Artificial Intelligence

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Artificial Intelligence

I have always thought that our current students are being faced with different challenges than I had faced as a kid. Social media has taken their lives by storm, and they are constantly being exposed to new content every day. The difference is that when I was younger, my parents usually censored the content that I was exposed to or were at least nearby to explain things to me. With kids having access to social media, some parents don’t know all of what their children are watching, listening or reading. Just like with social media, AI has entered the chat and it is here to stay. Instead of worrying about what our kids/students will do with it, I think it is important to educate them on how to navigate it. As Dr. Alec Couros mentioned in his lecture, we need AI Literacy.

After the lecture, I took a deep dive into how to go about using AI Literacy in my classroom and came across an article from McGill University.

“Being AI Literate does not mean you need to understand the advanced mechanics of AI. It means that you are actively learning about the technologies involved and that you critically approach any texts you read that concern AI, especially news articles. We have created a tool you can use when reading about AI applications to help consider the legitimacy of the technology.”

Reliability

  • How reliable is the information available about the AI technology?
  • If it’s not produced by the party responsible for the AI, what are the author’s credentials? Bias?
  • If it is produced by the party responsible for the AI, how much information are they making available? 
    • Is information only partially available due to trade secrets?
    • How biased is they information that they produce?

Objective

  • What is the goal or objective of the use of AI?
  • What is the goal of sharing information about it?
    • To inform?
    • To convince?
    • To find financial support?

Bias

  • What could create bias in the AI technology?
  • Are there ethical issues associated with this?
  • Are bias or ethical issues acknowledged?
    • By the source of information?
    • By the party responsible for the AI?
    • By its users?

Owner

  • Who is the owner or developer of the AI technology?
  • Who is responsible for it?
    • Is it a private company?
    • The government?
    • A think tank or research group?
  • Who has access to it?
  • Who can use it?

Type

  • Which subtype of AI is it?
  • Is the technology theoretical or applied?
  • What kind of information system does it rely on?
  • Does it rely on human intervention? 

The ROBOT tool that was created above provides questions for both the teacher and students to take into consideration when using AI. It reminds me of similar tools we use when students are fact-checking sources that they get from the internet.

CHAT GPT

Since we are talking about AI, I decided to ask Chat GPT this exact question. The results have been copied and pasted below.

AI can play a significant role in enhancing blended and online learning experiences in various ways:

  • Personalized Learning Paths: AI algorithms can analyze students’ learning patterns, strengths, and weaknesses to provide personalized learning paths. This ensures that each student receives content tailored to their individual needs, pacing, and learning styles.
  • Adaptive Learning Platforms: AI-powered adaptive learning platforms can dynamically adjust the difficulty level of content based on students’ performance. This ensures that students are appropriately challenged, preventing boredom or frustration.
  • Automated Grading and Feedback: AI can automate the grading of assignments, quizzes, and exams, providing instant feedback to students. This not only saves instructors time but also enables students to receive feedback promptly, facilitating faster learning iteration cycles.
  • Natural Language Processing (NLP) for Interaction: NLP algorithms enable AI chatbots and virtual assistants to interact with students in natural language. These AI assistants can provide support, answer questions, and guide students through course materials, offering a more engaging and interactive learning experience.
  • Content Curation and Recommendation: AI algorithms can analyze vast amounts of educational content to curate personalized recommendations for students. This helps learners discover relevant resources, articles, videos, and courses aligned with their interests and learning objectives.
  • Predictive Analytics for Student Success: By analyzing students’ engagement, performance, and behavior data, AI can predict at-risk students who may need additional support. Early intervention strategies can then be implemented to improve retention and student success rates.
  • Virtual Laboratories and Simulations: AI-driven virtual laboratories and simulations provide hands-on learning experiences in subjects like science, engineering, and medicine. These simulations allow students to experiment in a safe and controlled environment, deepening their understanding of complex concepts.
  • Natural Language Generation for Content Creation: AI-powered natural language generation tools can assist instructors in creating course materials, lecture notes, and explanations. This technology can generate coherent and concise explanations of complex topics, supplementing instructors’ efforts in course development.
  • Assistive Technologies for Accessibility: AI can improve accessibility for learners with disabilities by providing features such as speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and image recognition. These assistive technologies enable all students to engage with course content effectively.
  • Data-Driven Decision Making: AI analytics tools can help educational institutions analyze data on student performance, course effectiveness, and learning outcomes. These insights empower educators and administrators to make data-driven decisions to continuously improve teaching methods and curriculum design.

