Assessment in the Age of AI - Claire Amos

Below are the slides I shared at NZQA's 'Assessment in the Age of AI' symposium.  

This is my brief overview of how we are approaching AI at Albany Senior High School and some of the concerns and some of thoughts I have about the topic. 

In short, I am worried we are so damn busy we aren't giving it the attention it needs. I also worry that leaders will try and ignore and/or attempt to ban and that this ignores the fact that Pandora's Box is well and truly opened and this thing is developing faster than we can imagine and is increasingly woven into platforms and tools we already use. We are sitting at a fork in the path where both options lead to a world fundamentally altered by AI and we need to choose whether to work with it or stick our heads in the sand. That decision is going to have a tangible impact on how well our young people are going to be equipped to thrive in the future. 

We need to embrace AI, and approach it with curiosity, criticality and care. 

One of the speakers pointed out that students already fall into three categories:

• The students who are using it, but using it poorly. Using it to write answers for them and cheating themselves of learning.
• The students who are fearful of it and don't want to be seen to be plagiarising so are not even engaging with it (or at least consciously) and missing out on important skill building.
• The students who are using it creatively and critically and who are accelerating their learning (and the digital divide) and outcomes as a result. 

I don't know about you, but I want all students to be supported to be in the third category and I want teachers in that space as well. And I want to close that divide in the process.

There is no denying this thing will and has already made it near impossible to define what is original student work. That means we need to seriously think about why we actually formally assess, what we assess and how we assess. These young people will be going into jobs where, whatever they do, will undoubtedly involve their ability to use these tools to do it better. Why not start preparing now. 

We also need to get on and front foot the conversations about AI and implicit bias, the echo chambers that algorithms create, the fact that we can no longer judge what is real and what is AI created and that none of this is going anywhere. Pushing the use of AI underground is not going to support our young people in tackling the many risks and ethical issues. 

As my dear friend, Dan Milward commented on DisruptED, stated.

Now let’s move on to the doing and action part, please.

In a world where people are getting unstuck with their tasks, businesses are quadrupling productivity using LLMs, and while my generation is watching generations literally turn into social media phone zombies… I don’t think this is very productive...

...What I’d like to see this time next year though is a wealth of new resources and engaging AI activities that complement and weave into our curriculum.

With the rate at that this thing is evolving we are already falling behind and I really do think that if we don't sit up and take notice it will just be one more reason why young people will recognise that formal secondary school is nigh on redundant. Let's take advantage of this opportunity to make some exciting and positive changes, to evolve our approaches to teaching, learning and assessment before it really is too late. 

Oh and of course, this is yet another reason why it is paramount that we close the bloody digital divide!!.

Link to the full slide deck