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EduTech 2024 ran on August 13 and 14 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. Picture: Supplied/EduTech

EduTECH 2024: When will we use AI in assessments?

For another year, artificial intelligence (AI) in education was front of mind for most speakers and exhibitors at EduTECH, an annual education festival that focuses on ways to integrate ed-tech into mainstream teaching and learning.

A panel hosted by David Linke, director of ed-tech start-up accelerator EduGrowth, with the director of Melbourne Assessment in the faculty of education at the University of Melbourne, Professor Sandra Milligan, and deputy chief executive at the Australian Council for Educational Research, Ralph Saubern, discussed whether AI will ever be used in assessing students in school, and if so, when.

Attendees collecting their lanyards. Picture: Supplied

The main question put to the panelists was: can AI improve the way we assess student capabilities, or will it exacerbate existing flaws in our assessment systems?

Professor Milligan first responded by questioning if current assessment models in education are as sound as they could be, and if we are assessing the right things.

"We assess, in the form of literacy and numeracy, the capacity to regurgitate preset elements of content that are specified in detail in syllabus," she said. "That's what we assess."

"That is such a narrow definition in our teaching ambitions. That is sort of offensive to me.

"As teachers, if you look at the curriculum, it [includes] things like 21st century skills that people need to try, it's got the willingness and capacity to be a lifelong learner, so that you learn whatever is in front of you.

"These things, the capacity to be a versatile learner, these are our ambitions, but we do not assess them. Even though we know that they are teachable, learnable, assessable and valuable."

Ultimately, the professor said using AI to help teachers and education authorities update processes in which they assess students won't be helpful unless current assessments change.

See what exhibitors were showing at EduTech 2024. Video: Erin Morley

"I think that AI could be a really good influence if we treat it as a wake-up rule about what is really important for kids to learn," she said.

"If we just think that what is important to learn is what standardised tests and examinations test currently, ... if we continue down that track, then I think AI will continue to narrow.

"But, if we take the opportunity to say we need to extend assessments so that it looks at what we really are interested in, which is its capacity to thrive in a digital world, and to have the social and emotional and cognitive skills that we are going to need to thrive in that world, then I think AI will have been a force for good.

"I just don't know which way it's going to go. It's too early, and it's too hard to see where all the dollars are going."

Mr Saubern pointed out that assessment is not just about assigning a score, and said effective assessment should focus on placing students on a continuum of learning, rather than merely ranking them.

“It’s a process of gathering evidence from various situations to support a judgement about a student’s position on a scale of expertise,” he explained.

Overall, he expressed more cautious optimism about the potential impact of AI on assessment, also warning that if AI is used to further narrow the scope of assessments, it could reinforce existing limitations.

A talk at EduTech. Picture: Supplied

He also added that assessment data is not just a tool for schools to use to know where a particular student is on their learning journey, but also provides useful data for assessment data collection bodies and governments.

"[Professor Milligan,] when you say we are assessing the wrong things, you aren't saying that teachers in class, when they are monitoring and trying to understand the learning of students on a daily basis, are assessing the wrong things," he said.

"That is required by governments and so on. So I just want to make that distinction. There are excellent, fantastic, [types of] assessments happening every day in schools or around the country."

Professor Milligan said even though that is true of assessment data, that's not the way students see it.

"If you ask the students, what is the important assessment here? They are not going to say, 'Oh, the teacher really liked that I really tried hard yesterday,'" she said.

"They are going to say, 'I only got six out of 10 on the Friday test', or 'I only got a C this semester'.

"The assessment that seems to count to kids, parents and politicians is extremely narrow. And I am not blaming teachers for that."

In a later session, chief executive of ed-tech Grok Academy Dr James Curran reminded teachers that what's available now are using the worst versions of AI technology that will ever exist, and that sentiment extends to implementing the technology in all areas of education.

"Our kids will be using the worst version of this technology ever," comparing current models like ChatGPT to using a printed map instead of Apple Maps or Google Maps on a phone.

"Every teacher and every student needs to understand generative AI. That's actually a much more critical thing than using it in the range of tools educational apps that are increasingly integrating it."

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