Instead of virtual classrooms with human teachers, the latest course at London’s David Game College is bringing a virtual teacher into a real classroom. The private school is delivering the first AI-taught class in the UK as part of its new Sabrewing programme. The initial class will feature 20 GCSE students taking part in the educational experiment, which will rely on AI platforms and VR headsets to guide their learning instead of human educators.
The AI system is designed to personalize education through AI. The Sabrewing AI model (named after the Sabrewing hummingbird to emphasize speed and flexibility) assesses each student’s strengths and weaknesses and tailors lesson plans to match them. The idea is to spend more time on areas where the student needs more help while their strengths are added to the study list later on. This is supposed to make each student better in all aspects.
Students at David Game College, whose families pay around £27,000 a year to attend, will not be entirely deprived of human educators during Sabrewing class. There are three so-called “learning coaches” who monitor behaviour and support lesson plans. They also supplement the AI as teachers in subjects where the technology is not up to par, including art and sex education classes.
“The Sabrewing programme is fascinating,” said Independent Schools Association chief executive Rudolf Eliott Lockhart in a statement. “Using AI to power an adaptive learning approach has the potential to be a real game-changer and David Game College is looking to support this innovative approach with a great educational experience.”
Educational AI
David Game is not the first school to see generative AI as a boon for higher education. Arizona State University (ASU) has incorporated ChatGPT as a faculty member in many ways. ASU and OpenAI worked together to create a version of the AI chatbot that can assist students in hundreds of ways. Currently, ChatGPT is assisting in the writing of academic papers, simulating patients for healthcare students, and helping design and recruit participants for research studies.
The school is excited by the idea that AI will serve the needs of each student rather than offering a one-size-fits-all class. The administration believes that, over time, it will prove itself in tests and other metrics. Of course, relying on AI to teach raises questions about whether it will work as promised or what might be missing at the school in terms of social and emotional development without teachers who can serve as role models and mentors. Regardless, it’s easy to believe that if the AI classroom experiment is successful, it will be replicated as quickly as possible elsewhere.