By leveraging AI technologies in blended and online learning environments, educators can create more personalized, engaging, and effective learning experiences for students, ultimately improving learning outcomes and student success rates.

As with everything there are pros and cons to using AI. Instead of ignoring AI and all it can do, I believe it is more beneficial to our students to teach them how to use it appropriately.

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Enhancing Teaching and Learning through AI Integration

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Artificial intelligence (AI) presents several opportunities in the field of education, especially in the teaching and learning process. Teachers can customize lessons, shorten paperwork, and promote a greater understanding of basic ideas by utilizing AI tools and methodologies. In my course prototype of Grade 1, AI integration improves teaching efficacy and the desired outcomes for students.

                                                        

Integrating AI concepts into a course prototype could be immensely beneficial for teaching and learning. This is how I would go about my course prototype:-

Collaborative  Learning:-

  • Through group projects, collaborative learning in AI educates students with real-world abilities by simulating multifaceted interactions among professionals.
  • As students share thoughts and opinions, it enhances the understanding and problem-solving abilities of the learners.
  • Collaborative projects encourage creativity and innovation through diverse viewpoints and approaches.
  • Collaborative learning in AI education improves academic knowledge and fosters the development of interpersonal and career abilities that are essential for job prospects.
  • AI could help me to promote diversity and interactions, in which students can be separated into smaller groups and the students studying a specific living organism such as plants or animals or any other organism.

 

Interactive Learning Tools:-

  • Interactive learning tools actively involve the students in the learning process. These tools have different forms, like interactive workshops, as well as virtual games.
  • Provide numerous opportunities for learners to experiment with AI algorithms where they explore, manipulate, and see outcomes in an adequate time.
  • These resources can help teachers to improve student participation and promote a deeper understanding of AI thoughts.

Virtual Field Trips :-

  • Virtual field trips develop critical thinking skills and ecological awareness by simulating real-world scenarios and challenges.
  • Students can interact with virtual environments, deepening their understanding of ecosystems without any physical constrained. Virtual trips give students the chance to investigate a variety of ecosystems and see creatures in their natural environments.

I would want to learn more about ChatGPT for my course prototype which help me to go deeply into my topic needs and characteristics of living things for Grade 1. I believe this tool can help me effectively with establishing tasks that are straightforward for students and creating an assessment tool to evaluate the feedback of the students.

 Personalized learning –

Adaptive learning platforms with artificial intelligence (AI) can assess students’ learning styles and behaviors and modify the course material appropriately. This ensures that every student gets materials and attention appropriate to their unique learning style. In addition, AI systems evaluate student performance continuously and offer immediate feedback. AI could help me to provide the feedback that can be customized to strengthen the strengths or address particular areas of weakness. For example, if a student consistently makes errors in finding the living and nonliving things, then AI provides me with additional practice problems or suggests supplementary resources focused on that topic.

Using Data Analytics to Monitor Performance-

AI-powered data analytics solutions can collect and evaluate information on student performance, involvement, and learning patterns. This makes them useful for performance tracking. These observations can help me to identify issues with pupils immediately, customize solutions to meet each student’s requirements, and improve course materials and teaching methods with time.

To sum up, integrating AI into the classroom offers an innovative approach to education and learning.  AI improves engagement among students, encourages critical thinking, and personalizes education to meet each student’s needs through collaborative learning, interactive tools, virtual field excursions, personalized learning, and data analytics. Educators may encourage kids to perform well academically and prepare them with essential abilities for the future by utilizing AI technologies to create flexible and adaptable learning environments.

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Educate.AI: A New Era in Learning

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*Title created by ChatGPT.

When AI first came to public awareness, there was a general fear amongst educators that student assessment might be compromised. It was immediately recognized that students would be able to use it to complete assignments, or at least make a large contribution to the content. What was not immediately known was how AI could help on the side of instruction. While these are separate topics, both require a great deal of attention.

