Ōtaki College first in New Zealand to use AI programme SchoolJoy for future-focused education

Andy Fraser with ngā kākākura (head of school) Witana Cameron (left), year 8 student Ellie Maddaford-Wood, ngā kākākura Maddie Simpson, and year 8 student Max Whitt.

Ōtaki College students are getting ready for life in a rapidly changing world, and are using AI to get there.

The college is the first school in New Zealand to use American artificial intelligence (AI) programme SchoolJoy.

Co-founder and chief executive of SchoolJoy, Ian Zhu, said the programme is a personalised learning system powered by AI that is designed to give teachers back more time.

SchoolJoy is a way of preparing students for a world that doesn’t exist yet, he said.

“If we look at how much the world has changed since ChatGPT came out in 2022, it’s quite a bit, and if we think about how much more the world will change in the next one, two, or six or seven years – the world will look very different.”

Principal Andy Fraser said for some time before he discovered SchoolJoy he had been reading about how to move education into the future.

“If you’re talking about future-focused education, it’s really quite vastly different to the industrial model that our current education system is based on.”

It was when he met author Derek Wenmoth, who is heavily involved in the education sector, that he was introduced to Zhu and his programme SchoolJoy and saw the power of AI learning.

“I think one of the things that came through was, if we could give our teachers extra time in their day and night to really think about teaching and their students, what could that provide.”

He said the school is already noticing that teachers who use SchoolJoy are saving a day to a day and a half of planning time.

Another thing the school is using the programme for is “capturing the hearts and minds” of the students in the classrooms, by collating their interests so teachers can individualise their teaching.

“The other thing it does beautifully is as you onboard students and gain that understanding of interests and where they come from, it creates a class picture of the students that you’re dealing with and intuitively starts to outline the types of teaching and learning styles of those students – it’s a pretty powerful tool for teachers.”

Fraser said the new programme wasn’t just exciting for teachers and students, but for senior leaders such as himself.

“I was going to hand in my gold card and decide that it was time to do other things, but it’s just got me so excited and exhilarated about the potential of learning at the college and what we can do for young people – I don’t want to hang up the tin star just yet, I want to keep going.”