AI is new to the digital world and is changing education. I haven’t tried any AI tools until we were assigned with this task and I am so glad that I did. I am eager to use AI when I return to my classroom in the fall.
How can AI engage students in learning?
- AI can personalize learning to an individual’s learning needs by altering assigned work appropriately
- Assist with EAL students as they learn English
- Be a tool for writing assistance such as brainstorming, grammar help, prompts, etc.
- Act as a tutor and help with step-by-step problems
How can AI support the use of critical thinking and creativity in the classroom?
- Help students explore topics of interest through inquiry based learning
- Prompt discussions and provide scenarios for students to engage with
- Allow students opportunity to justify their reasoning and consider other points of view
- Provide feedback and reflection upon student work
AI can assess student understanding through various methods, such as:
- essay evaluation
- multiple choice quizzes
- interactive problem solving
- question and answer
What are some ethical and practical challenges with using AI?
- With the use of AI comes ethical challenges like bias, discrimination, autonomy, and moral responsibility. In class, we discussed how when we ask AI to generate images of different people it produces images of stereotypes. AI can come up with inconclusive and/or misguided evidence when it is uncertain of its knowledge, but still provides you with an answer. For users it is important to note that AI cannot be credited for everything it gives you as correct or accurate.
What is my perspective of AI in Education?
- I think AI can be utilized and it will be utilized lots in the world of education. If it is a tool that we have at our fingertips, why not learn how to use it correctly and to our advantage? If we educate students on the proper use of AI and how it can assist us in learning then we can teach them to not only be smart with AI but they can be aware of the ethical and practical challenges it has.
- I know that teachers and professors around the globe have been trying to figure out how to get around plagiarism and AI. As we continue on life with AI being a part of our digital world, I am intrigued as to how schools are planning to assess students who have potentially used AI to assist with their assignments (or do their assignments completely for them). There are ethical challenges in users who have had AI assist them work that will be evaluated, but how can it be caught?
There are so many questions arise as the use of AI becomes more popular. Check out this article about AI and plagiarism at the University of Manitoba is increasing as more students are turning to AI for support. The video below explains what the student union of U of M is saying about the use of AI at the university. If AI becomes heavily relied on to complete assignments, will there be any actual learning happening? Will you be able to survive in your field of work after schooling? I guess we will see it all play out very soon.
Megan,
I appreciate your thoughtful insight on the world of AI and I commend you for being so eager to incorporate it into your classroom when you return in the fall!
I agree that some of these tools can be very beneficial and I know that I need to educate myself and spend more time working with some of these tools to really have the benefits outweigh the dangers that I foresee for our young learners.
I know that it doesn’t help that my schooling took place in the 90’s and very early 2000’s where all your work was your own. Once the scope of the internet widened then there was a bigger threat of plagiarism, but most of the time, you were checking out books at the library and rewriting the information into your own words. I definitely would not want to be tasked with determining whether or not a post-secondary student deserved to reprimanded in their studies over the use of AI technology, but I understand that this is going to be an on-going situation that will likely only get worse before it gets better.
Off I go to do some more research into some AI technology to draw some inspiration from. Thanks for encouraging that with your post!
Megan
I really liked the way you laid out your post this week. It made it really easy to follow and very concise. I also enjoyed the video you included about the importance of teaching students what uses of AI are appropriate and what is not. I definitely think this is something we need to do with our students as AI is not going anywhere so why not teach them how to use it appropriately.