My readings have revealed that Educators and Universities should embrace AI as it can assist with tutoring, task automation, course creation, etc. These discussions revolve around how to leverage this technology for course improvement and/or time savings. The larger discussion revolves around the use of AI by the students, particularly around assessments.

The webinar suggested by @Lauren presented a speaker panel, including a 4th-year student, which provided a variety of opinions about AI in higher education. You can see the slides here. I will share quite a bit from this webinar as I found it very relevant to this discussion.

In terms of educators using AI, Dr. F. Alex Feltus, a professor at Clemson University, is using AI to an extreme. He created an AI assistant for his courses, called Pria, that has been so successful he now includes Pria in his course syllabus as a Teaching Assistant. Pria can be integrated into Canvas and other LMS.

I previously shared a short article on Discord written by Michael Mace, another panelist who spoke about AI and Accessibility. This article creates an exciting picture for the future.

Dr.Nirmala Shenoy, another panelist, admitted that she has not used AI, and provided some thoughts about student use of AI.

I took this screenshot of her slide as I thought it provided an interesting insight into the concerns educators have with AI use in the classroom.  Despite the slide using words such as advancements and empowerment, her thoughts were not about a future of hope but rather concern. She believes that report writing is an important skill that may be lost and that “garbage in = garbage out” is applicable here. Although she did maintain that AI is here, concluded that we need to figure out “how to best use the tools”. I agree and am particularly interested in the question she posed “Can AI harm the students’ ability for critical thinking and problem-solving or enhance it?”. If we figure out how to best use AI, then it should enhance these skills.

The last panelist I will mention is the student panelist, Josh Garner. As expected, he embraces AI and his message was that students need to develop AI literacy to succeed beyond University. He stresses that allowing it in the classroom levels the playing field. Students are going to use it anyway, which provides an unfair advantage.

While I do agree with his points, I disagree that it levels the playing field. From what I understand AI can be expensive to use, and perhaps not all will have the skill set to engage it to the same level. However, I suppose that can be said for any new technology. I am dating myself here, but I remember in my UBC days my roommate had a computer in her room (which was amazing in itself) and it had Microsoft 3.0 as the operating system (but no internet yet!). I guess it can be said she had an unfair advantage. But boy, did we enjoy playing Minesweeper!

Let’s agree AI cannot be banned for student use (instructors, however, will love it)

As an educator, what I am most interested in are the questions posed by Dr. Shenoy.

  1. Can AI harm the students’ ability for critical thinking and problem-solving or enhance it?
  2. How do we best use the tools?

Some answers, maybe only opinions on the manner, can be found in our readings and Dr. Couros’ lecture. Ben Talsma did a much better job than I did at highlighting examples of new technology that were considered ‘cheating’ in his Chalkbeat article. Calculators and Spell check are great examples, and I lived through these ‘cultural evolutions’. The attitudes toward these technologies within the educational space feel similar to what is being thrown at AI now within the same space.

Ben makes the same point that Dr. Shenoy made: students need to be prepared for the world. He provides an example of how to incorporate this into pedagogy which is to provide a sample of AI-generated work and then work to improve it. I feel this simple exercise alone addresses Dr. Shenoy’s concern about critical thinking and problem-solving. A second example he provided was to have the students fact-check ChatGPT’s writing. If this is done in an engaging way, what a lesson in critical thinking!

In addition, I think it provides a lesson in using AI to create content, that it should not be relied on to create reliable content. Another “feature” of AI that should be pointed out to students is that it produces biased results which is very well highlighted in Dr. Couros’ AI-created images. This bias will not always be so overt and it is up to the AI user to critically assess the content through an EDI lens.

I found reading the Generative AI guidelines for faculty and instructors at the U of Regina interesting. The document offers guidelines to help instructors prevent the misuse of AI. I think the guidelines are open-minded to the use of AI, what isn’t offered is any guidelines to categorize the “misuse” of AI. Except for the indications of the AI-generated content section, this is left up to the discretion of the instructor. Perhaps over time, these definitions will be refined as various ways AI can be used. Dr. Couros’ lecture highlights different ways AI can be used in the example of the student in the Tiktok video, (0:45:00). Dr. Couros opines that she doesn’t even feel like she is cheating. What do you think? What is cheating? Does this live up to your definition of Academic Integrity?

Is using a calculator in class cheating?

