Crystal Balls
There is a tension between the government’s aspirations for the country to take a leading role in the evolution of AI and the traditional inertia of education in the face of change and new ideas. Currently the defensive desire to protect students ‘from’ AI takes precedence over the inevitable need to educate students ‘for’ AI. It remains to be seen how long this will last, but some schools and teachers will be experimenting and looking to the future inevitability that students will be living and working in a world of AI.
At present all teachers should be aware of the Awarding Body regulations which state that any work generated by AI cannot be taken as evidence of student achievement. This is explained more fully in the pages ‘Exams: Rules and Options.‘
In the preceeding post ‘ChatGPT + Photoshop’ the integration of Adobe Photoshop into ChatGPT described how students might have increasingly easy and free access to hitherto sophisticated digital imaging techniques. As the use of AI evolves in the future teachers of art will need to develop ways to keep students informed and to ensure that assessment practice is not undermened. Here are a couple of simple pragmatic ideas.
Art teachers might consider producing a student friendly statement about how AI can be used.
You may use Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools in Art & Design to help you develop ideas, such as exploring visual styles, generating reference images, or testing possible compositions. AI can support your thinking, planning, and experimentation. However, AI-generated images or artwork must not be submitted as final work for assessment, including GCSE and A-level coursework or exams. All assessed work must clearly show your own ideas, practical skills, and creative decisions, as required by AQA, OCR, and Edexcel. If you use AI at any stage, you should be able to explain how it influenced your ideas and show how you developed your work independently using drawing, making, and refinement. Your teacher will tell you when AI use is appropriate within a project.
Teachers might also provide examples of how students could explain how they have used AI and how this has supported the development of their own ideas and thinking.
- I used an AI tool to explore possible ideas for my project, which helped me think about…
- The AI-generated image helped me visualise different compositions, but I developed my final idea by…
- I used AI to test colour and lighting options, then selected and refined my own version by…
- This AI reference influenced my thinking about mood and atmosphere, which I explored further through drawing…
- After experimenting with AI-generated visuals, I decided to develop my own idea by changing…
- The AI output highlighted possibilities I had not considered, so I independently developed my work by…
- I used AI at the planning stage only; my final outcome was created using my own practical skills in…
Other ideas about scaffolding students use of AI can be found here in this example of a student prompt that provides evidence that the student understands the issue of plagiarism and recognises the need to retain and demonstrate creative control of their work.