My current streak for Duolingo is 1443 days! For the first time in my life, I have stuck with learning a language. Usually, after pounding away at learning vocabulary, sentences and phrases, I haven’t had the opportunity to engage in real conversations to consolidate what I’ve learnt. This is an essential step in learning a language. This language app, which provides courses in a number of languages and teaches them through fun exercises and games, has recently introduced a feature that has become that last piece of the puzzle for me: an attitude-filled, purple-haired AI character called Lily. Duolingo’s AI is ready to converse at any time and has helped me stick with Duolingo and finally learning a language.
At first, this freaked me out a bit! The thought of speaking to a robot in an AI-driven conversation on a number of themes each day just doesn’t sit well for me. But we’re seeing universities launching departments and institutes of applied artificial intelligence to incorporate AI through their curricula. The Right Honourable Bridget Phillipson MP, the UK’s Education Secretary, is exploring ways in which AI can reduce teachers’ workloads by automating tasks like compiling student reports and analysing writing. ChatGPT and Zookal now offer one-on-one academic assistance which costs a tenth of the cost of academic tutors.
Just these small examples show AI’s transformative role in education, particularly for personalised learning experiences, supporting teachers and making education more accessible and efficient. But parts of the use of AI in education is unsettling, too.
I recently used AI with my students’ essays – I placed the criteria of the essay, requested certain areas I wished the AI to explore and asked it to write an example essay. The AI was able to produce for me in one minute what took me a good hour-and-a-half to two hours. What I thought AI potentially missed was the empathy and learnings my students could reach from their research, but when I requested AI for this information it was able to provide me with examples and themes!
It begs the question of the value of students writing their own essays, but, importantly, we don’t ask students to submit assignments solely for the sake of meeting the assessment criteria. The process of developing a critical argument, discussing an issue and reviewing and editing the work is where the learning happens: the thinking, the struggle, the development of empathy. AI can generate a response, but it can’t challenge us or encourage growth, and instead can compromise our integrity as learners, writers, creators or thinkers. AI can be a useful tool in education – but it is just a tool, like Lily is in consolidating your language learning!
So, as I did many Newsletters ago, in a time of uncertainty and change, I found a terrific passage from Winston Churchill which speaks to the value of integrity.
One of Winston Churchill’s great political opponents, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, died in 1940, and Churchill had taken over the top job. Chamberlain’s efforts for appeasement during World War II had failed. Many politicians today wouldn’t be able to resist the temptation in using this for political ground. But after Chamberlain died, Churchill instead talked of Chamberlain’s desire to seek peace in his eulogy for Chamberlain.
With this example, I look at today: who could have predicted the challenges we’re facing today? What is the worth of all this? Churchill stated in this eulogy that, in the face of adversity, what is most important is living by your values and prioritising integrity. On Chamberlain, Churchill said:
‘The only guide to a man is his conscience; the only shield to his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his actions. It is very imprudent to walk through life without this shield, because we are so often mocked by the failure of our hopes and the upsetting of our calculations; but with this shield, however the fates may play, we march always in the ranks of honour.’
Christian Gregory
Deputy Head of Senior School – Student Wellbeing