Ban on using a calculator (isolated)

Academic Integrity in Asynchronous Classes

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Maintaining academic integrity in online learning is challenging. In asynchronous classes, students complete their work when it fits into their schedule. The teacher isn’t watching over them as they complete assignments and assessments. When students submit work, a teacher must determine if it is authentic and if it shows their understanding of the content and outcomes to be achieved. This is a challenging part. How do we, as teachers, determine this?

Before students can proceed with my online courses, they must read through a lesson and pass a “quiz” to demonstrate their understanding of the importance of Academic Integrity. The lesson contains information about:

  • What is academic integrity?
  • The importance of academic integrity
  • The values associated with academic integrity.

The lesson and pre-quiz aim to educate students about the importance of submitting their own work. Although each student is required to complete the lesson and quiz, this does not mean that we don’t come across work that is copied, plagiarized, or generated through AI.

After watching Dr. Kouros’ lecture, I realized how little I knew about AI. The possibilities with AI seem endless. So, how do we, as educators, deal with AI’s ever-changing capacities? How do we educate our students about the biases, misinformation, and inaccuracies that exist when using AI?

Throughout my career, I have encountered situations in which a student’s academic integrity has been questioned. Whether they were writing the answers on their hands, copying from other students, using work that was not cited, or copying and pasting from the internet, students must always be reminded of the importance of completing their own work and showing what they have learned.

When it comes to AI, I have so much to learn!  As an educator, I must acknowledge the new technologies that exist and teach my students (and myself!) how to use them appropriately. This requires me to have an open mind, and to realize that you never truly, stop learning.

 

Integration of AI in Education

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After watching Dr. Couros video,  Anchal’s and I gained insights into the various aspects of using AI and its different features. For the first time, we became aware of various websites that help in performing different tasks. He explained how AI can be used to enhance the skills and knowledge. As he also explained in the video, sometimes AI helps educators in creating worksheets, multiple-choice questions (MCQs), and other content, thereby saving their time. Artificial intelligence  integration has transformed teaching and learning in today’s constantly evolving educational atmosphere.  AI has the potential to transform education by enabling students with unique learning possibilities and minimizing administrative work. Teachers may get ideas to develop plans for lessons that are tailored to the needs of the course. With the assistance of technology, individuals can save time at work and allocate more time to spend with their family. Additionally, with the assistance of websites like ChatGPT, individual can improve their lesson planning if it is weak or unclear. The ability to create coursework can provide teachers with additional possibilities, improving the interaction and intellectual richness of class planning. From the previous feedback exercise, we (Anchal & I) identified several loopholes in the ADDIE Model, and we can improve it by using these AI tools to increase the efficacy. Further in his video he gave many ideas that how can an individual use ChatGPT in selling a product at marketplace etc. I really appreciate the example he included in the video, where with the help of AI he narrates a story to his son and twist it according to the situation.

 

Cheating and Academic Misconduct

When Anchal’s and I joined the university, we attended our first workshop on AI and plagiarism. To be honest, we were not well-versed in this area as we had never used any AI for assignments before. However, we have occasionally relied on ChatGPT for tasks like composing emails, crafting resumes, and other informal purposes. However, we understand that utilizing AI or ChatGPT for classroom assignments is strongly discouraged. In our course profile, AI enhances the learning outcomes for refugee immigrants. Within our modules, students utilize Google Translate to translate content and facilitate communication. They complete assignments using various tools. However, for this course profile, with the assistance of AI, students feel more comfortable and are more inclined to communicate with us.

Even though ChatGPT and AI might be useful tools for enhancing learning, they should not completely replace standard methods of instruction. AI should be applied carefully, with defined learning goals and opportunities for students to interact with the content in a way that promotes critical thinking and deeper comprehension.

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Feedback Reflection

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We sincerely appreciate the reviewer’s informative comments on both Anchal’s and my course profile. Your logical viewpoint from a different perspective is immensely valuable to us. The feedback that our classmates provided helped us pinpoint areas where we could channel extra efforts to enhance our course. It enables us to refine our course materials and structure effectively. Their insights have provided us with valuable direction, and we are eager to incorporate them into our upcoming course modules.

