Two teacher groups from Indonesia—the AI-ASIS (student assistant) team from Sorong, West Papua and AI MISS YOU team from Probolinggo, East Java have secured 1^st place and 2^nd runner up of AI TEACH Regional Hackathon, an event held by ASEAN Foundation. Both groups earned triumph for their generative AI projects, created after learning about AI through the AI TEACH programme held by Yayasan Plan International Indonesia (Plan Indonesia) in collaboration with Microsoft Indonesia.

Dini Widiastuti, Executive Director of Plan Indonesia, explained that the participation of the Indonesian groups in this event serves as a proof of the teachers’ and students’ proficiency in using generative AI.

“Plan Indonesia is proud of the achievements of the three AI TEACH groups in this regional event. We hope that the development of AI can help improve workforce absorption, so that vocational students and educators can enjoy the same benefits. This is crucial, considering that vocational graduates, especially alumni of Vocational High Schools, still contribute the highest share to the Open Unemployment Rate in Indonesia, at 9.01 percent (BPS, 2024). After the competition, it is expected that teachers and students can share their knowledge with even more people,” said Dini.

AI TEACH is a program to improve generative AI fluency for vocational educators and students in the ASEAN region. AI TEACH is implemented in Indonesia by Plan Indonesia, in Malaysia by the Biji-Biji Initiative, and is monitored regionally by the ASEAN Foundation. This initiative is fully supported by Microsoft, aimed at shaping the region’s tech future where AI proficiency is a cornerstone of success.

“Empowering individuals through AI skilling is at the heart of Microsoft’s mission, ensuring everyone has the tools and knowledge to thrive in a digital future. By equipping teachers with AI skills, we enable them to inspire and guide the next generation in navigating an increasingly complex technological landscape. We are both thrilled and grateful to see the teachers’ enthusiasm in learning and innovating with AI,” said Supahrat Juramongkol, Philanthropies Lead, Microsoft ASEAN.

Indonesian Educators Transforming Learning with AI

First-place winner, the AI-ASIS team, leveraged the usage of generative AI[1] in creating a learning application that will automatically answer student questions about specific school subjects based on the teachers’ curated learning materials. Markus Dwiyanto Tobi, teacher-chief of the team explained how the idea came from the will to help students learning more independently, while also enabling teachers to become facilitators, as required by the Merdeka curriculum.

“We have tested this application in three different schools, including those in the most remote part of Indonesia (3T), and saw how it helped the teachers and the students. We hope to extend the use of this application, so it may benefit more Indonesian students, including those with disabilities,” said Markus at the ASEAN Secretariat on Thursday (14/11).

Meanwhile, Suci Romadani, teacher-representative of the AI MISS YOU (Artificial Intelligence to Improve Students’ Original and Unique Critical Reasoning) team explained, her team explored the probability of teaching generative AI to high school students, while also still incorporating teachers’ guidance. The AI MISS YOU team and its students utilized several AI tools to research, experiment, and finally create a beverage called ‘The Dahaga’ from mango leaves—known as Probolinggo’s special delicacy. “We created the AI MISS YOU project so the students will not take suggestions by AI blindly, but to observe them critically. Our team believe that the future is not controlled by AI, but by those who master the AI,” Suci said.

The hackathon was carried out just in time, especially as Microsoft and LinkedIn’s Work Trend Index 2024 shows that as many as 92 percent of knowledge workers[2] in Indonesia already use generative AI at work, surpassing global (75 percent) and Asia Pacific (83%) averages. Meanwhile, Kearney predicts that AI can contribute to increasing Indonesia’s GDP by up to 12 percent or around 366 billion US dollars by 2030.

After the regional hackathon event, the AI ​​TEACH program will enter its final round of implementation in Indonesia. Up to November 2024, this program has reached 2,500 teachers and students from across Indonesia.

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[1] Prompt-based AI tool used to generate visual, text, or audio instantly based on machine repository.

[2]Those who typically work at a desk (whether in an office or at home). This group includes those who are in person or working remotely in some capacity.

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Indonesian Team Profile – Participants in the AI ​​TEACH Regional Hackathon

Group 1

“Implementation of AI ASIS (Student Assistant) to Improve Assessment and Learning in the Independent Curriculum in Vocational High Schools”

Main Teacher/Group Leader: Markus Dwiyanto Tobi Sogen

Region of Origin: Sorong, West Papua

Markus Dwiyanto and his team developed AI ASIS to automatically answer student questions. Its use is considered easy, because the application is integrated into existing devices, so teachers do not need to switch applications.

Although students are more involved as users and not developers, this project is considered ready to be implemented more widely. The total duration of application development is 6 months, with trials on 50 students.

Group 2

“AI MISS YOU (Artificial Intelligence to Improve Students’ Original and Unique Critical Reasoning)”

Main Teacher/Group Leader: Fafan Adisumboro

Region of Origin: Probolinggo, East Java

Fafan and his team created the AI ​​MISS YOU project to teach students not to immediately accept information obtained through AI, but to process and think about its contents first. This process is considered important so that students remain critical and creative in gaining knowledge.

The AI ​​MISS YOU team succeeded in creating an interesting project concept by actively involving students. Their presentation was also clear, easy to understand, and very relevant to current learning.

Group 3

“Team-Based Learning (TBL) Assisted by AI”

Main Teacher/Group Leader: M. Elfin Noor

Region of Origin: Jepara, Central Java

Starting from the concerns of students and teachers, Elfin Noor and a team consisting of teachers and students created TBL Assisted by AI to facilitate the teaching and learning process in schools. The team utilizes effective collaboration between teachers and students to complete the project, starting from the ideation stage to prototyping and testing.

Elfin Noor and his team’s project use the Team-Based Learning (TBL) method, which is a type of learning that involves both teachers and students to form a learning team to strengthen each student’s hard and soft skills. By combining the TBL method and the use of AI, this project aims to make it easier for teachers to teach, as well as help students find achievements, learning styles, and provide healthy competition to achieve learning targets. This grouping allows provision of materials and assignments that are suitable for each group’s level of abilities. In addition, the project provides flexibility and versatility that allows usage of AI-assisted TBL across various levels of education and subjects.