AI in the classroom: Support not supplant

Teachers will never be replaced as the most important educators for our students. Incorporating AI technology into the classroom to support teachers, however, can make learning more dynamic, assessment more insightful, and lesson delivery more efficient.

AI is defined as any tool trained on massive datasets and capable of creating new content. For teachers, AI can significantly ease the administrative burden. Attendance tracking, grade aggregation, homework marking, and lesson planning and sharing can all be simplified with AI.

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For students, immersive VR experiences, personalised learning units and intelligent tutoring systems can improve learning outcomes. Learning modules, for example, that don’t let a student progress to a new concept until they demonstrate proficiency in the current concept can help ensure key foundational ideas are understood by all students. Conversely, smart, AI-led learning modules can accelerate and extend students as necessary.

Of course, it’s important to balance the benefits of AI with the risks. Schools should prioritise student-teacher relationships, check for biases in content (consider who created the AI tool and what data it has been trained on), prioritise data privacy with clear policies on data storage, access and deletion, and oversee student access to technology and the internet to ensure equity.

From an industry insider

Emory Fierlinger, Founder of Kuraplan, said if you ask most teachers why they joined the profession, they’ll talk about wanting to help students learn, grow, and thrive. “What they won’t mention is writing lesson plans at 9pm, scouring the internet for resources, or doing admin tasks on a Sunday afternoon. And yet, these are the realities of the job today. That’s where I think AI has the power to make a real difference.

“Used thoughtfully, AI can take over some of the repetitive, time-consuming parts of a teacher’s week. This could include creating differentiated lesson plans, drafting rubrics, summarising assessment data, or aligning a unit to the curriculum. It’s not doing the job for the teacher—it’s lightening the load, so they can focus on what really matters: the relationships, the creativity, the actual teaching.”

Mr Fierlinger cautioned that not all AI is created equal. “Tools like ChatGPT are incredibly capable, but they aren’t trained on the latest Australian Curriculum or individual state standards. Ask them to align a lesson to specific outcomes, and they’ll often produce content that sounds right, but isn’t. For teachers, that’s not just unhelpful—it can be really misleading. That’s why it’s so important to use AI tools that are built specifically for educators.

“Crucially, teacher-specific AI tools also respect teacher autonomy. They’re not there to dictate how a lesson should be taught, but they do provide a great starting point. The teacher remains the expert in the room, deciding what works best for their students. In that sense, good AI in education acts like a well-organised teaching assistant: supportive, invisible when needed, and always responsive to the teacher’s lead.”