Textbook content will not be shared, the ministry's head of educational technology, Riin Saadjärv said, due to copyright issues.

Saadjärv said the role of AI in the classroom would be in line with how each teacher envisions it in their subject.

"It is certainly a supportive element, meant to facilitate the learning process," she said.

AI applications should operate in line with the national curriculum and so should also be "aware" of the curriculum's learning outcomes, she added. "National curricula are open documents, and anyone who wishes can already access them."

As for textbook content, "At the moment, we have no such plan [to share it], because textbook content is covered by copyright. If we wanted to do so, we would need to reach an agreement with the textbook authors and the holders of the intellectual property rights. We have not started that process yet. So for now we are saying that we are not using any materials which are in any way restricted by copyright," Saadjärv added, noting that at the same time the ministry does not rule out anything which could be beneficial in improving the AI model for students.

One example of how it might be used is in individual work, she said.

This could include "understanding a certain concept or solution in chemistry," which would "work on the principle of a 'flipped classroom' — meaning the teacher assigns the student to learn the concept at home, and when the student comes to school, they can go over it again during a classroom discussion," Saadjärv went on.

AI does not give outright answers but instead is a form of guided discovery learning, in this case, Saadjärv said. "For instance, it encourages the student to map out their prior knowledge, asks what the student thinks a specific concept might involve, gives feedback on the student's input, and in this way supports the fact that real learning happens in the student's mind, and that knowledge creation occurs within the student."

"These applications will use the materials that teachers themselves input. In other words, the teacher validates which materials the AI application uses to support the student," she added.

No final agreement has yet been struck with OpenAI, Saadjärv added, but said the hope is to both reach one soon, and remain "open to negotiations with other providers of such possibilities."

Minister of Education and Research Kristina Kallas (Eesti 200) wrote on her social media account Monday that the "AI leap" pilot year starts this coming September, with the planned application to be tested and teachers to be trained over the summer.

Co-founded nearly a decade ago by Elon Musk among others, OpenAI is a U.S.-based AI organization known for developing ChatGPT, DALL·E, and other advanced generative AI tools, with the goal of creating safe artificial general intelligence. It operates under a non-profit parent with for-profit subsidiaries, and has received major investment and cloud support from Microsoft. The company has faced some copyright lawsuits and other issues relating to AI safety concerns.

--

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