On Tuesday 30th April, Data Education in Schools and Digital Skills Education were delighted to host a workshop for teachers on the use of Generative AI to create art in the classroom.
Craig Steele (DES Digital Skills Consultant and Director at Digital Skills Education) and Daniel Devine (Digital Skills Education) led the session, entitled “Being Creative in the Classroom with AI”, at St John’s Land, Moray House School of Education and Sport (University of Edinburgh).
A wonderful cohort of around 20 teachers attended the workshop and represented the most diverse didactic backgrounds. From Arts to Drama, English to Music, including Science and Digital Education, many teaching areas were covered that could benefit from using AI.
After a short introduction by Craig and Daniel on Machine Learning, the session focused on Generative AI, the Artificial Intelligence that allows the creation of texts, images, codes, audio, video and more starting from a prompt. Examples of Generative AI tools included ChatGPT and Dall-E.
The cohort had fun experimenting with Microsoft Designer’s Image Creator. Below are examples of the same image prompt (“A smiling red-haired woman sipping coffee”) in two different art styles (line drawing and pixel art).
Here are Jo Spiller (Programme Director) and Kate Farrell (Director of Curriculum Development and Professional Learning) as Funko Pop figures.
The workshop allowed time for reflection too. Not only did the teachers discuss how they would use these tools in class, but also shared any feelings or concerns on how Generative AI would affect their teaching practice. It is important that we understand not just the potential of these tools but also their limits and the ethical issues surrounding them.