Exactly 182 days from the November conference launch event, the SSLP Student Voice group were back at Kingswood Arts to share their projects! It has been seven months of collaborative, dedicated, hard work – as well as fun and making friends along the way.
The day started with final presentation planning time for each of the four groups. This also provided the opportunity to remind the students about good presentation and public speaking skills. There was a buzz in the atmosphere of a combination of excitement and a few nerves!
By mid-morning, the special guests had arrived and were seated, and it was time for the students to finally share their projects.
The first group with students from St Saviour’s and St Olave’s, and Kingsdale (having been supported by students from QCL throughout the project) presented with the focus on AI and student wellbeing. They had designed the ‘Safe Space’ app – using skills learnt at the workshop event in February – to support with monitoring students’ digital wellbeing by filtering harmful or extremist chats and/or comments. As part of the presentation, the group shared a step-by-step guide to each part of the app and how it worked towards supporting overall wellbeing and healthy responses to difficult online comments and AI use. They were highly praised by the audience for the thought that had gone in to the different functions of their app, including a mindfulness section to support with improved mental health, and also a teacher/parent section so that content could be monitored.
The second group with students from Streatham and Clapham High School, and Charter North Dulwich (having also been supported by students from St Thomas the Apostle College) presented with the focus on AI and learning. This group had designed and created a website: Klassified Hub. They started their presentation by using the design of their website logo as an example of one of their main learning points: that AI alone had not been able to create the logo that they wanted; it required the starting point of AI followed by the personal, creative development of a human to produce the best logo! The overview of their website Klassified Hub is to: include various interactive activities like scheduling and joining study sessions with other students over zoom, as well as mentorship programs; included a study playlist that students can listen to of carefully selected accompanying music while doing work (also with the option of adding songs of their own); developing shared access to the website so that the links can be shared between different schools; and discussing possible reward systems. The group shared that they hope that one of the main legacies of their project is to unite different schools and instil a positive approach to education.
The third group with students from Dulwich College, Charter Bermondsey, and Westminster City School presented on their focus of AI and ethics. They had carried out some excellent research and interviews to develop their understanding and awareness around this important area, including interviews with teachers at their schools about the pros and cons of AI use in education, and also award winning writer on AI (and guest speaker at the November conference), Dr Kitty Hung. Excerpts from these video interviews were shared during their presentation. The group also shared a beautiful poem that sensitively captured the tender balance between AI and the interaction of humans and humanity. It included the line, ‘to lead with care and grace’ and this was something that this group – and all of the groups – exemplified in their enhanced awareness around AI. They also highlighted the well-known quote from Spider-Man: ‘with great power comes great responsibility’ as a reminder of our role in harnessing AI.
The final group with students from St Michael’s Catholic College, and James Allen’s Girls’ School presented on their focus area of AI and Creativity. They exemplified their theme through a visually engaging and interactive presentation (which led one of the guests to comment that the presenters should be on television!). Following on from the excellent presentation from Tony Guillan from Southbank Centre back at the November conference, this group picked up the discussion and raising awareness around to what extent can AI enhance or hinder human creativity and the production of art. They challenged the audience to select which of two art works had been created by AI, and which had been created by a human (as well as showing a very entertaining video of them asking students in their schools the same question!). They also shared art works submitted for a competition that they had led as part of their project. The group were delighted to share the high engagement that the competition had, surpassing the number of entries that they had predicted. The group shared that in the end, it was an AI generated artwork that won the competition – much to their surprise. Interestingly, several human-made pieces were mistaken for AI, often because they appeared more
complex (i.e. too difficult for a human to make). On reflection, the group shared that they ‘felt that AI art forces us to reconsider the very essence of creativity – whether it lies in the hand that creates it, the process of creation, or the emotion that the piece evokes.’
Following the project launch and presentations, it was celebration time with pizza, a disco (with a playlist created by the students), and even an unexpected collaborative event of a highly enthusiastic game of musical chairs!
Each group excelled and shared brilliant projects. They also demonstrated a range of skills that they have learnt over the course of this project and – perhaps most importantly – an informed, sensitive, and inspiring awareness around AI in education. As student ambassadors for each of our SSLP schools, they have – and will continue to make – an invaluable contribution to our partnership’s ongoing discussion and development of resources around AI. We look forward to sharing their resources more widely across the schools and raising awareness of their projects through assemblies.
A huge well done and thank you to everyone involved!
