AI products have been disrupting classrooms since they became publicly available.
Since the release of ChatGPT – a chatbot that can write essays on command in German or English and many other languages in a matter of seconds – teachers have warned the tools are being abused by students.
AI use among students is not only about “cheating”. Experts have voiced concern that AI dependence is robbing young people of the chance to develop crucial skills for themselves.
On the other hand, there are educators who insist that AI has a place in the classroom, and who argue that trying to ban or ignore the technology would be to fail to train students for the world in which we live.
Here’s a look at why some German schools are already bringing AI-powered tools into the classroom, and what it suggests about the future role of AI in education.
‘A new era’
A report in Tagesschau about a high school (Gymnasium) in Cologne which has embraced an in-class AI tool begins with the words: “A new era has begun at Thusneldastraße…”
The high school uses an AI program called “Study Buddy”, which is based on ChatGPT and designed to support students in the classroom.
Students quoted in the report suggest that the tool is helpful: one notes that AI has endless patience for answering the same question in different ways to help them understand, another suggests they feel more engaged while interacting with the chatbot.
But of course the tool still needs a fair amount of fine tuning. A mathematics teacher who uses the tool in her classroom noted that not all of the chatbot’s answers are suitable for her students' level of understanding.
Chatbots are also notorious for spitting out false answers.
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The Cologne high school says its staff assess and discuss where and when AI use makes sense in the classroom and where it would be counter productive.
But the headmaster suggests that keeping up with the times is important: "Students use AI anyway…it's important to us they do it reflectively…in a way that promotes learning."
‘Telli’
Meanwhile, the city-state of Bremen has announced plans to adopt the use of a particular AI tool in its schools state-wide.
German tech news outlet Heise recently reported that schools in Bremen will make use of a specially designed chatbot called “Telli”, and that the tool will later be used in schools across the country.
Telli is a large language model (LLM) similar to ChatGPT and other mainstream chatbots, but it differs from commercial AI products in its approach to data protection.
Because Telli is hosted entirely in the European Union, it's possible to prevent personal data about its users from being transferred to other AI companies.
The system is also designed not to collect user data to train underlying models, and it allows teachers to upload documents so that students can get context-specific answers.
Sascha Aulepp, Bremen's Senator for Children and Education told Heise, “We want to prepare pupils for a future in which dealing with artificial intelligence will be a matter of course.”
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Not well regulated or understood
While some schools strive to integrate AI in the classroom with care, the us of AI by students in Germany is not generally well monitored.
A recent survey by Germany’s digital association (Bitkom) found that less than a quarter of German schools have school-wide rules for the use of AI in lessons.
The survey, which polled about 500 German students between the ages of 14 and 19, also found that nearly half of students said their teacher wouldn't notice if they used AI without permission for class assignments and that 29 percent assume they are better at using AI than their teachers.
That last finding appears to be backed up by research from the Robert Bosch Stiftung, which found that nearly two-thirds of teachers (62 percent) feel insecure in using AI tools like ChatGPT.
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Advocating for more programs such as those being introduced in Bremen or at the Thusneldastraße high school in Cologne, researchers maintain that the use of AI can’t effectively be banished – instead educators and students alike need training, they say.
“ChatGPT and similar applications have long been part of young people's lives,” Dagmar Wolf of the Robert Bosch Stiftung said in a press release, adding that “systematic training…is the only way to enable pupils to deal with each other in a reflective and responsible manner.”
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