The UK Department for Education is promoting the use of artificial intelligence to reduce teachers’ workload

The British government announced on August 28 local time that it plans to invest 4 million pounds (about 37.6 million yuan) to support technology companies to develop artificial intelligence tools to reduce the workload of teachers, help complete the preparation of lessons, grading homework and other matters.

In a news release, the Department for Science, Technology and Education said the government would spend £3 million to create a “content library” of course guides, teaching materials and assessment materials, giving technology companies special access to the data to train AI models to produce “accurate, high-quality content,” Such as targeted and creative lesson plans and workbooks.” In addition, the government will invest £1 million to reward creative developers. The winners will have until the end of March 2025 to build AI tools to help teachers with tasks such as grading homework and writing comments.

Nearly half of teachers in the UK are already using AI tools to help in their work, but these tools are not trained specifically for teaching. According to a study by the UK Department for Education, training AI models with targeted teaching data can increase accuracy from 67% to 92% compared to these tools.

The education sector needs to grasp four key pieces of information. First, the use of generative AI by the general public to produce content creates opportunities and challenges for the education sector. Second, if technology, including generative AI, is used properly, it may reduce workloads across the education sector, freeing up teachers’ non-teaching time so they can focus on delivering excellent teaching. Third, schools, colleges, and universities, as well as accrediting bodies, need to take reasonable steps to prevent misconduct in the use of generative AI and other emerging technologies. Fourth, the education sector must continue to protect its data, resources, staff, and students from the negative effects of generative AI.

The education sector should develop effective strategies to deal with generative AI. The Department for Education recognises that reducing the workload on teachers is an important issue and has been working to help teachers reduce the amount of time they spend on non-teaching activities. The proper use of generative AI has the potential to help teachers reduce a lot of non-teaching work time, thereby reducing the workload. The UK Department for Education is bringing together experts to work with the education sector to share and identify best practices and opportunities for using generative AI to improve education and reduce teacher administrative workload. All in the education sector must recognize that generative AI tools produce unreliable information and that all generated content needs to be checked for appropriateness and accuracy through professional judgment. Meanwhile, generative AI gives results based on a trained database. In most cases, this given tool has not been trained in the national curriculum. Therefore, the education sector should not automatically equate the output of AI with the resources designed by human development in the context of the curriculum. Regardless of the tools or resources used in the development of administrative plans, policies or documents, the quality and content of the final document should remain the responsibility of the creator and his or her organization. Schools and colleges may need to consider homework and other forms of unsupervised learning to explore the feasibility of generative AI.

The education sector should focus on developing knowledge and skills for the future and producing people who are ready for tomorrow. The best way to prepare for an uncertain future is to build on the knowledge that has proven to be most influential in building the world today. The Office of Artificial Intelligence, part of the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology, is currently conducting research into the skills needed to train the workforce of the future. In order to take advantage of the potential of generative AI, students need to be knowledgeable and constantly develop their intelligence. A solid foundation ensures that students have the right skills to make better use of generative AI tools. Therefore, a rigorous and rich curriculum is still essential to prepare students for the future. The education sector needs to prepare students for the changing Labour market by teaching them how to safely and appropriately use emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence at different stages of their education. At the same time, it helps students understand the limitations, reliability, and potential biases of generative AI, learn about cyber security, such as how information on the Internet is organized and ranked, and how to prevent harmful or misleading content. The education system should support students, especially young students, by identifying and using appropriate resources to support them at different stages of their education. This includes encouraging them to effectively use resources appropriate to their age group that may be generated by generative AI, and preventing them from becoming overly dependent on a single tool or resource. The Department for Education said it would work with experts to consider and respond to the impact of generative AI and other emerging technologies to develop a rich computing curriculum for children and young people up to the age of 16.

In recent years, many British schools have struggled to recruit and retain enough teachers due to problems such as pay. Ai tools may help reduce the “enormous” burden on teachers, but they cannot replace human expertise and interaction between teachers and students.