We truly appreciate the peer review opportunity that Katia has provided us, which has exposed us to various perspectives. We recognized that there were a few areas that needed improvement after looking over our peers’ course reviews. Alongside, we also got remarks and appreciation. The fact that the course is simple to use, that the main idea is apparent, that the interactive videos are interesting, and that the modules were skillfully designed for beginners is encouraging. We switched from Google Classroom to Canvas throughout the course preparation process because we felt it would better meet the needs of our students. Firstly, we acknowledge the suggestion for proofreading to enhance the professional appearance of our course profile. Secondly, we have noted the feedback regarding the absence of explicit objectives in our course modules, whereas another reviewer understood our intention to foster spoken language skills without a rigid curriculum. But the suggestion is more welcoming because we recognize the importance of incorporating clear objectives. We will ensure to include objectives in our course modules.

One of the reviewers asked, What if students join the class late? So, the answer is that in our classroom, RIWC makes sure students who arrive late are seated with peers who are at the same level. We provide one-on-one tutoring sessions beforehand to help them adjust to the regular class sessions.

Thank you once again for your invaluable feedback and support in our journey towards continuous improvement.

 

Access and equity

Access

Well! The last classroom lecture was very informative, and after reading Katia’s reading, we got to know many things. Through this, we learned about some completely new prospects that we didn’t think about while creating our course profile. We can say we have considered some points about our course profile’s usefulness and accessibility for our students after getting feedback on it. Even though we’ve worked hard to make the course modules easily accessible, there is room for improvement. We will be updating the Canvas module website to improve accessibility and optimize navigation, thereby simplifying the process for students to obtain course materials. Still, online platforms have multiple drawbacks that can’t be solved, like sometimes housing things that come in front of the camera that can be embarrassing for the student, weather conditions, and many more.

Equity

In the context of this, we can see learners are getting adjusted to a new country, and they are also keen to learn a new culture. However, the class teachers always choose topics that do not hurt their dignity, and the ethical culture also, it is created in a way so that every person gets the chance to introduce themselves in front of others, it is always welcoming and makes them feel comfortable.

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Integration of AI in Education

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After watching Dr. Couros video, Jasvinder and I gained insights into the various aspects of using AI and its different features. For the first time, we became aware of various websites that help in performing different tasks. He explained how AI can be used to enhance the skills and knowledge. As he also explained in the video, sometimes AI helps educators in creating worksheets, multiple-choice questions (MCQs), and other content, thereby saving their time. Artificial intelligence  integration has transformed teaching and learning in today’s constantly evolving educational atmosphere.  AI has the potential to transform education by enabling students with unique learning possibilities and minimizing administrative work. Teachers may get ideas to develop plans for lessons that are tailored to the needs of the course. With the assistance of technology, individuals can save time at work and allocate more time to spend with their family. Additionally, with the assistance of websites like ChatGPT, individual can improve their lesson planning if it is weak or unclear. The ability to create coursework can provide teachers with additional possibilities, improving the interaction and intellectual richness of class planning. From the previous feedback exercise, we (Anchal & I) identified several loopholes in the ADDIE Model, and we can improve it by using these AI tools to increase the efficacy. Further in his video he gave many ideas that how can an individual use ChatGPT in selling a product at marketplace etc. I really appreciate the example he included in the video, where with the help of AI he narrates a story to his son and twist it according to the situation.

 

Cheating and Academic Misconduct

When Jasvinder and I joined the university, we attended our first workshop on AI and plagiarism. To be honest, we were not well-versed in this area as we had never used any AI for assignments before. However, we have occasionally relied on ChatGPT for tasks like composing emails, crafting resumes, and other informal purposes. However, we understand that utilizing AI or ChatGPT for classroom assignments is strongly discouraged. In our course profile, AI enhances the learning outcomes for refugee immigrants. Within our modules, students utilize Google Translate to translate content and facilitate communication. They complete assignments using various tools. However, for this course profile, with the assistance of AI, students feel more comfortable and are more inclined to communicate with us.

Even though ChatGPT and AI might be useful tools for enhancing learning, they should not completely replace standard methods of instruction. AI should be applied carefully, with defined learning goals and opportunities for students to interact with the content in a way that promotes critical thinking and deeper comprehension.

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Keep your friends close and enemies closer….

