Artificial intelligence will change education. It’s just a matter of when and how it will happen. The arrival of generative AI and tools, such as ChatGPT, is already helping many people, but has caught some people off guard. The latter group includes the educational systems of almost all countries in the world, including the Czech Republic. In order to successfully manage the integration of artificial intelligence into the work of students, a change in attitude and thinking is required. We want Czech education not only to respond appropriately to this technological advancement, but also to get the most out of it.
It is crucial that this transformation take place in a safe and supportive environment. Instead of reactions driven by fear and ignorance, we want to stimulate natural interest and curiosity among students, instructors, and school management. And this can be done by emphasizing the positive effects of artificial intelligence and explaining the real opportunities for this technology, including its limitations. Not long ago, there was a need to respond to the use and misuse of the Internet in education. Instructors and their students had to adopt this technology, learn how it can make their work easier, and also learn to recognize when someone else is using it to make their work easier outside the permitted parameters.
Although the approach today varies between educators and schools, the Internet does not present a major obstacle to education. In addition, we know that it required varying degrees of effort and time. Each of us has
a different ability to adapt to new technology. However, few of us will refuse assistance in going through this process. That is why the organization prg.ai and Charles University have established a group that will prepare Czech education for the inevitable changes relating to artificial intelligence. The purpose of the group is to find answers to the challenges associated with the expansion of AI, currently with large language models (including the widely discussed tool ChatGPT).
Representatives from the following institutions cooperate together in the group: Charles University, Masaryk University, the Czech Technical University, the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, Palacký University in Olomouc, the National Pedagogical Institute, the Smíchov Secondary Technical School, AI Dětem, 42 Prague, and other institutions.
We are now presenting the initial results of the group’s work – recommendations for students, educators, researchers and the management of schools, primarily intended for universities. Recommendations were also made for primary and secondary schools. With this work, we try to assist all of the mentioned institutions and any other interested parties in calibrating their approach to the use of generative artificial intelligence. The objective was to prepare
a document that would promote a better understanding of what will change in our work and studies, what are the associated advantages, and what are the risks (in other words, how to make the best use of new technologies and what to avoid).
When creating the documents, we asked ourselves the following question in particular: What impact does a tool like ChatGPT have and what impact can it have on the work of students, educators, researchers, and school management? What are the associated benefits and, conversely, what are the associated risks?
It is important to emphasize that, as a sustainable solution, we are creating principles and recommendations rather than strict regulations, rules, or bans. We will present the results of our work to the general professional public for comments and recommendations. We assume that these documents will be continuously edited and supplemented based on the experience gained with generative AI in education. We also plan to develop specific topics and examples of how to use AI. In addition, we will work together on themes and initiatives of a conceptual/longer- term nature that should contribute to the transformation of Czech education.
