Sit in on any of Trinity’s Professional Learning Teams and you’ll get a glimpse into how academic staff are keeping up with the latest pedagogical frameworks, digging into research, and implementing innovative new ideas into the classroom.
Professional Learning Teams (or, PLTs) are small groups of academic staff, meeting each fortnight in cross-faculty groups of 5–12, each led by a facilitator. There is a choice of up to ten constantly changing courses, each spanning a semester. These sessions are a key part of Trinity’s mission to foster lifelong learning for both staff and students.
The latter half of 2024 has seen one such PLT group conducted in collaboration with the University of Technology Sydney, focused on learning how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be realistically implemented in their teaching. The PLT has allowed academic staff to collectively explore the somewhat controversial issues backed by support and research.
“Through this group, I’ve had discussions that have made me think about what I can do in my classes to start to change things, embrace this technology, and test it out with the students,” Ms Alexandra Wood, Visual Arts Teacher, says.
In particular, Ms Wood worked with student Matthew Vickery (‘24) to utilise AI in his HSC Major Work.
“Matthew is an incredible photographer,” she says. “He’s at a level that … you wonder, where does he go from here? That’s where we thought AI could play a subtle part.”
Matthew’s efforts across his final year at Trinity culminated in a piece that spanned 20 metres, full of beautifully captured landscapes. The photography was all his own work, but blending the pieces together seamlessly to create such a large piece was supported by Generative Fill, an Adobe Photoshop AI-powered feature.
Now, Matthew’s piece has been nominated for possible inclusion in ARTEXPRESS, the showcase of outstanding bodies of work by HSC Visual Arts students in NSW.
AI in the art world is certainly controversial but Ms Wood says it’s all about enhancing work and taking it to a new level, not replacing the importance of learning their craft from the ground up.
“They have to use their skills first and the new skill they’re learning with AI is the prompting,” she says, noting that they only get out of AI what they put in, it isn’t a magic tool that provides all the answers.
She notes that Visual Arts and other subjects like it are already adopting assessment approaches that leave space for AI to be incorporated.
“When I’m assessing, I’m not so much looking at the final product, but the creative thinking that’s gone into the final product, how they interpret the assignment and get to that point.”
Elsewhere at Trinity, Ms Kim Cook is also testing the capability and usefulness of AI. An EAL/D Teacher, Ms Cook is researching just how the technology can be used to bridge the gaps for those students who need extra language-related support and provide a deeper learning experience for all students.
She says that AI can help students to learn more about their own capabilities without sacrificing the building of essential skills, including through:
- Asking AI to give you feedback on your writing and implementing its tips.
- Using AI tools to check whether your work has successfully met what the rubric has outlined.
- Prompting AI to coach you on various aspects of your writing, just like a tutor would.
- Asking AI tools to break down questions for you so you can understand what is being asked of you.
- Using voice to text to express ideas quickly where written work may cause frustration and impact motivation.
Ms Cook knows it’s easy for students to ask AI to do their work for them but she also knows that students are eager to learn and if they value their own learning journey, they recognise that they need to put their own effort into their work.
For teachers, she has seen how AI can assist, particularly when working with students who need additional learning support.
“I can’t be an expert on all the content from K-12,” she laughs. “AI can help me to learn more about the topic that a student is exploring so I can support them better. It makes my job more efficient and effective when I’m able to learn the information quickly and support them on the spot.”
“Using a tool like Diffit can help us to determine the level at which students are working, create appropriate resources for them, and, in my case as an EAL/D teacher, translate the work that I’m differentiating. It’s extremely valuable.”
Her recent trip to the Northern Territory with Trinity’s Cross-Country Partnership Program has opened her eyes to even more integrations.
“Being a part of this program made me realise just how much remote communities struggle to attract teaching staff,” she says. “It’s opened up a whole world for me; what if we could use AI in a way that supported staff and students and helped to bridge this gap where there are staff shortages?”
Trinity Grammar continues to monitor the development of AI to guide students in using it at the ideation stage of learning and using it ethically.
Director of Research, Kimberley Pressick-Kilborn, says that one question for all schools to consider is how to use AI to amplify productivity and impact, both as teachers and learners.
“How can Gen AI tools be used not for providing answers but for promoting human learning?”
The conversation around AI in the education and creative spaces is ongoing, but Ms Wood says she’s grateful to have the chance to be a part of the discussion and to be hands-on when it comes to implementing new approaches in the classroom.
“I love working at Trinity because you are provided with opportunities to explore interests within teaching. I think it’s really important to be involved with tertiary education institutions where you’re given the opportunity to discuss the relevance of what’s happening in the wider world and then to bring it straight into your classroom – we’re at the forefront of change and it’s a good place to be. The world is going to change so much over the next few years so it’s important to be able to equip the boys to deal with these changes and utilise these tools to enhance the way they work.
“Instead of being fearful of new technologies, we’re embracing them.”
More reading: Trinity unveils new partnership with schools in Northern Territory
