Digital Jersey hosted a series of events for local primary and secondary school teachers and educational leaders this week, aimed at supporting the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in schools across the island.
The events – the first Digital Jersey has held specifically for local educators – were hosted in conjunction with Skills Jersey and the Department for Children, Young People, Education and Skills this week (19th March) at the Digital Jersey Hub. They explored both the opportunities and challenges of using AI to support teaching methods, empower teachers, and open up new avenues for learning amongst students in a safe way.
The sessions were delivered by Rory Steel, Head of the Digital Jersey Academy, and Vincent Sider, AI marketing expert and Digital Jersey Ambassador.
In particular, the events focused on how teachers could support students in using AI tools responsibly in their learning, with a focus on the ethics, risks and limitations of AI.
In addition, teachers were able to explore how AI could increasingly be used to help them save time in specific more time-intensive areas of their work, such as lesson planning and marking, enabling them to focus on the more added-value and complex areas of teaching.
Commenting on the events, Rory Steel said:
“It is absolutely our role at Digital Jersey to give people across our community access to the information and skills they need to use technology, such as AI, to support them in their roles – and there are undoubtedly opportunities within teaching where AI can play a hugely valuable part. But it needs to be done well, recognising the risks, challenges and ethical issues that it brings.
“We are starting to see schools in Jersey use AI in different ways, but use is at different stages. These sessions aimed to give local teachers, who are notoriously time-poor, a good platform to explore how AI could support their work and enhance the learning experience of students, outlining a number of practical steps they could take. I very much hope this will be the first of many sessions where we can bring teachers together to explore the significant opportunities presented by AI.”
