Principal David Ruggiero on why schools should embrace AI

Artificial intelligence platforms have the ability to revolutionise teaching and improve student outcomes.

Blackfriars Principal David Ruggiero is a vocal advocate for the use of AI in schools, embracing the technology himself and encouraging his staff to do likewise.

“It’s hard to believe that ChatGPT was launched just a little over two years ago – in late November 2022,” Mr Ruggiero said.

“Initially, it was pretty basic and frequently made up what it didn’t know.

“Now – and I was just reading this the other day – it has 100 million weekly active users and is used by something like 92% of Fortune 500 companies. Its capabilities are astounding.”

Speaking on the Voices of Change podcast, by Adelaide school recruitment company Aspire2, Mr Ruggiero said the rise of AI meant schools were “at a new frontier”, which was “terribly exciting”.

“I used to teach ICT, so I come from slightly a skewed perspective here, but I love it,” he told the podcast.

“I don’t want us to be caught being the old luddites, afraid of technology. It’s there (so) how do we use it and use it effectively?”

AI’s biggest application, he said, was in reducing the ever-increasing workload of busy teachers, leaving more time for core classroom tasks and ultimately improving student outcomes.

For example, teachers were able to upload curriculum documents into ChatGPT, ask it to examine assessment tasks and modify the content, teaching strategies and assessment methods to accommodate different learning styles and needs.

“Our Nutrition teacher, who is also our deputy (principal), has been playing around with differentiated tasks, and the outcomes for the boys are tremendous,” Mr Ruggiero said.

“I met with our IT head, looking at how we are scraping data from hundreds of different data points and using it through our AI to give us students at risk profiles. And, again, it benefits the students.”

Educators needed to see beyond the fear that AI would “dumb things down”.

“Because, let’s face it, ChatGPT is able to give me, as an educator, more insight and more ideas than I could have ever possibly created in my own mind, or even as group,” Mr Ruggiero said.

“So, if you get together as a group of educators and you utilised ChatGPT as a way to be able fuel those conversations, to provide you with way of thinking that you never thought of before, it then leads into new ways of learning and teaching.

“We need to be highly educated in it, understand it and utilise it … in a way that improves educational outcomes for young people. I think it’s a huge win for everyone.”