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While my opinions about generative AI have evolved over time, especially in the past week, it’s fair to say that this adequately sums up my current attitude:

www.boldomatic.com

When I mention the use of generative AI to my Engineering colleagues, the most common first response is frustration and contempt.  Cheating and academic misconduct almost always enter the conversation, and almost immediately (understandably so!).  However, two colleagues have the mind-set that students will use it anyway – why not incorporate it into student assessments and use it as a teaching tool?  Essentially, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.  OR, keep your friends close and your enemies closer?  A New York Times article last year suggested schools treat ChatGPT the same way they treat calculators – “unless students are being supervised in person with their devices stashed away, they’re probably using one”.  They can be allowed for some assignments but not others, with expectations made exceptionally clear…..

I was previously skeptical with the above-mentioned colleagues, however this week’s video by Dr. Couros and associated readings have changed my thinking.  After experimenting this week with ChatGPT and a few other apps, I can see opportunities to use generative AI for various administrative tasks (regarding my compressed gas safety course), for my students to use AI as part of their learning, and for ongoing continuous improvement of the course.

Perhaps the biggest shock I encountered with ChatGPT is how easily it could do some of my usual tasks….initially happy shock, and then a bit of concern to be honest!

www.boredpanda.com

While experimenting (aka playing) with generative AI this week and preparing this blog post, I referred to the following videos which may be of use to others:

ChatGPT 101 for Teachers: A Beginner’s Tutorial

Advanced ChatGPT Guide for Teachers

50 Ways Teachers can use ChatGPT to Save Time

 

(This will be another long blog post – see the rest here!)

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AI is OK?? Considering the Potential Impacts of Generative AI in my Course Prototype

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This week’s focus on AI is a relatively new topic for me. With the rise of ChatGPT, I am becoming more familiar with this technology, although I have minimal experience with it. Although, those around me are embracing this tool such as: my principal openly uses ChatGPT to write specific opening prayers catered to what’s happening around our school and many of my coworkers are exploring AI programs as aides for report card comment writing, specifically Magic School. This past summer, my husband enjoyed using ChatGPT to get ideas for our honeymoon to Europe; using prompts such as, “plan three full days in Florence,” “best way to island hop in Cinque Terre” or “create a one day adventure-filled itinerary for Carcassonne” gave us TONS of ideas and suggestions that immensely helped with planning our trip. I’ve seen the benefit of using AI, as it can be extremely helpful and time saving, although I haven’t explored what this could mean for my job! 

I found Alec Couros’ lecture on AI both fascinating and overwhelming. Anyone else? As I said, I have minimal knowledge of AI – I had solely heard about ChatGPT – so learning about the vast range of AI options had me reeling a bit. Where to start? Which is the best? Different features? Subscriptions? So many options is both impressive and hard to grasp. As I learn more about AI, and it’s abilities, I will consider exploring the numerous programs suggested: Copilot (Microsoft’s AI), Gemini (Google’s AI), Anthropic, Poe, Perplexity and more!

I appreciated Dr. Couros’ ultimately positive outlook on AI in education. I believe that many fear, detest, shy away from, or pretend AI doesn’t exist, because of the negativity surrounding it (due to the unknown or discomfort). AI and cheating (interesting article here) seem to be words that go together. I appreciated how this presentation, while recognizing and addressing many challenges, promoted AI as a TOOL that (when used properly) can have positive impacts in education…on both students and teachers. Of course, this ‘bright side’ will be easier to embrace as we learn more, practice more, read more and experience more of what AI offers. Alec Couros suggests that it is OUR JOB to make AI a positive thing in schools. Like anything new, this will begin as a challenge.

Here are my thoughts on how AI might impact my work, specifically in the context of my course prototype:

– Time-saving opportunities (yes please!): Using AI to save time is, undoubtedly, the most appealing benefit to me. Teachers are BUSY. We constantly have hundreds of things going on in our daily professional lives, we have families, maybe a social life, not to mention any personal enjoyment activities or hobbies (if you can find time for them…). If AI technology can, to any extent, help cover some of the more mundane parts of my job, sign me up. The quote from Alec Couros, “at its best, AI grants us time — time to reinvest in meaningful interactions with our families, our colleagues and those we are privileged to serve” – really stuck with me. If mastering AI usage for professional duties, such as assessment tool creation, email writing, assignment making or feedback, will provide me with more time for other things at work (and life in general), I am all for it.  

