The future of education is being shaped by artificial intelligence. Whilst policy makers are taking steps to balance the opportunities and risks of AI, young people are rarely part of these conversations.
On October 21st, the team at Education Futures Studio Kalervo N. Gulson, Penny Vlies, and Shannon Huang, along with colleagues Bronwyn Cumbo, Simon Knight from University of Technology Sydney, ran a workshop that was focused on policy for and by young people. We brought together students from NSW public secondary schools, teachers, school leaders, education policy makers and academics, inviting them to explore issues relating to the fairness of AI in education together, and codesign strategies to address these issues.
This process was enabled through the “AI Fairness Game”, which Bronwyn Cunbo led creation of. The AI Fairness game is a ‘serious’ role playing game that invites participant teams to step into the shoes of school students, teachers, and principals and work together to co-create a fairer experience of schooling for students. Guided by game master, Bronwyn Cumbo, teams were each presented a scenario that described the use of AI in schools, including teacher evaluation, student class allocation, access for students with disabilities, and career advice. The scenarios were designed to show different aspects of fairness, and encourage thinking about this over the specific technologies. In character, the school teams co-explored the fairness issues relating to their scenario, and co-designed policy pathways and recommendations to effectively address them, drawing on available resources, expertise and perspectives.
Part of the work funded by the James Martin Institute for Public Policy, the workshop embraced the idea that it is okay for there to be shared uncertainty about what to do about AI in education. This uncertainty can cultivate a space to come up with genuine and creative solutions with the shared pool of knowledge from young people whilst also having fun.
Stay tuned for more details at Education Futures Studio and James Martin Institute for Public Policy about the policy opportunities identified in the workshop, and the AI Fairness game.
