👶 Like being in charge of a playgroup'

Hey human,

The end of August is upon us, and soon we will be setting those early morning alarms ready for the upcoming academic year.

📚 AI+education news

• Like controlling a bunch of 3 year olds > When asked about what AI will be able to take control of, the godfather of AI, Geoffrey Hinton, rather naively replied that it could take control of ‘us’. He backed up his point with this quote:

If there was ever an argument for the power of domain specific knowledge, this would be it.

• Is Generative AI harmful for learning? > The folks at Inner Drive have summarised a new study that looked at a sample of over 400 college students. The summary of the summary is that those that students who frequently consulted ChatGPT were more likely to develop procrastination tendencies, experience memory loss, and have a lower academic grade point average.

• AI to mark GCSE and A-Levels > I came across this thread by Shabnam Ahmed about the inconsistencies she’s experienced of looking over exams. She mentioned that she is looking forward to AI marking these terminal examinations to make the marking process fairer. That got me thinking, would you rather all humans marked these exams or AI with human moderation?

🌍 Wider AI updates

• £2 Billion > That is the price quoted that the UK government would needed to have handed over to OpenAI to give all adults access to ChatGPT Plus, which was at one point discussed.

• The environmental cost of Gemini > Talking to some teachers, a common theme that comes from them and their students is around the environmental impact of AI. Indeed, I would say to schools that have ‘sustainability’ as a value of the school that they will need to square that circle. However, Google have recently released a paper that suggest that a typical text-based prompt use less energy than watching nine seconds of TV (0.24 wh) and consumes around five drops (0.26ml) of water. These figures have been challenged, and do not include training models.

🎯Prompt

• As we get ready to go back to school, here is a prompt that teachers may find useful to make sure that they have thought of everything. Be sure to complete the detail in the square brackets to make it as relevant to you as possible, and also feel free to add or remove sections from the ‘structure checklist’ section.

I am a [insert year group/subject/specialist role] teacher preparing to return to work for the new academic year. Please create a tailored back-to-work checklist for me.

Here are some details about my role and context:
	•	Year group / subject(s): [e.g., Year 3, all subjects]
	•	Additional responsibilities: [e.g., Science lead, mentoring ECTs]
	•	Class size: [e.g., 28 pupils]
	•	Key priorities for the year: [e.g., improve writing outcomes, strengthen behaviour routines]
	•	Resources available: [e.g., interactive whiteboard, manipulatives, outdoor space]

Please structure the checklist into sections such as:
	1.	Classroom Setup
	2.	Curriculum Preparation
	3.	Admin & Compliance
	4.	Professional Development
	5.	Wellbeing & Routines

Make it as practical and step-by-step as possible, suggesting what should be done before pupils return and what can be done in the first weeks back.”

Till next week.

Mr A 🦾