea that the initiative was the first government-approved store of high-quality education material optimised for AI development. "Artificial intelligence, when made safe and reliable, represents an exciting opportunity to give our school leaders and teachers a helping hand with classroom life," Morgan said. "This investment will allow us to safely harness the power of tech to make it work for our hard-working teachers, easing the pressures and workload burdens we know are facing the profession and freeing up time, allowing them to focus on face to face teaching." A study by the DfE, published on Wednesday, found that using targeted content to train an AI model could increase its accuracy from 67% to 92%. Pepe Di'Iasio, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said AI had the potential to ease the "overwhelming" burden faced by teachers, if concerns about its reliability could be resolved. "However, it is important to recognise that AI is a tool, and not something that can replace the human expertise and interaction with students that can only be provided by our highly skilled and professional education staff," Di'Iasio said. "The immediate problem is that we are struggling to recruit and retain enough teachers because of the previous government's erosion of pay and conditions over the past decade and a half. This is the issue which needs urgent attention." Chris Goodall, a teacher and head of digital education at the Bourne Education Trust, said he had been using AI to create classroom material since November 2022, and now helps teachers use it to improve lessons and cut down on administration in 26 schools across the trust. "I've used AI to quickly generate scaffolded activities, adapt materials for students with special educational needs, and create more engaging lessons that are accessible to all. The time saved allows school staff to focus on what matters most, interacting with students and providing individualised feedback and support," Goodall said. A study of attitudes to AI in education, published by the DfE and DSIT's responsible technology adoption unit, found that most parents supported teachers using AI to support their work but were more hesitant about direct interaction by pupils. The study noted that participants were worried about "the loss of key social and technical skills and reduced human contact time leading to unintended adverse outcomes".