Hong Kong student hopes to adopt AI beyond ChatGPT in classrooms
- German Swiss International School student Ingrid Chan recognised the potential of the technology after attending the annual Principals’ Forum hosted by the South China Morning Post
- Chan is looking forward to having robotic teachers, virtual assistants and personalised learning tools in the classroom
Ingrid Chan,17, is positive that AI will revolutionise the education sector. Photo: Kong Yat-pangRobotic teachers, virtual assistants, and personalised learning tools. This is what 17-year-old Ingrid Chan dreams will one day transform classrooms across Hong Kong.
Chan, a student at the German Swiss International School (GSIS), had always regarded ChatGPT as the face of artificial intelligence (AI) and deemed it the most “important” AI tool in the classroom.
After joining the discussion at the annual Principals’ Forum hosted by the South China Morning Post, Chan said she began to recognise AI’s endless possibilities.
“My main thoughts … for AI education was just ChatGPT and the basics,” she said. “But after today, I realised the potential that AI has in the field of education. For example, virtual humans, having that in the classroom could probably be a game-changer for a lot of students.”
Hong Kong school heads set to embrace AI in the classroom
Principals, business leaders and tech innovators spoke to around 200 attendees at this year’s Principals’ Forum to dissect the topic of AI in education and discuss its potential for Hong Kong schools. Chan spoke on one of the panels to provide a student’s perspective on AI in the classroom. As she explained, students and teachers have opposing views on the use of AI, and the tools are often misconstrued or denounced for easing academic dishonesty.
“I know a lot of students who have been accused of relying completely on ChatGPT to complete a piece of homework,” Chan said during the panel. “When in reality they did not really use it at all … I feel like a lot of the time, AI detection [is] not accurate, and it may falsely accuse that student and make the entire thing more serious than it actually is.”
While she is just a teenager, Chan is committed to making a positive impact in the fields of technology and cognitive science. One of her noteworthy accomplishments is a study that supports older patients by providing physical and mental therapy. She was awarded a gold medal for her efforts at the Geneva International Exhibition of Inventions. Her various accolades also led her to win in the Scientist & Mathematician category at the 2023 Student of the Year (SOTY) awards. The competition is organised by the South China Morning Post and sponsored by The Hong Kong Jockey Club.
At GSIS, Chan said teachers’ knowledge of AI does not extend beyond ChatGPT, and they are otherwise unequipped to use the technology for teaching purposes. However, she already has a vision for how it could improve classroom efficiency and streamline tasks.
“It would be really useful if AI can help us target [students’] weaknesses,” she said. “I know teachers have a lot to juggle … especially in the younger years, where you have thirty students in the class, it’s a lot of things to keep track of, and it’s so hard to focus on a weakness for a particular student, so I think it would be really helpful to have AI there as like a teaching assistant.”
Education chief asks teachers to be cautious when bringing AI in classrooms
While recognising parents’ and teachers’ hesitation towards AI, Chan understood that technology is an integral part of the workforce and believed it must be taught to students. To sidestep any obstacles regarding plagiarism or academic dishonesty, Chan envisions classroom settings that allow for “open AI”.
“I really like that idea so that even professors and teachers know exactly when their students are using open AI,” she said. “So I think that would be a good way to regulate or restrict the use of AI.”
Since AI is guaranteed to continue disrupting the job market, industries, and sectors globally, she believes students need to learn to work with AI.
“Artificial intelligence will continue to advance and develop by the time we graduate from university and look for jobs,” she said. “I think that … learning how to get behind it or live with it and develop it is really important because that is what we’re going to be doing for the rest of our lives.
“If we do not keep up, we will be left behind, and so, as a student myself, I am worried that the job I am interested in now may not even exist by the time I am starting to look for it.”