An innovative AI tool developed by the Department for Education in partnership with Microsoft will be rolled out to all public secondary students in South Australia from next term.
South Australia is the only jurisdiction in Australia not to ban AI in schools – instead embracing the opportunity to prepare students for the world in which they live.
EdChat, similar to ChatGPT but specifically designed for educational use in South Australia, has built-in security protections to safeguard students from harmful or inappropriate information. Since its inception in 2023, the tool has continued to evolve through development and testing.
Adelaide Botanic High School Principal Ms Sarah Chambers said her school was proud to play a role in trialling the technology.
“Here at Adelaide Botanic High School, we embrace the opportunity to be part of a trial of EdChat because as educators, we’re proud to champion a future-focussed approach grounded in innovation,” she said.
“Our school is a living ecosystem for ethical innovation – where EdChat serves as a tool to enhance, not replace, the relationships that sit at the heart of education.”
Ms Chambers said teachers work with students to use EdChat, not to take shortcuts, but to challenge themselves, ask better questions, and develop their own voice and creativity.
“Using EdChat, they reflect, collaborate, and think critically, so they are not just learning content, they are learning how to learn,” she said.
“We’re proud to use technology to support meaningful learning and to champion a future-focussed approach grounded in innovation and global thinking.”
The rollout follows the release this month of an independent Insights Report, which evaluated how students and staff interacted with EdChat during its first full year of use.
Key findings show students are predominantly using EdChat during school hours as a learning tool, with 93 per cent of prompts relating to curriculum subjects. It has been taken up at similar rates by both educators (36 per cent) and students (41 per cent), while more than 10,000 students have already been involved in the trial.
Examples of student use include testing French language skills, rephrasing instructions when tasks are difficult to understand, exploring future career pathways, enhancing understanding of challenging mathematics problems, and asking the tool to generate quizzes of varying difficulty.
Educators are also beginning to use EdChat to support their workload, particularly for curriculum management, drafting communications, and gathering insights into student learning. The Department provided access to all staff – including principals, teachers and preschool staff – in late 2024. Staff have reported that the tool helps with lesson planning, summarising survey results, and adapting materials for different age groups or abilities, resulting in a significant reduction in administrative workload.
Generative AI, like EdChat, can create new content based on the data it has been trained on, including text and code. By processing large amounts of information, it provides accurate and relevant responses, saving time and effort for users.
Education Minister Mr Blair Boyer said South Australia has embraced the technology, rather than attempt to ignore it and ban it.
“AI will be a part of our work and lives in the future, which means we have a responsibility to educate young people and our staff about its appropriate and effective use,” he said.
“We would be doing a disservice to our students otherwise given AI is now part of people’s lives. This is why we have worked with Microsoft to develop a safe version for use in schools that teaches them how to use AI responsibly and effectively.”
Mr Boyer said the government had learnt a lot from the trial and is now in a position to expand it to all public high schools so that all students have the same opportunities to explore this new technology.
“We are using AI to transform our education. Students are not only learning how to use it responsibly, but they are using it to better understand information, master their skills and think critically about different perspectives.
“This work puts South Australia on the cutting-edge of AI, leading the way on both a global and national scale and I’m really pleased to see other jurisdictions now following our lead.”
Department for Education Chief Executive Mr Michael Brown said South Australia has led the way in the application of artificial intelligence, embracing the opportunity to support both student learning, and reduce teacher workload.
“Exciting, time-saving elements have already been installed as part of EdChat, but further upgrades are being developed to ensure this tool continues better learning outcomes and teacher support,” he said.
“Student safety and learning outcomes remain at the forefront of our innovative approach to ensure students are equipped for the real world.”
