Hwa Chong Institution among four S'pore schools in new global network on AI in education
SINGAPORE - From generating interactive graphs in economics lessons to giving students real-time feedback for their General Paper essays , artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a regular part of classroom life at Hwa Chong Institution (HCI) since 2023 .
The school has been developing its own AI tools like chatbots and teachers can opt in for training.
HCI is one of four here - the others being the School of Science and Technology, Singapore, (SST), Nanyang Girls' High School and Crescent Girls' School - that are part of a new global network of schools which are studying the use of artificial intelligence in education.
The Global AI Nexus of Schools (Gains) – launched on Aug 4 at Hwa Chong Institution in Bukit Timah - aims to drive innovation and research in AI for education. HCI is the founder of Gains.
The inaugural meeting, held to mark the launch of Gains, was attended by participants from partnering schools in person and online. Schools across the globe shared about their journeys and plans for using AI.
Supported by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, a total of 23 schools from seven countries – including China, Japan and Estonia – have joined the network.
HCI principal Lee Peck Ping said in a speech on Aug 4 that the goal is to expand the group to 100 schools across 20 countries by 2027.
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Schools in the Gains network will be able to take part in joint projects, exchange teaching tools and resources through an online website, and connect with other educators around the world. The network will also support research and cross-border student projects .
At HCI, teachers are being trained to develop their own AI tools, said Dr Chow Chiu Wai, director of education technology.
Economics teacher Gilbert Ng created an AI-powered tool that lets students interact with graphs to explore how changes in output affect market outcomes to learn about economic concepts like maximising profit. The AI tool also allows students to build their own interactive economic graphs.
General paper teacher Avril Tay developed a paragraph writing 'coach' that gives students targeted feedback.
Said Dr Chow: 'We frame AI as something that students should interact with, like a person, who is highly knowledgeable, always available, maybe endlessly patient, but at the same time he's not all-knowing.'
Teachers have to teach students to be discerning, he said.
Mr Ng used a method he calls 'vibe-coding' - combining AI tools with subject expertise to create interactive teaching resources. He tasked students with building their own economic graphs using the tool he coded, showing them why detailed prompts are important.
'If they don't prompt it with sufficient detail, the outcome is horrible,' Mr Ng said, explaining how the graph generated will not reflect what the student wants . 'Then they realise that the AI cannot do the heavy lifting.'
And as students refined their prompts, their diagrams became more complete. The tool also saves him time, letting him pull up different graphs with a click, instead of redrawing them repeatedly.
On Aug 4, other schools also presented their own AI efforts.
SST principal Nick Chan said that students learn how computers recognise images or make predictions through modules on machine learning and computer vision.
The school also organises local and global summits for educators to explore technologies like virtual and augmented reality.
Crescent Girls' School principal Cindy Low said teachers are encouraged to experiment with their ICT teams to explore AI tools that personalise learning, such as chatbots.
For Secondary 4 HCI students Li Xiyuan and Rayson Lim, AI is now a regular study companion that helps with note-taking and English comprehension. Using school-developed AI tools, both 16-year-olds also use it for chemistry practice, where the bot helps to go through planning of experiments step-by-step, and ask the chatbot for alternative perspectives on literature essays they have written.
Still, both students are careful about when to use AI.
'What I like to do when writing my literature essays is write a first draft (on my own), without using AI, so that these ideas are authentic,' said Xiyuan. 'After which I would use AI to show me different perspectives so I can explore a wider understanding of this task.'
He added that there's a sense of pride in producing work that is truly his, even if it's imperfect.
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