THE AI Revolution: Unleashing Investigative Discovery

Oct 5, 2023

According to a recently released report by UNESCO on “Impact of AI on skill development,” AI has broad implications for the whole of humanity, including education systems that equip lifelong learners with the skills to navigate both work and society. The International Baccalaureate (IB) also emphasizes the need to adapt and transform educational programs and assessment practices to enable students to use new AI tools ethically and effectively. At WISS, we have embarked on a transformative journey to embrace AI as a community, empowering our students to navigate an AI-integrated future in the digital age. In the context of developing ATL (Approaches to Learning) skills in students within the Diploma Programme, these are fundamental in helping students achieve their full potential. By developing these skills, students gain confidence, versatility, and resilience when approaching demanding content. Across the Diploma program, one of the common important assessment expectations is to develop a focused research question or a knowledge question that allows for an in-depth investigation or inquiry. This involves strong research to delve into unbiased, factual information, application of justified knowledge, weighing out diverse perspectives, analyzing and evaluating them objectively and subjectively, and presenting findings in an academically acceptable manner that is devoid of plagiarism. In my Physics classroom, students are building on research questions for their upcoming investigative analysis for their IA. One student who found it challenging to come up with an area of investigation was asked to identify his area of passion. Having identified baseball, the student was guided to use AI to get to his research question. The student gave the prompt “Google prompts to investigate experiments on baseball,” and the AI tool generated a list of areas that could be investigated experimentally. Delving further, the student could find out relevant academic papers and the citation needed with the same. The use of AI demands a paradigm shift in the way students think, conduct research, and communicate. Furthermore, as a cohort, DP students will be learning how to create argumentative, analytical, or evaluative pieces of writing for TOK and other subject areas using AI and, at the same time, generate academically honest work by citing work generated by AI as per IB guidelines. It’s important to note that while AI platforms offer unique benefits, they should not replace human interaction in research or skill development. Embracing our humanity and learning to connect human-to-human remains crucial for personal and professional advancement. As a community at WISS, we would continue embracing innovative methods of teaching and learning that empower our students to be creators and not imitators in ways that would ignite their passion and sense of inquiry.

At WISS, we have embarked on a transformative journey to embrace AI as a community, empowering our students to navigate an AI-integrated future in the digital age. In the context of developing ATL (Approaches to Learning) skills in students within the Diploma Programme, these are fundamental in helping students achieve their full potential. By developing these skills, students gain confidence, versatility, and resilience when approaching demanding content.

Digital Dilemma: Striking a Balance for Today's Tech-Savvy Kids

Mar 23, 2023

Parenting has never been easy. But the era of fast-developing technology with smartphones, online games and social media brings a lot more challenges to raising modern children.

One of the most debated topics among parents today is screen time. How much screen time is too much? How technology can affect children’s development? Where is the line between online and offline? Parents and professionals from children-related fields are trying to find answers to these burning hot questions.

Virtual Reality to Reality Through Collaboration and Technology

Feb 4, 2021

When Grade 3 teacher Nadya Faqir decided to implement virtual reality in her 3rd grade classroom, she knew she might run into some hurdles. She did not know that she would find the answer to those problems within the walls of WISS.

When COVID-19 hit, Ms. Faqir was brainstorming new ways to engage with her students and creative ways to allow them to explore the world at a time when field trips weren’t possible. “Last year, we did not have a chance to go on field trips. The same is happening this year, so since we cannot go on field trips, the field trips are coming to our classroom. What better than VR to accomplish this?” shared Faqir.