AI @ RCHK

We recognise the opportunities and challenges that Artificial Intelligence (AI) brings to education to be a tide rather than just a wave.

We want all stakeholders to be able to use AI, when appropriate, with confidence in ways that enhance learning and teaching and are aligned with RCHK’s Bedrock Principles.

We believe that good usage of AI comes through education and open access. We also recognise that this is a very fast moving area of technology and want to be agile to changes and to be able to innovate while still giving clear guidance to students and teachers. 

AI Stance 

Purpose

In line with our Bedrock Principles, the aim of this document is to guide how AI is used to enhance teaching and learning for students, staff, and school communities. It sets out our current approach to the responsible use of AI, particularly generative AI tools, in classrooms, school management, and schoolwide operations. We believe that generative AI can benefit education and the school, we also recognise that possible risks must be thoughtfully managed.

What is AI?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a term used to describe systems that are taught to automate tasks normally requiring human intelligence. "Generative AI" refers to tools that can produce new content, such as text, images, or music, based on patterns they've learned from their training data. Think of it as teaching a computer to create based on examples it has seen! While generative AI tools can do many amazing things and often make useful suggestions, they are designed to predict what is right, which isn't always right. Therefore we always should check AI ouputs for accuracy. This site contains a list of some AI tools currently in use at RCHK. 

Scope

This site is designed to assist students and staff who develop, implement, or interact with AI technologies at RCHK. It covers AI systems used for education, administration, and operations, including, but not limited to, generative AI models, intelligent learning systems, chatbots, automation software, and analytics tools. This guidance complements existing policies and guidance on technology use, data protection, academic integrity and student support. We recognise that new AI tools and systems will enter use at RCHK as they are developed, this document will be applied and reviewed as appropriate to this often changing landscape.

Guiding Principles for AI Use

At RCHK one of our Bedrock Principles is "to transform teaching and learning through the integration of technology". This sits at the heart of how AI is used at RCHK, it is embraced in the places where it can enhance student learning and enrich teaching. The following principles guide the appropriate and safe use of AI, teacher and student agency with AI, academic integrity, and security. 

1. We use AI at RCHK to enhance learning for all students and to improve operations. AI use has 'making things better' at it's core at RCHK. This includes improving student learning, teacher workload, and school operations. We aim to make age appropriate AI resources universally accessible, ensuring that the tools we use serve our diverse educational community.

2. We use AI in ways that align with our philosophies, policies and legal obligations. AI is one of many technologies used at RCHK, and its use will align with existing policies and laws to protect student privacy, ensure accessibility to all, and protect against harmful content. We will not share personal data with external AI systems except in ways authorised under ESF PICS statements. We will evaluate existing and future technologies to ensure continued compliance.

3. We educate our staff and students about AI. Promoting AI literacy among students and staff is central to promoting the effective use of AI tools and addressing any risks. Students and staff will be given support to develop their AI literacy, which includes how to use AI and when to use it. We comply with associated age restrictions for AI tools that are used at RCHK.

5. We use AI in ways that are ethical and promote academic integrity. Honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility are expectations for everyone at RCHK. We are truthful in giving credit to sources and tools and honest in presenting work that is our own. We are aligned with the 'ESF Ethical Integration of AI' guiding principles. 

6. We believe that people, their interactions and their expertise are at the heart of RCHK.  While AI systems can introduce efficiencies to processes, we maintain that any AI systems introduced will be carefully considered to make sure that they do not negatively impact the agency of our community or fully automate processes that the school feels should be led by 'human decisions'. 

7. We commit to auditing, monitoring, and evaluating RCHK's use of AI. Understanding that AI and technologies are evolving rapidly, we commit to frequent and regular reviews and updates of our stance, guidelines, and examples. Students will be part of this regular review.

Responsible Use of AI Tools

RCHK recognises that the definition of 'responsible uses of AI' will vary depending on the context. Teachers will clarify if, when, and how AI tools should be used, with input from students. RCHK will ensure compliance with applicable policies and laws regarding data security and privacy. Appropriate AI use should be guided by the age of the user and the objectives defined for an activity or assignment. Below are some examples of responsible uses:

Student Learning

• Aiding Creativity: Students can harness generative AI to spark creativity across diverse curriculum areas, assisting with written activities as well as visual media and music.

• Collaboration: Generative AI tools can partner with students in group projects by contributing concepts, aiding with the formation of research questions, and identifying relationships within information sources.

• Communication: AI can offer students real-time translation, personalised language exercises, and interactive dialogue simulations. 

• Content Creation and Enhancement: AI can help generate personalized study materials, summaries, quizzes, and visual aids, help students organise thoughts and content, and help review content. 

• Personalisation: AI technologies have the potential to democratise one-to-one learning and support, making personalised learning more accessible to a broader range of students. AI-powered virtual teaching assistants may provide support, answer questions, help students get "unstuck", and supplement classroom instruction and resources. 

Teacher Support

• Assessment Design and Analysis: AI can enhance assessment design or make it's creation more efficient. Questions can be standardised and AI can conduct analysis of assessment data to identify next steps for students and identify trends. Teachers will ultimately be responsible for evaluation, feedback, and grading, including determining and assessing the usefulness of AI in supporting assessments. AI will not be solely responsible for providing grades.