For my course prototype, I would love to explore ChatGPT to support my final assessment description and rubric creation. Using specific prompting, I think this program will help me (efficiently) compose a detailed description of the student summative learning task (in grade three friendly language) and construct a rubric to support the targeted outcomes. 

– Personalizing my content (can you say student engagement?!): Alec Couros’ example of his son, who is a reluctant reader, enjoying the personalized stories AI could generate was impactful. I have lots of reluctant readers! I have students who feel unrepresented in the classroom! I have students forever yearning for my attention! Using AI technology, creatively, such as prompting a personalized story, involving students in my class about a topic we are learning about, would heighten engagement among students. AI could help me create Math problems involving students and their real life challenges. I think the opportunities for increased student engagement, through the use of AI, could be incredible and positively increase representation in the classroom overall. When ‘Sarah’ reads a Math word problem about her three best friends and their close soccer match from last recess, she will be thrilled. When ‘Sam’ reads a short English text about peers playing his favorite video game, he will be interested! This personalization is something I strive to include anyway, and AI can easily help me achieve this while (in connection to my above point) save me TIME. 

– Academic integrity (a different ballgame in elementary): Due to the age of students I teach (8-9 years old), this is not a prominent issue. This demographic have minimal Internet access or tech experience and the majority will have never heard of, or used, AI. That being said, the work and assessment in my modules include activities where students share their personal ideas or opinions (often through student voice), helping prevent the option for AI tech being used as a replacement. I can recognize that this issue would be at the forefront of higher grade educators, with students more versed in computers, and familiar with AI. 

 – Other Stands Outs (think *WOW* moments): 

  • Bias in AI (no kidding…): The points around the bias existing in AI shocked me. Examples like the soccer player (only males), cleaning (middle aged, white woman) and professor (older, white men) were powerful. I suppose I didn’t consider these biases to be present in a computer program that has its own ‘mind’ per say. Alec Couros explained that AI learns from US, and therefore OUR biases are extremely evident in the content it generates. Our stereotypical views, primarily Western-bias, are prominent.. This could be such a powerful tool for teaching topics such as bias, stereotypes, injustice, classism, racism, sexism, social justice, disrupting the norm, and so on. Dr. Course said that “we have to take responsibility for what AI creates.”
  • Be specific (be, be specific!): The best advice I gathered from this lecture was that learning the art of “specific prompting” makes a difference in AI content generation. Learning how to be very specific and intentional in what I ‘ask’ for through an AI program will greatly enhance the content I receive. Dr. Couros explains that searching for answers in CharGPT is far different from the typical google search question.
  • Multilingual capacities (c’est incroyable!): As a French Immersion teacher, learning about this feature of AI was mind blowing. The thought of easily changing content (usually in English) into French for the purposes of a French task, lesson, project, etc. would be amazing. Furthermore, Dr. Couros suggests the impact that hearing an explanation or assignment in one’s own language would be impactful and this is a free and simple way to make that accommodation. AI language abilities could be life-changing for EAL learners and in the realm of language learning overall.
  • AI education (our saving grace?): In regards to the negatives of AI and the numerous downfalls, concerns, fears (usually centered around academic integrity and impact on student learning), Alec Couros offers “with more literacy comes with more agency.” Like all things digital, we face a massive learning curve and are forever educating on these new areas. Internet safety, digital citizenship, digital literacy, and other forms of education are significant, so why wouldn’t an AI version of this make sense? I appreciated Dr. Course suggestion of perhaps we need to reconsider what we are trying to prevent when banning AI. What learning is happening anyway? How can we use AI (it’s going to be used either way) in connection with our teaching and promote the positive opportunities it provides.

Like I said, I am an AI newbie. This is totally uncharted territory for me and doesn’t really impact my younger students (yet). I look forward to *begin* my AI journey by using programs such as ChatGPT and Magic School as allies in my career to support tasks that it can support. June report card comments – here I come!

Would LOVE to hear about others’ experiences (or lack thereof) with AI in any form? Anyone have suggestions for usage of AI for elementary students? What cool things is AI helping you create for the classroom? 

Thanks for reading my (not AI’s, I swear) thoughts!

