All NSW public school students from Year 5 to Year 12 will soon have access to a purpose-built generative AI app following a successful trial in 50 schools.
The NSW Department of Education will roll out NSWEduChat across all public schools from the start of Term 4, aiming to equip students with the skills and technology needed to thrive as 21st-century learners.
As the sophistication and use of generative artificial intelligence rapidly grows, access to the curriculum-aligned NSWEduChat will enable students to build AI literacy and skills in a safe environment where content is filtered and their data is secure.
The expansion will also help to bridge the digital divide by ensuring all students have equal access to this free education tool in the classroom.
Principals from trial schools strongly support its expansion, having found NSWEduChat to be a valuable tool for fostering independent learning, critical thinking, and student engagement.
Students in the trial said it helped them understand their work better, develop their writing skills and break down complex tasks.
Crucially, NSWEduChat does not reveal full answers to students. Instead of providing direct answers like some other AI applications, it encourages critical thinking by asking guided questions and inviting students to reason on the outcome of their questions.
Top five uses of NSWEduChat by students in the trial:
- General feedback on writing
- Brainstorming support for tasks
- Virtual assistant, including supporting planning to complete assessment tasks, prepare for exams, etc
- Consolidating learning e.g. prompting NSWEduChat with content from lesson and asking it to generate a quiz
- Planning and structuring written responses
A separate NSWEduChat platform for teachers was rolled out to all schools earlier this year, with surveys showing it streamlines their workload and saves time in producing classroom resources to meet different ability levels.
In addition to this tool, the department is launching Lesson Library, a new online platform providing streamlined access to quality curriculum resources written by NSW teachers, for NSW teachers, to help them deliver lessons aligned to the new knowledge-rich NSW syllabuses and explicit teaching.
“The development of this safe, curriculum-aligned tool shows the power of our public education system to deliver world-leading innovation to classrooms across NSW,” Acting Minister for Education and Early Learning Ms Courtney Houssos said.
“Generative AI is rapidly becoming part of everyday life, and through NSWEduChat we are helping our students to safely and responsibly build the digital literacy that will set them up for success in the jobs of the future.
“By making our free and effective AI tool available to all year five to 12 students, we are levelling the playing field when it comes to AI education in the classroom and ensuring that our educators, staff and students are at the forefront of emerging technologies.”