• Content Development and Enhancement for Differentiation: AI can assist educators by differentiating resources and materials, suggesting ideas for lessons tailored to the needs of the students, and generating diagrams and visualisations. 

• Continuous Professional Development: AI can guide educators by recommending professional development areas to teachers’ needs and interests and suggesting collaborative projects between subjects or teachers.

• Research and Resource Compilation: AI can help educators by recommending books or articles relevant to a lesson and updating teachers on teaching techniques, research, and methods. AI tools should not be used directly for research purposes unless the tool is able to correctly reference the sources of the information or data. Any AI outputs should be checked for accuracy.

School Management and Operations

• Communications: AI tools can help draft and refine communications within the school community, proof read written communications content, assist with graphic design elements and provide instant language translation.

• Operational Efficiency: Staff can use AI tools to support school operations and streamline administrative processes, including data analysis, timetabling, inventory management, and generating reports.

• Learning Management Systems (LMS): AI can analyse student assessment data to provide insights to educators, helping them better differentiate and set goals for students

Parents

• Supporting students at home: AI tools can help parents in supporting their children. Using AI chatbots as a tutor or collaborator on home learning activities.

• Encouraging positive uses of AI: Parents are able to have conversations with students around their school work and reiterate the importance of safe and positive uses of AI tools.

​

AI usage that is not acceptable at RCHK

As we embrace the benefits of AI in education, we also recognise that risks must be addressed. Below are uses of AI tools that are not acceptable at RCHK and the measures we will take to mitigate the associated risks.

Student Learning

• Bullying/harassment: Using AI tools to manipulate media to impersonate others for bullying, harassment, or any form of intimidation. All users are expected to employ these tools solely for educational purposes, upholding values of respect, inclusivity, and academic integrity at all times.

• Overreliance: Dependence on AI tools can lead to important learning and context to be overlooked. Teachers will clarify if, when, and how AI tools should be used in their classrooms, and teachers and students are expected to review outputs generated by AI before use and clearly identify that usage.

• Plagiarism and cheating: Students and staff should not copy from any source, including generative AI and claim it to be their own. Students should not submit AI-generated work as their original work. Staff and students will be taught how to properly cite or acknowledge the use of AI where applicable. Teachers will be clear about when and how AI tools may be used to complete assignments and restructure assignments to reduce opportunities for plagiarism by requiring personal context, original arguments, or original data collection. Existing procedures related to potential violations of our Academic Integrity Policy will continue to be applied. 

• Unequal access: If an assignment permits the use of AI tools, the tools will be made available to all students, considering that some may already have access to such resources outside of school.

• Age restriction: Our approach to the use of AI tools by students is a cautious one. AI tools carry differing terms of service that may include student data being used by third parties and advertisers or reused within new AI model training. Content filtering may also render their use inappropriate for students below a certain age. Age restrictions supplied by the terms must be followed. If any abiguity or uncertainty exists then RDC can help advise with this.

Staff usage

• Bias: AI tools trained on human data will inherently reflect biases in the data. Risks include reinforcing stereotypes, supporting misconceptions and negatively impacting DEIJ. Staff and students will be taught to understand the origin and implications of bias in AI, AI tools will be evaluated for the diversity of their training data and transparency, and humans will review all AI-generated outputs before use.  

• Reducing agency: While generative AI presents useful assistance to amplify teachers' capabilities and reduce teacher workload, these technologies will not be used to supplant the role of human educators. The core practices of teaching, mentoring, assessing, and inspiring learners will remain the teacher's responsibility in the classroom. 

• Compromising Privacy: AI should not be used in ways that compromise teacher or student privacy or lead to unauthorised data collection. See the Security, Privacy, and Safety section below for more information. 

Academic Integrity 

• Staff and students should refer to the sections titled 'Responsible Uses of AI Tools' and 'AI Usage that is not acceptable at RCHK', earlier in this document.

• If a student uses an AI tool as part of an assignment, its use must be disclosed and explained. As part of the disclosure, students may choose to cite their usage. See the guide to citations and AI on the RCHK Libraries page.

• Teachers may choose to limit the use of generative AI on specific assignments or parts of assignments and articulate why they do not allow its use.

• Teachers will consider carefully the results of originality checks relating to student use of AI tools as their reliability can be questionable.

• Certain external assessments may completely prohibit the use of AI tools. It is important to fully comply with the requirements and guidance provided.

Security, Privacy, and Safety

As with all digital tools at RCHK, we will evaluate AI tools for compliance with ESF privacy and data handling policies and with the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance. Potential safety or security issues will also be considered when introducing new AI tools. When a user interacts with an AI tool at RCHK it will be made clear that they are interacting with an AI versus a human. Staff and students must not enter confidential or personally identifiable information into unapproved external AI tools. All student data must be anonymised before supplying it to an AI tool.

Age restrictions referenced in terms of service for various AI tools should be followed.

[Last edited: 25/01/24] ​

Changes highlighted

References:

https://www.teachai.org/toolkit-guidance