One common theme throughout our initial conversations about AI with teachers are issues of time. Here, the primary narrative being pushed by school leaders and AI vendors is the idea of AI as a time-saver – taking on the burden of time-consuming but inessential tasks, and thereby ‘freeing up’ teachers “so you’ve got time to do other things that you never get time to do” [#1]

These framings of AI have certainly surfaced across our three study schools. Teachers making use of AI have described numerous occasions where tools like ChatGPT and Copilot have helped work get done in a timely and relatively stress-free manner. As this Digital Technologies teacher recounts:

“I knew I needed to come up with something really quick for an assessment. So, I basically just asked ChatGPT to give me a scenario. I gave it a scenario from the textbook and just said, ‘I want something like this, but I need to include this, this and this’. So, it threw out a scenario for me and I was then able to formulate questions that I wanted the students to answer. And then I ran the whole thing again through ChatGPT to get some suggested answers. 

Obviously I had to work on those answers and then put assigned marks to each of them. But what it did was really helpful. Firstly because I’m not a very imaginative person. And secondly, just being able to have a structure for my marking scheme was great because sometimes that can be a lot to go through. So that really helped. 

And then, it turned out that two students were absent for the actual assessment task, and suddenly I had to come up with a brand-new scenario for them that was a little bit different. So again, I just ran it through ChatGPT and it gave me a completely different scenario. Obviously, I had to read through it and make a couple of changes, but basically something that would have taken me an hour to come up with by myself, took me five minutes to generate and make a few changes”. [#2]

While we are hearing many such stories, not all teachers are buying into this idea of AI as a time-saver. For example, we have talked to staff who do not see themselves as especially time-poor and in need of technological assistance – implying that AI is most useful for colleagues who might be inexperienced or struggling. 

“The thing about teaching is, once you’ve taught something a few times you don’t really have a need for much new stuff. I mean, I’ve got enough time that I can fix things as I as I go … I mean, a lot of teachers whinge that they’re under the pump with timing. I’ve never really had that problem if I’m being completely honest” [#3]

Some teachers also contend that many of the ‘slow’ tasks that they are being encouraged to delegate to AI might well have some pedagogical value and therefore are worth taking time to do in person. This feeling is compounded by the suspicion that any time that might be ‘freed-up’ is likely to be simply taken up by other mundane tasks (“It would save me time, but what else am I going to do with that time that I’ve saved?” [#3]). As this Geography teacher reflected on the idea of using AI-generated quizzes to replace the need for him to walk around the classroom checking students’ exercise books:

“I’m going around a couple of times a week and checking exercise books. I mean, that could be seen as a waste of time, but that’s also good because you have all the conversations [with students] as you go. But if I was organized enough that every lesson ended with a small, short answer quiz written and corrected by AI, then going to the next lesson armed with that data without me having to lift a finger would be very helpful. It’s just, yeah, at what point does it cross over from the line? And then the temptation to just get it do everything, and then, I mean … I think it’d be a shame if too much of the nuts and bolts of teaching gets taken away, because I don’t think there’s *that* much of a need, and I think it’s important that we maintain the relationships as much as possible” [#3]

Elsewhere is the perception that teachers lack sufficient time to get properly acquainted with AI (“we just don’t have the time to invest in learning new tools” [#4]). In this sense, even the most enthusiastic staff report the frustrations of striving to keep up with the changing nature of AI tools:

“I did give it a whirl but then I’ve just left it because I got busy again. So, I haven’t really played around with all the different AIs just through lack of time. But that’s not to say that I wouldn’t play around with other AIs … just haven’t really got the time at the moment” [#1]

“I can see that to really get the benefit out of AI you’re going to need to be able to go much deeper. And having the time to do that is going to be a big thing. I might look at something for one month … but then I get busy doing all the things we need to do … and then three months later, I’ll look at AI again and it’s a changed landscape. So, there’s definitely  an understanding of the importance of AI, but also the fact that it’s racing away really quickly” [#5]

At best, then, it is suggested that those teachers that are managing to find time to make use of genAI in their work are tending toward relatively unsophisticated quick ‘wins’ rather than seeing AI as a long-term shift in the nature of their work:

“Teachers are not investing time in learning about AI. I think with teachers, it’s all about a quick fix. Where can I go straight away to get something that I can use right away? … rather than it being a long-term thing” [#4]

Interviewee codes:

#1: Head of Science, Portway Secondary College

#2: Digital technologies teacher, Brookdale High

#3: Geography Teacher, Brookdale High

#4: Computer science teacher, Brookdale High 

#5: IT Technician, Portway Secondary College