Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Kathryn MacCallum: Canterbury University Associate Professor of Digital Education on the use of AI in NCEA

Transcript

Kathryn MacCallum: Canterbury University Associate Professor of Digital Education on the use of AI in NCEA · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Educators cracking down on AI and school exams. This is
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  Speaker 1: the story this morning. NZQA figures show exam breaches are
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: up two hundred and fifty percent since twenty nineteen. We're
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  Speaker 1: talking here actually about external assessments with AI, so investigating
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: eight hundred and seventy six breaches last year, about sixty
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  Speaker 1: of those down to AI. This is for your take
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  Speaker 1: home work though, So as Sociate Professor Doctor Catherine McCollum
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  Speaker 1: is with US University of Canterbury this morning to discuss
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: good morning.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning.
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  Speaker 1: So is it easy to spot because I've talked to
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  Speaker 1: teach us about this, easy to spot a student who
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  Speaker 1: doesn't normally do well using AI because it stands out
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  Speaker 1: like a sore thumb. But the problem is actually when
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  Speaker 1: you've got a student who performs well and uses it,
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  Speaker 1: they fly.
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  Speaker 2: You don't know, Oh yeah exactly. I mean that's the
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  Speaker 2: problem with AI. I mean you can't detect AI writing
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  Speaker 2: reliably and so any sort of solution that's been given
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  Speaker 2: to us, a technological solution is not useful because it
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  Speaker 2: cannot pick up AI writing. So yeah, trying to identify
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  Speaker 2: students that do well with the technology is you're really
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  Speaker 2: going down a road that it's not useful, you're wasting
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  Speaker 2: your time.
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  Speaker 1: So exams in person, exams that are monitored by people,
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  Speaker 1: that's fine, But should we actually be getting kids to
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  Speaker 1: write essays if they can use AI and we won't know.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Well. I think what we need to do is start
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  Speaker 2: thinking about and changing the dialogue a little bit around
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  Speaker 2: AI use. We tend to just assume that AI writing
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  Speaker 2: is cheating, and you know, the minute that IO is
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  Speaker 2: part of the process is a cheating issue, and that's
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  Speaker 2: not true. So you can still have assessments writing and
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  Speaker 2: essay writing with AI and it still can be an
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  Speaker 2: assessment of the students learning and their understanding. It's just
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  Speaker 2: we need to change how we assess. We need to
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  Speaker 2: change how we are looking at the use of the
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  Speaker 2: technology in that space. And so I think that's the
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  Speaker 2: key thing is that you know, just because we have
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  Speaker 2: AI doesn't mean that it's integrity issue. It's not cheating,
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  Speaker 2: But we need to start thinking about how we strike
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  Speaker 2: that balance where students can use the technology to scaffold
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  Speaker 2: their learning and scaffold them into the writing process.
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  Speaker 1: But how do you make sure that they actually understand,
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  Speaker 1: you know, what's on the paper well.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, this is the whole point of assessment for learning,
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  Speaker 2: is that your assess for their understanding and you're building
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  Speaker 2: the learning. So it's the problem when we start thinking
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  Speaker 2: about assessment as this discrete thing that is summative and
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  Speaker 2: that it will identify their work. So if you are
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  Speaker 2: looking at it as a process where students are engaging
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  Speaker 2: with the technology or without the technology and with you,
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  Speaker 2: and as you build up to the writing and demonstrate
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  Speaker 2: their learning, and you do it in multiple ways, so
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  Speaker 2: it's not just that written assessment work that may be
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  Speaker 2: a conversation afterwards, maybe they translated into something else. That's
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: when the learning happens. And so that's the point around
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  Speaker 2: the assessment for learning is that it's a process. It's
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  Speaker 2: not just the one hit wonder.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, all right, so maybe you get yeah, they do
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  Speaker 1: the essay, sure, fine, but then they have to do
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  Speaker 1: a speech afterwards or a presentation and actually prove that
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  Speaker 1: they understand what the hells is that they've Writtian or
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  Speaker 1: potentially AI's Writsian. I appreciate your time this morning. Associate
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  Speaker 1: Professor Doctor Catherine McCullum, University of Canterbury.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: For more from early edition with Ryan Bridge.
• 3:33
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• 3:37
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