AI and education at BHHS: a look back at our community forum
by Mr. Nathaniel Smith, Head of Digital Learning
Box Hill High School
Box Hill High School has hosted its first community forum on AI and education, bringing together parents, staff, student leaders, and Dr Scott Cameron, Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Melbourne, for an evening of open and honest conversation.
We don’t have all the answers, but we are committed to working together with our students and families. We look forward to offering more forums and morning teas on topics such as this.
We opened the session with this image of BHHS’ early days (circa 1930), featuring a group of students gathered around what was then a ‘new’ technology, a radio.
BHHS class using 'new' radio technology in the 1930s
BHHS class using 'new' radio technology in the 1930s
Although AI and radios may feel worlds apart, we love this image because it reminds us that schools have always had to navigate new and disruptive technologies, and that the questions we’re asking about AI are not entirely new ones. What is new is the speed, the scale, and the particular way generative AI interacts with how students think and learn.
BHHS is approaching AI with genuine ambition but without uncritical enthusiasm. The school’s vision is to lead in AI for education, grounded in four concrete commitments:
building the capacity of both students and teachers;
keeping teacher judgement at the centre of decision-making;
protecting student cognition, and;
maintaining a genuine partnership with students and their families.
It’s important to us that AI adoption means critical evaluation of when and where it brings benefit, and where it does not.
One of the more significant themes of the evening was the risk of what researchers call detrimental cognitive offloading or DCO. Detrimental cognitive offloading occurs when we delegate thinking that our brain needs to do for itself in order to develop skills and knowledge. A sign that DCO has occurred is that there’s a product (an essay, answers to homework) in front of us but no process. This lack of process is what can prevent us from building long-term knowledge and transferable skills.
(source: Artificial intelligence, cognitive offloading and implications for education, March 2026).
Overreliance and distraction caused by AI and digital tools in general is one of the reasons why we are returning to more hardcopy texts in our 2027 booklist.
The panel discussion drew on all of these themes, with the audience questions ranging from VCE preparation and assessment integrity to career readiness, and how to support students at home.
A huge thank you to our student panel members and presenters: Han, James, Amelie, and Somindu! Likewise, our many thanks to Dr Scott Cameron for his insights.