The Minister began by thanking AI in Education, and praising the quality and volume of resources on its website.
The Baroness then outlined the work underway in Government. She explained that the priority is to ensure that AI is safe and trusted. Beyond that, the DfE views AI as pivotal to closing the attainment gap, and elevating opportunities for those traditionally left behind by the education system.
“There is also a key role that AI has to play in unlocking the talents of teachers,” the Baroness said. “This is not a simple case of reducing workload, but rather about harnessing all that AI offers to ensure teachers can use the hours available to them to do more of what they trained to do.”
The rest of the conference picked up on that theme, and provided hands on, practical examples of how AI can add huge value to all aspects of education teaching and practice – from lesson planning, to developing individualised learning, timetabling and back-office systems, to teacher training and professional development.
“Thank you for this conference,” said one delegate during the plenary session, “I am leaving with so much more knowledge and insight than I started with, and so many ideas and challenges for my colleagues and my school. The quality of speakers and the ideas shared has been exceptional.”
