In a very short amount of time, AI has reshaped the way we think about, deliver and engage in education. This rapid evolution is keenly felt by teachers across Australia, prompting a critical question for educators nationwide: how can we harness AI’s boundless potential while ensuring the safe and effective integration of generative AI (GenAI) into the classroom?
In response, Education Services Australia (ESA) and Microsoft have joined forces to create an online training solution that guides educators on how best to navigate this changing landscape.
“Generative AI is a developing technology that presents both opportunities and risks to school education,” explains ESA CEO, Andrew Smith. “We were hearing from teachers who were telling us they really need some help to understand what AI is, and also to understand the possibilities that exist for helping young people learn. Teachers want to know where they should be careful, and what some of the guardrails are that they should be putting in place to make sure that young people are kept safe in that environment and their information is kept safe.”
Distilling government guidelines
The Australian Government’s Framework for Generative AI in Schools provides national guidelines, but communicating those guidelines in a practical way presented a challenge that Microsoft and ESA were ready to tackle with this online training.
Split into two modules, which together take approximately 180 minutes to complete, the training focuses on getting teachers comfortable with both the possibilities and limitations of GenAI in the classroom. “A big part of these modules has been helping interpret that framework for teachers,” Andrew says.
For Microsoft, this is a key step in the AI National Skills Initiative (AINSI), a new program and commitment from Microsoft to skill one million Australians and New Zealanders in AI by 2026.
And it’s already changing the game for educators. “We know from examples in Australia that teachers can save an average of 9.3 hours per week through GenAI use, and that additional time can be repurposed to enhance student outcomes,” says Microsoft ANZ Education Director Adam Pollington.
“Teachers play a critical role in driving responsible student GenAI use, so it is imperative that they lead the way, and this training will provide the opportunity to do so.”
The training program
The training, which is free and has been developed by experts, school administrators and teachers, is approved by the Federal Department of Education. Teachers will receive a certificate of completion, with the modules covering a wide range of GenAI tools.
“We’re really proud to be partnering with Microsoft on this [training], but what we were very keen to do was ensure that we were agnostic about the products because teachers are using all sorts of different AI-enabled technologies,” adds Andrew Smith. “We know many teachers are using Copilot now, but there are other products that are being used, and we wanted teachers to have the skills, understanding and confidence to use whatever tool might turn up in their classroom.”
The first module, AI Readiness: Preparing teachers for safe and effective use of GenAI, is available via the ESA Digital Technologies Hub website and details how to evaluate content created using these new technologies and check for bias, inaccuracies and misinformation. This knowledge will enable them to make informed decisions about implementing and using GenAI effectively and ethically in the classroom.
Module two, AI Implementation: Strategies for guiding students in safe and effective use of GenAI, has been developed for those teaching students aged 13 and above, and builds on the foundations of module one. In this module, teachers will learn how to guide their students through various classroom activities with GenAI support, emphasising practical, age-appropriate classroom implementation. This module will be available in June.
“AI will only get more sophisticated and bigger and better,” says secondary teacher Traci Lewis. “I want to be on top of it before I introduce it to my students. So, with the modules that are being offered, I can do that training. I can be on top of it because this will be their world.”
Driving inclusivity in the classroom
One of the most powerful benefits of A.I. in the classroom is the ability it gives teachers to address multiple learning styles and needs at the same time. For Microsoft ANZ Education Sales Manager, Michelle Markham, this is a topic particularly close to home.
“I have congenital hearing loss, and while I was taught to lip-read as a child and I had hearing aids, school was a pretty tough place, because the teachers would face the blackboard and speak and I couldn’t hear,” she recalls.
“The kids would speak in the classroom and they wouldn’t face me and I couldn’t hear. It was definitely tough for me and I ended up having to repeat Year Five because I just couldn’t interact the way I needed to in the classroom. And now I think with the AI technology we have, not only could I have had captions on through the entire classroom experience, but those captions through AI could have been personalised to the way that I learn and what I am inspired by. I just think about what I could have achieved in that kind of environment.”
“It’s so important for teachers to understand the power of AI because of the opportunity it represents. Not just for them in the classroom, in terms of reducing workload and increasing personalisation, but also the potential for them to really increase the educational outcomes for every individual child in their classroom, and to create more inclusion and equity, which is something that we are really passionate about at Microsoft.”
Finding ways to enhance the human-centred nature of teaching, rather than replace it, has been core to the development of this training and intrinsic to Microsoft and ESA’s approach.
“Teaching is a highly relational and fundamentally human endeavour,” says Andrew Smith. “Young people will only flourish in their education if we’re using and relying on the expertise of teachers to be able to understand the young person, understand their context, and deliver them the education that will best serve their needs. And that can only be done with a teacher at the centre, but clever technologies to help them and support them in those endeavours.”