EdChat is a department wrapper around ChatGPT which provides that little bit more security and privacy so that the data that's collected or the data that's shared in EdChat isn't exposed to the same kind of risks that exist in the normal sort of public version of ChatGPT.

At Botanic the teachers have been really enthusiastic about using EdChat in the classroom and so there's a whole range of ways that they've been using that from student prompts to teachers actually using it to do some of their own work and their planning more efficiently.

Lots of teachers have used it with their students to help their students get to a place in their learning quicker that would have required more time to get there.

What we're going to now do is share some feedback around how you've accessed EdChat to support you with your research and inquiry in this session for Salva Dut, so would anyone like to share?

I've used EdChat to summarise my notes that I took from the story so I've been asking EdChat to kind of prompt me on what sentences I could use and how I could structure them to make them coherent and like work with each other.

So, our teachers use a strategy around traffic lighting when they provide opportunities for students to use EdChat in their learning, they'll indicate what amount of EdChat involvement is allowed in that learning.

If a teacher needs to look at how a student can write or how they can put language together then it might be a red light, it might be we can't be using EdChat or AI in this because we actually need to see your ability to write.

But there's other examples where EdChat is a green light because it gives the students ability to pull stuff together really quickly, so it's not a one-sized fits all.

I found it excellent and engaging for students to like like chat with the AI chat. It responds in a humanly manner because it remembers what it previously said and it's like really good.

I think we we're all kind of a little bit skeptical and resistant sometimes to new things that come along and so you know I'd really encourage people to understand it more talk to people who are using it and see how it can actually be this really individualised tool to help their student or them overcome some of the barriers that they're having in their learning.

We're really proud as a school and particularly a girl’s school to be able to be part of this trial. Often our female adolescent learners will shy away from using new technologies and we think by entering this trial that we've given them the opportunity to do that in a safe environment.

I think this program can help me with my schoolwork by like giving me some pointer and tips on how I could make it better or teaching me how to understand it more.

When I'm asking Google a question it usually gives me links and stuff to go through and it can be really time consuming, whereas EdChat gives me more a straightforward answer and it's a lot easier to use.

When students access Google, they're obviously allowed to be worldwide. When they access EdChat they're siloed into our Department of Education servers. We can ask it a question it goes to our server where it's saved, and it's kept separate from everything else.

I use it for writing my lessons. I use it for unit planning. I use it for my students to explore their ideas, create new ideas. It's a tool that that's not going to go away, so I really want to get them used to using it in a way that's going to be beneficial to everyone.

In our food tech classes we've been using it to develop recipes. You can ask EdChat "Hey can you write me a recipe that has these four ingredients?" and it'll do it.

I got One Pan Chicken because I like put stuff down like Chicken and like Broccoli, Carrots, and stuff like that and yeah, it's using those kinds of ingredients but as well as like Salt and Pepper, Olive Oil and it seems pretty easy to do.

The one thing we need to work out and understand about AI is that we need to move away from it being a tool for cheating and I think what's really important for us is to think about the skills that students need when they're writing queries into AI. AI doesn't replace their thinking.

It's really powerful for diving deeper and deeper into what you're actually studying, and that curiosity is actually like really building their knowledge. Because they've discovered it on their own through EdChat they're more likely to remember it in general form, so I love it. I think you can use it in every subject.

End of transcript.