Through the integration of AI technology in the classroom, Microsoft Hong Kong is enhancing the learning and teaching experience
Hong Kong, 29 July 2024 – Microsoft Hong Kong joins hands with its Global Training Partner Gamenoodlesoup Ltd to empower a local primary school, The Education University of Hong Kong Jockey Club Primary School (EdUJCPS), one of the Microsoft Showcase Schools, to reimagine students’ STEAM and Mathematics learning through a ship model building project and AI-enabled exercise application to make teaching more sustainable.
With Azure OpenAI Service (AOAI) GPT-4o, Microsoft offers a trusted and reliable generative AI platform to tailor educational materials for EdUJCPS to enable a safe, seamless teaching and learning environment for teachers and students. The collaboration encompasses STEAM learning, with focus on renewable energy and model design; Maths using generative AI to generate personalized maths exercise questions; and an AI teaching assistant, assisting teachers to help students overcome academic challenges.
Philip K Y Law, Vice Principal of EdUJCPS shared, “The challenge of integrating generative AI for K-12 education lies in embedding it seamlessly into the lesson structure and syllabus. By adopting a whole-school approach and providing trainings to staff, teachers and students, we aim to foster an AI-powered learning educational setting, where teachers can prioritize teaching strategy and nurturing students through engaging and inspiring lessons. And AI will take care of the practical tasks, such as assessments, personalized learning suggestions, and identifying areas for improvement. This allocation of duties empowers teachers to better meet students’ needs, enhancing teaching quality and resulting a more impactful educational experience.”
Tailored learning applications to reimagine lessons’ structure
At this early stage, only selected P.5-P.6 students from EdUJCPS have participated in this innovative program as the pioneer to test on the learning effectiveness and will be extended to the full grade in the next school year.
In STEAM classes, students engaged with the generative AI chatbots – to explore ideation in building a “Sustainable Ship”. These chatbots allow students to discover the fascinating realm of renewable energies and ship designs for their projects, as well as to pursue on their specific interests. Students could also use image generation functionality, through DALL-E 3 with Azure OpenAI Service, to generate visuals of the boat they wanted to build through different prompts. With these AI tools, students’ questions and queries can be quickly addressed, accompanied by insightful replies and allow continuous dialogue to deep dive into the useful findings. This also helps develop students’ AI literacy scientific inquiry skills, and allows them to acquire knowledge more effectively, nurture critical thinking and spark creativity. Meanwhile, the teachers could observe how students communicate with the chatbot in real-time and whether they could obtain knowledge relevant to the topic, in a full dialogue format
For the “Maths AI Learning Partner” that is integrated into Maths lessons: Teachers can instruct the tool to create tailored maths questions for individual students that follow the same syllabus being worked on in class. The tool evaluates student responses and delivers immediate feedback and assessments to both students and educators. This allows teachers to measure student comprehension via their methodology and responses, and pinpoint areas of strength or need for additional practice, allowing them to tailor their instructional approach to each student’s needs. AI acts as a teaching assistant here, offering the capability to monitor and assess every student’s learning progress in real-time in class, which can otherwise be difficult to do with limited time in class. Additionally, this also helps build up student’s maths knowledge and personalized learning experience through customized exercises and step by step guidance provided by generative AI.
In fact, 65% and 60% of students think they can obtain useful recommendations for their Maths learning and get quicker feedback from the tool on their homework respectively.
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A P.5 student uses the Maths AI Helper for exercises, which can help with customized practice and AI chats for concept comprehension.
Anderson Yu, Founder of Gamenoodlesoup, said, “We believe PLAY is one of the most powerful tools in learning, where our digital transformation and educational goals is to infuse fun and innovation into traditional teaching and learning that meets students’ needs, while a secure and safe generative AI infrastructure is a fundamental of it all. By leveraging Azure OpenAI Service, our solutions offer a safe and reliable platform for educators and students, it is exciting to see how educators and students are integrating the latest technology in their teaching and learning journey and enhance the synergy throughout the K-12 education landscape.”
Fred Sheu, National Technology Officer of Microsoft Hong Kong, said, “We believe that creativity, critical thinking and the ability to leverage technology are the essential qualities for our future leaders. As a leading technology provider, we are committed to expand access of AI tools to the education sector that empowers personalized learning and equip students with in-demand skillsets through our trusted and reliable generative AI platform with secure foundations and preparing them for the future. By harnessing the potential of Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service, we look forward to bringing adaptive and hands-on learning experience for next generation to be AI-ready in this era.”
Reimagine education with AI to make education more secure, accessible and inclusive
Microsoft is revolutionizing the education landscape from K-12 to Higher Education by expanding its educational offerings and launching AI features designed to empower educators and students. K-12 institutions can get started with AI tools and offers from Microsoft Education, including Microsoft Copilot, Github Copilot, and more. Additionally, Microsoft has extended the availability of Copilot for Microsoft 365 to staff, educators and higher education students aged 18 and above.
In addition, Microsoft has introduced Classroom Toolkit, a publicly available resource designed to assist K-12 educators in introducing students to the core principles of generative AI, marking a milestone in advancing AI literacy among the next generation. Education institutions including under-resourced schools can leverage this toolkit that combines engaging activities and informative content and other free resources provided by Microsoft to foster students’ critical thinking skills related to the applications and impact of AI.
Integrating AI in classrooms represents an important step forward in shaping the future of education. Microsoft Hong Kong remains committed to pioneering innovative solutions that enhance teaching and learning outcomes, empowering both educators and students to reach their full potential.
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About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) creates platforms and tools powered by AI to deliver innovative solutions that meet the evolving needs of our customers. The technology company is committed to making AI available broadly and doing so responsibly, with a mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
