This teacher-led session showed how AI tools can support ākonga success, and create meaningful educational resources for teachers

One of the enduring conversations in education currently is how AI is impacting assessment models and how teachers are looking to authenticate work in an AI world.

On the flip side of the coin, our eTeachers are embracing its ostensible powers more than ever.

In this session, both parts of the conversation were aired; it was great to hear the korero around assessment practices, and to have a play with the technology.

Assessment

There were plenty of questions around authenticity and its management, with the following tips from the group think-tank:

•  eTeachers should check their school's AI policy and MoE/NZQA guidelines often, as they change;

• when using AI tools teachers need to ensure no student data/names are inputted as some of the tools are learning models;

• secondary teachers to implement stricter assessment conditions as per new MOE/NZQA guidelines regarding online tools and feedback;

• teachers can review Google Workspace for access to free Gemini AI tool (for those 13+ years);

• teachers to have discussions with students about ethical AI use and establish clear guidelines for acceptable use in learning; 

• teachers to document and maintain evidence of student work processes (drafts, research materials, etc.) for authenticity verification;

• teachers can utilise Google Docs' real-time editing feature to monitor student work development for assessment authenticity.

AI Tools for Educational Content

In this section, Grant Collie, psychology eTeacher and Amanda Beukes, Design eTeacher shared their experiences with Claude and Adobe Firefly respectively.

Both programmes offer a free component and both are worth looking into - Firefly will help generate images based on user input and is very useful in the Design sphere. Claude is an LLM - it can manage NZ Curriculum content and generate unit plans on any number of topics, for example, a short course for eTeachers on the use of Zoom was created in the session. Of course, these tools are processing prompts with expedience - cutting down teacher time, but also allowing teachers to exercise their curiosity and creativity.

Finally, three free AI tools were revisited from our end of year hui for participants to try - goblin.ai, riff bot AI, and Google Gemini.

Give them a whirl!

Thanks to our participants in this session, whose contribution to the conversation was informative and enriching.

We will pick up on this hot topic in Term Two. Please let us know if you would like to contribute to a session at kotuiako@kotuitui.school.nz