Teagan

AI in Education – Incorporating it into my course creation

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Watching the video presentation by Alec Couros helped bring some clarity to the confusion surrounding the use of AI in education. Dr. Couros used the term “AI literacy” at one point in the video, and to me, this is the short answer to a long question. I’ll circle back to this later.

In my own course, as noted in my previous blog post, there are a number of changes I need to make. I will definitely be using AI in a few different ways for this. In the initial construction of my course, I only used AI to create the guidelines for discussion etiquette. But as Alec pointed out, using AI as a tool is all about knowing (and using) the correct prompts to get what you need in a streamlined way.

One of the first areas I could have used (and now will use) AI to enhance my course is having it generate rich thinking tasks that are the crux of my lessons.  This is something I was struggling to find in an internet search. I was using Illustrative Mathematics and nrich to locate inquiry questions, but even these slightly missed the mark of the learning experiences I was trying to create for students. Something that was helpful to know was that, as Alec pointed out, ChatGPT is the AI tool that is integrated into many different platforms. This was relieving because I felt a bit overwhelmed with knowing which AI tool was best for the classroom. But by the sounds of it, it’s less about the tool and more about knowing how to input the right prompt. So that took me back to trusty ChatGPT to see what new inquiry questions it could come up with to launch my lessons. Here was my attempt:

You
I need an inquiry question for math to launch a lesson. The students are in grade 7. The topic is terminating and repeating decimals.
ChatGPT
“In what ways can we identify, compare, and convert terminating and repeating decimals, and how do these concepts relate to real-world applications?”
You
This is too broad. Could you make it more specific?
ChatGPT
Of course! Here’s a more specific inquiry question for your grade 7 math lesson on terminating and repeating decimals:

“How can we determine whether a decimal will terminate or repeat, and how does this knowledge help us solve real-world problems involving measurements and calculations?”

…Okay, not bad. I still felt like this was too advanced based on my experience with grade 7s in math, especially when attempting more open-ended thinking tasks such as this.

You
This is too advanced for my students. Can you make it simpler?
ChatGPT
Certainly! Here’s a simpler inquiry question for grade 7 students on terminating and repeating decimals:

“How can we tell if a decimal will stop or keep repeating, and how does this affect our understanding of fractions and everyday calculations?”

That’s better! I will tinker with it a bit more and definitely consult ChatGPT for my future questions.

Man giving thumbs up
The Good Place Thumbs Up GIF by NBC on Giphy

It seems that the major concern in student access to AI is around using it to enhance writing and create text. But it can obviously be helpful in any subject area. My course is for grade 7 math. Students completing the course fully online could, in theory, input that lesson’s inquiry question into a generative AI tool and come up with a phenomenal answer. And, as Alec pointed out, the many “AI checkers” out there are hardly reliable. So where does this leave me, the teacher, when I’m trying to decide if my student completing this course fully asynchronously and remotely does in fact understand the concept?

I think this is yet another situation where being open, honest and upfront with students is crucial. Starting the course by explaining that yes, AI could allow you to sail through this class and probably get a great mark, and no, I probably wouldn’t be able to tell you “cheated” might be the key to mitigating it. Having a conversation with students and reframing the use of AI as support instead of cheating could remind students that the end goal is ultimately learning, not getting the best grade. I understand that this argument has a lot more clout with middle school students versus those in high school, where marks have a greater impact. But seeing as it’s the middle schoolers I’m working with, I think it’s reasonable to approach the issue from this angle.

In terms of safeguarding my course from the misuse of AI, I think that the JAM (Journal About Math) element is helpful in ensuring that students are speaking “from the heart” about their experience. From what I can tell, it is difficult to use AI to generate answers to prompts that are authentic to the person trying to generate them when the questions are of a very individual and personal nature, like one’s feelings, for example. Also, the beauty of JAM is that there isn’t really a wrong answer, or way to feel, about math. Thus, the temptation to use AI to complete this task should be nullified.

Still, I understand that for students completing the course fully online who choose to heavily rely on AI, I might need stricter boundaries and a more specific assessment plan. As noted in my ADDIE model outline, the summative assessment in my course is project-based. Though it is not fleshed out yet, I hope to address how students can use AI appropriately in the construction of this final project. I imagine that guidelines around AI will be a common inclusion in many assignment and assessment guidelines moving forward.