Generative AI – a Friend or a Foe?

Fascinating and intimidating at the same time, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly occupying all spheres of our life. Should we be scared that in several decades educators will be completely replaced by AI, or shall we embrace this new technological advancement and make it our virtual teacher assistant?

How I Am Currently Using Generative AI at Work and in Other Areas of My Life

I will be honest with you – I am also quite scared of the pace AI is developing at. The fact that I have read quite a lot of sci-fi doesn’t make it easier 😀 However, I do realize that opposing to change will not stop the change from happening – on the contrary, such a mentality may set me back comparing to other educators and create obstacles for my future career. That is why I try to bravely face my AI-related fears and make the new technology my friend and helper, not my enemy.

Here are some AI features I am already trying out at work:

• Twee is a great AI tool for ESL instructors. It allows me to create unique level-appropriate teaching materials for my students. For example, I sometimes find an interesting YouTube video for my students and use Twee to generate comprehension questions to it. I also use Twee to create simple texts which include certain vocabulary we are learning. What I love most about Twee is that you are able to select the level or the age of your students, which can be extremely relevant if you teach lower Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB) levels.
• I am also actively utilizing ChatGPT in my lesson preparation. For instance, I have recently generated a dialogue transcript for a listening assignment, adjusted the text provided to me by AI, and then recorded it with together with another person. The greatest benefit of ChatGPT for me is that I am able to meticulously tailor the AI’s response by adding further requests to my initial one, and, as a result, I end up with a material that is very close to the way I imagined it from the start.
• I have also tried out Roshi AI tool that assists ESL instructors in lesson planning. One feature of Roshi that I have explored is voicing a transcribed text to create a listening assignment for language learners. Nevertheless, I did not end up resorting to Roshi on a regular basis as at the moment when I was using it, it was impossible to adjust the speed of the recording, and I felt it was a little too fast for my students to understand properly.

I have also been interacting with AI in my everyday life:

• Even though I am an English teacher, I never stop learning the language. I like experimenting with advanced grammar structures, but I am not always sure enough if I use them right. That is why I often ask ChatGPT to check if a certain sentence I want to say is grammatically accurate. So far, I have answered several grammar-related questions that I had wondered about for years! At the same time, I have noticed ChatGPT makes mistakes as well (for example, once it called “young” a noun when it was clearly an adjective in the given sentence), so I make sure to take AI’s suggestions with a pinch of salt.
• I studied some German in Ukraine, and as I don’t want to lose my skills, I constantly look for opportunities to practise this beautiful language. So, I decided to chat with Meta AI – an AI chat embedded in WhatsApp. However, our conversation with Meta didn’t last long – I found its responses too long, artificial and unnatural, so I quickly became disinterested in communicating with it.

 

 

What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of AI?

	Advantages	Disadvantages
Based on the presentation and readings	·       According to our amazing presenters Mitch, Gerry, and Ryan, the advantages of AI include accessibility, instant feedback and grading, personalized learning and enhanced teaching materials. ·       Brendan Clugston (2024) states that AI is able to make learning more personalized by customizing educational content to meet each student’s needs and to increase learners’ motivation and engagement. AI will also enable immersive learning experiences, such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). Furthermore, AI can contribute to making education more affordable by automating administrative duties and offering scalable learning solutions. Overall, incorporating AI into education can elevate academic standards and increase the quality of learning (Clugston, 2024). ·       Cole Stryker and Eda Kavlakoglu (2024) extend the list of AI’s advantages by adding that it will enhance decision-making and reduce the number of human mistakes and physical risks.	·       Mitch, Gerry, and Ryan believe that AI may cause privacy issues. It can also make humans rely too much on technology and focus less on building emotional connections. Moreover, just like most technologies, AI may foster a digital divide among the population, making users who have access to AI more privileged than the ones who don’t. ·       Brendan Clugston (2024) assumes that that AI will raise privacy concerns, as well as increase the risk of academic dishonesty. Clugston (2024) also highlights the possibility of teachers being replaced by AI in the future. ·       Cole Stryker and Eda Kavlakoglu (2024) are concerned that there will be individuals who would try to compromise AI models. In addition, AI, like any digital tool or software, has a risk of system failures.
My own opinion	·       AI can definitely save teachers’ prepping time. Before, it took me hours to create an original assignment, but now AI can generate at least some parts of it for me. ·       As a result, I am able to prepare a larger number of unique up-to-date tasks for my students.	·       Overreliance on AI may negatively impact our creativity as educators. No matter how convenient AI is, we have to at least modify the results it produces for us to customize our assignments to the needs of our students. ·       Knowing that our students also have access to AI tools, we have to be extra alert when checking their homework and writing. We as teachers should also think of ways in which assignments can be personalized and difficult for AI to generate. But, unfortunately, AI keeps developing and getting “smarter” day by day, so our chances to “trick” it are getting lower and lower!

 

What Is the Future of AI?

Several weeks ago, I attended an online Alberta Teachers of English as a Second Language (ATESL) conference, and a lot of sessions there were devoted to AI. I listened to one of them, and I found the presenter’s suggestion to use AI for lesson preparation very helpful. I have recently had a chat with a colleague of mine who was present at another teaching conference, and they were also impressed by how much attention was paid there to AI. Seeing the leading educators actively encouraging other instructors to use AI shows that soon AI will go hand-in-hand with learning and become an integral part of our lesson planning. Let’s just hope that AI won’t take over our jobs any time soon! 🙂

 

PS Speaking of teachers losing their jobs to AI, I really liked the thoughts that Hadar, a YouTube content creator and a pronunciation and fluency coach, shared in the following video. If you have a moment, I would highly recommend to take a quick look at it – it may actually even make you feel more optimistic about the future of AI!