Estonia's government is working with OpenAI on the world's first initiative to integrate ChatGPT Edu into a national education system. This week, an official foundation will be established to develop the plan, and work will begin on creating a network of trainers. "Aktuaalne kaamera. Nadal." took a deeper look into the process.

One of the goals of AI Leap is to create learning processes that support artificial intelligence and integrate them into curricula. The Ministry of Education says this does not mean anything radical.

"Artificial intelligence does not necessarily bring us a massive amount of new content. Instead, it makes us think about things differently. Learning competencies must certainly evolve accordingly. Understanding artificial intelligence and learning how to use it in the most reasonable way is an important learning competency, regardless of the field we're talking about," the ministry's Secretary General Kristi Vinter-Nemvalts told Sunday's "Aktuaalne kaamera."

A key aspect will be determining what kinds of tasks to assign. AI could, for example, be used to expand the application of the so-called flipped classroom learning method.

"This could mean that students or groups of learners are given tasks to independently research and design something using AI, then come together in the classroom to piece the picture together from different perspectives. There are certainly many possibilities," Vinter-Nemvalts said.

AI Leap training sessions, after which participants will receive a license, will take place in August. Meanwhile, the ministry's partner, the Association of Educational Technologists, will launch basic-level practical workshops in April, which more than 120 schools have already registered for.

"The goal of the workshop is to ensure that teachers understand what artificial intelligence is before they enter the AI Leap training program. This is important because the approach also depends on the students' age group. Practical workshops can be ordered for all general education levels — primary school, high school, and vocational education — but AI Leap training sessions are specifically focused on high schools and vocational schools," explained Diana Veskimägi, head of the Association of Educational Technologists.

Educational technologists have prepared five training modules covering topics such as security, data protection, copyright, and multimedia applications. However, until AI Leap training officially begins, neither educational technologists nor teachers have a clear understanding of how the AI-supported learning processes will be structured.

"The learning process means guiding students toward the knowledge, skills, and attitudes outlined in our national curriculum. I believe we should be discussing what knowledge, skills, and attitudes students need in this new era, rather than focusing on how to teach them. Right now, we have started from the wrong end," said Ilona Tragel, professor of language awareness and Estonian language learning at the University of Tartu.

"The concern is whether what students are doing with AI is actually useful, whether it helps them learn. So, one way or another, this must evolve, because currently, students' use of artificial intelligence is not very learning-oriented," Veskimägi noted.

Tragel stressed the uniqueness of the Estonian language and its linguistic models are at risk because AI-generated output often reaches students based on English-language structures.

"If they are frequently exposed to large amounts of text that appear to be in Estonian but actually follows English sentence structures — and worse, is compiled from English-language world knowledge — then this becomes problematic. This is an example of what AI models offer in certain contexts. And what happens is that when students, as well as all of us – lecturers, researchers, and professionals in various fields — read these AI-generated texts daily, it gradually starts to feel normal," she explained.

The Information System Authority (RIA) expects schools to follow cybersecurity principles to ensure students' personal data is not compromised. The agency recommends that schools establish their own information security policies.

"If no clear guidelines are set, there is a high likelihood that students will use all available applications for all kinds of purposes, uploading school documents, their own personal documents, and even files from home into AI systems, hoping and expecting that AI will do something useful with them. That's why I, and we at the Information System Authority, strongly recommend that school administrators or schools themselves establish a set of rules defining what can and cannot be entered into these systems," said RIA's Head of Research and Development, Lauri Tankler.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!