in the classroom
Complement , not replace
The potential for AI to benefit educators and students .
James Thorley interviewed by Wade Zaglas
It ’ s natural for educators to be cautious when it comes to using artificial intelligence ( AI ) in practice , particularly given the fact they are taught to be critical and evidence-driven . But while that may be the case , James Thorley , vice-president for APAC at Turnitin , says AI “ is not going away ” and can benefit both educators and students in a multitude of ways .
What ’ s key , he says , is that AI is seen as a complementary measure to unburden individuals from time-consuming , often menial tasks — not a replacement or “ silver bullet ”.
In this interview Thorley highlights several benefits of AI , including some marking ( e . g . short answer questions ), ensuring academic integrity and eliminating what he calls “ low-impact activities ”. For Thorley , the goal of AI is to free up educators to spend more of their time on providing more meaningful feedback and instruction .
The vice president for APAC adds that AI can be highly beneficial for students too , with some automated feedback already available . He also says that AI is “ not too far away from prompting students to review their citations ” if there ’ s a mismatch between in-text references and bibliographic entries .
Of course , data gleaned from AI can also provide insights educators would never have been able to access before .
ER : To what extent do you think the sector should be circumspect about AI technologies ? JT : I think it ’ s absolutely normal and right for people to have some caution around implementing AI or around what AI might do , and I think particularly in the higher ed space because in education we ’ re taught to be critical and trained to be sceptical and evidence-driven .
I think it ’ s also true to say that technology is never going to be a silver bullet , so it ’ s always right to cast a critical lens on things . I also would say that , of course , AI is with us . It ’ s not going away . It ’ s already in a lot of things , so you can ’ t just try and avoid it and hope it ’ s going to go away .
I think the key really with AI is like with any technology . It all comes down to how it ’ s applied and you really need to think about it in a holistic manner , involving staff and , ideally , students in any decisions and understand how it can really complement what you ’ re currently doing . So I think it really does come down to application .
When we ’ re talking about biases and things like that , I also think there are very legitimate concerns in that space . I think from us as a tech provider , as a tech
18 | educationreview . com . au