Focus on aI in classroom
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While some educators are scared of the super power of artificial intelligence technology, such as ChatGPT, so they have banned students from using it, Diane Vaughan, new principal of Nord Anglia International School Shanghai, Pudong, is quite calm.
鈥淚 know what鈥檚 going to happen here,鈥 she said. 鈥淭eachers are going to talk and talk and talk about this, and our children are just going to start using it. It鈥檚 as natural to them as breathing.鈥
She imperturbably said educators and parents should really understand artificial intelligence and find out the purpose of using it, and then guide students to use it as a tool.
The career background of Vaughan might shed some light on her attitude toward technology.
Before becoming a teacher, she worked in the information technology industry as a project manager.
Later she found it exhausting as a parent with two young children and wanted to do something more meaningful.
It was natural for her to divert to education as her mother and aunts were all teachers. So she became a computer science teacher 20 years ago, and has led in managing IT teams, digital transformations, introductions of virtual learning environment and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) curriculum and infrastructure at several schools.
She started in the UK and moved to Cyprus after seven to eight years. Then she came to Southeast Asia. Before coming to China, she had been assistant head of Nord Anglia Hanoi in Vietnam.
She worked as deputy director of the Dulwich International High School in Suzhou for three years and came to Shanghai last year to return to the Nord Anglia school system. It has struck a responsive chord in her heart with 鈥渢he fact that they always think about the student first and then design the educational offerings around.鈥
Vaughan said when she entered the education area, she found educators were always talking about technology, but they didn鈥檛 really know what computers were for, what they were about, and why people used them.
鈥淢y biggest thing is always 鈥榳hy鈥,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not because it鈥檚 new and fancy and everybody鈥檚 doing it, so we must do it.
鈥淚t is about the purpose. Why do we give out devices in schools? Why do we give all of our students a PC or an iPad or whatever?
鈥淲hy do we have the subject ICT (information and communication technology) or computer science? Why do we teach our students about how the Internet works? Is that really necessary? Once we鈥檝e discovered that, then we can start using it properly. And it鈥檚 the same thing about ChatGPT now.鈥
She pointed out that students in the school are the first generation who 鈥渉as traveled the world from their bedrooms.鈥 They鈥檒l use AI in the way that they鈥檝e adapted to mobile phones.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e going to use it in ways that make sense to them,鈥 she said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e going to figure out their own 鈥榳hy鈥 and their own purpose for using artificial intelligence.
鈥淎s parents and educators, we have to teach them how to be imaginative, how to be creative and teach them how those tools actually work. Behind AI is a programmer, a human being, who knows all those three things, who is imaginative, who is creative, and who knows how it works.
鈥淲e as educators need to teach children that human ingenuity, which sparks computers won鈥檛 take over, is irreplaceable.鈥
As a parent, a teacher and a principal, Vaughan gave some advice to parents and children.
She encourages parents to listen to what their children want and let them study their own passions and interests, and she also encourages children to try everything at school.
鈥淟et them play frisbee, let them learn the guitar, let them play netball or badminton or learn to swim or whatever it might be,鈥 she said. 鈥淭hey need to develop their own interests. Don鈥檛 force them to study business studies or economics.
鈥淔or students, go out, try everything. I know it鈥檚 difficult but try to ignore what your friends are doing, ignore what your peers are doing in your class.
鈥淵ou do what interests you. If you want to be in a play, be in a play. You don鈥檛 have to be on the football team. And grab every opportunity that is out there.鈥
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